…Keep My Crews Indoors

Photo courtesy of E4C/iStock.

Between the palpable effects of climate change and its related impact on increased wildfire risk, air quality has become an increasing concern for outdoor workers. In response, tree care companies around the country are evaluating policies and procedures with a twofold goal: ensuring their crew members are protected while simultaneously maintaining a professional reputation and rapport with their client bases.

We reached out to a couple of company owners to see how they’ve addressed the challenge: balancing a safe work environment for employees, maintaining customer satisfaction and adhering to local and national guidelines and regulations.

Air-quality monitoring

This past summer’s record-breaking wildfire count (49,242 active fires with 7,278,622 acres burned since January 2026) is taking its toll on air quality throughout the nation – especially in areas where wildfires are generally uncommon, like Wisconsin. “It was a tough summer,” says August Hoppe of Hoppe Tree Service, located in Milwaukee.

By referencing a combination of local news-station reports and national air quality index (AQI) tools, Hoppe had to think quickly on his feet this summer – adjusting schedules and expectations in the blink of an eye to ensure his crews stayed safe. “Wind is tricky, so you really don’t know until – maybe you’re lucky – the day before that it’s going to be hazardous air,” he says.

Differences at the state level

“We’ve had this before, maybe four or five years ago, where we’d have noticeably bad air quality in the summertime, but it never got to the ‘hazardous’ level,” Hoppe says. In fact, Wisconsin experienced record-breaking AQI levels this summer, reaching between 450 in some areas to 967 in others – numbers well above the hazardous threshold of 301, and thus classifying this period of dangerous air quality as the worst in at least 16 years.

Southern Oregon Tree Care crew. Photo courtesy of Willie Gingg.

Meanwhile, roughly 2,200 miles west near Medford, Oregon, Willie Gingg of Southern Oregon Tree Care had a different summer experience – particularly for a region known to experience more wildfires. “The reality is [that over] the past five or eight years, ODF [Oregon Department of Forestry] has done an amazing job knocking fires down early and then actually putting them out, regardless [of] whose jurisdiction the fire is in. Because of that, we’ve not had smoke-filled summers like in the past.” When it comes to decision-making based on air-quality conditions, he says, “Most of my guys have worked on fires and are used to functioning in the smoke. We don’t have a set number, but will often look at [the air-quality] outlook, and that often indicates whether the smoke will get better or worse during the day, and then we decide as a group from there.”

PPE and adjusted policies

Verifying viable and safe working conditions is only part of the puzzle tree care companies have had to contend with this summer; they’ve also had to determine fair, equitable protocol to protect their teams out in the field without eliminating employee autonomy.

In Milwaukee, Hoppe spoke to the unique challenge of thinking quickly and staying flexible in the face of poor, unsafe weather, saying their response was a result of pure necessity.

“All of a sudden the smoke was here; there wasn’t a lot of notice that it was coming,” he says. “It wasn’t like we were able to have this nice, long gestation period to figure out what we wanted to do … Some of our employees weren’t able to physically come in, and we realized we needed to pivot and create a formal policy around that.”

Hoppe’s staff decided the best course of action was to adjust their attendance policy. “Once [the air quality index] reached ‘hazardous,’ we made the decision that essentially it’s optional work for people. So if people had health issues or felt that physically they weren’t able to work that day, we would relax our attendance policy.” Hoppe also provides N95 masks for crews on location.

Over in Oregon, Gingg echoes similar remarks, saying his company also offers masks for crew members and is understanding and flexible “when an employee doesn’t feel comfortable working in the smoke, for whatever reason.”

Maintaining trust with clients

When it comes to communicating and overall relationships with clients, both Hoppe Tree Service and Southern Oregon Tree Care express no issues. “Clients are easy, they understand. If we don’t go [to] work because of the smoke, it’s bad,” Gingg says.

Similarly, Hoppe mentions, “All of our clients were super understanding. And when we did come to work, some of them were like, ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’” Chuckling, he adds, “They don’t know how tough an arborist is!” Hoppe further went on to say, “They’re humans, too, and they were experiencing the same thing we were, the brutal heat and the smoke,” illustrating a strong sense of compassion and empathy from both sides.

Given that all tree work is at the mercy of the day’s weather forecast, clients and arborists alike are aware that sometimes, it’s just about going with the flow. “The schedule is constantly adapting and changing due to unforeseen circumstances, so [this summer’s poor air quality] is like any other weather event,” Hoppe says. In the instances where the weather is bad and there aren’t enough crew members who feel safe coming to work, Hoppe Tree Service’s scheduling department contacts the client as soon as possible to rearrange the service date.

Conclusion

Regardless of air quality and the unpredictable, fluctuating nature of weather conditions, the most important aspect of managing a company with an outdoor workforce is ensuring employee health and safety. This is especially critical in an industry such as tree care, where employees are already at a generally higher safety risk than in other occupations.

In the wake of these recent wildfires and their widespread impact, be sure to monitor your crew – not just the conditions they’re working in. Provide the proper PPE, be open to tweaking policies and procedures to protect employees and continue facilitating transparent conversations both inside the business and on location with clients.

After all, adaptability is one of the arborist’s sharpest tools.

Hannah Zwemer is a freelance writer specializing in marketing topics and authentic storytelling for various small and local businesses. She is currently based in Orlando, Florida.

Resources:

Please visit the following websites to learn more about air-quality monitoring, safety precautions and state-specific regulations for outdoor workers.

General Weather Conditions/Air-Quality Monitoring

• AirNow: www.airnow.gov/ 
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): www.epa.gov/air-quality 
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): www.noaa.gov/
• National Weather Service: www.weather.gov/ 

References:

Wildfires and Climate Change. (n.d.). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). https://science.nasa.gov/earth/explore/wildfires-and-climate-change/

Liu, Hongyu. (2026, July 17). DataWatch: Wisconsin Air Pollution Reaches Record Highs As Wildfire Smoke Engulfs the State. Wisconsin Watch. https://wisconsinwatch.org/2026/07/wisconsin-wildfire-smoke-air-quality-hazardous-pollution-record-high-aqi-datawatch/

Current Wildfire Information. (n.d.). Oregon.gov. https://www.oregon.gov/odf/fire/pages/firestats.aspx

Ball, John. (2023, April 1). Tree-Work Safety by the Numbers. TCI Magazine. https://tcimag.tcia.org/safety/tree-work-safety-by-the-numbers/