The Fundamentals of General Tree Work

• 500+ pages
• 400+ black and white photos and illustrations

“The idea of this book came to me in 1978. At that time I was a foreman for the Sohner Tree Service, and I had nine years of line clearance experience and nine years of breaking in new climbers at a rate of about two a year. The employee turn-over in line clearance work was high back then and it still is today. Only about five percent of the people that get into the business ever make a career of it and those few that do are in the same predicament that I was in with the Sohner company, breaking in new people all the time! It was the same with the Davey company.

There were no books or manuals on tree climbing technique or it’s associated tree cutting practices. There were plenty of safety manuals though. But they never really tell a person how to do anything, but be safe! As a result, every practical thing a new employee learns, good or bad, is passed on by their foreman, many of whom have only a few years experience themselves.

From my own experiences with these matters in the line clearance business I found much complacency in craft and management. Not on safety matters, everybody’s hell on safety, but on proficiency and expertise! I’ve never seen any emphasis put on either craft or management. I was told many times, “What can you expect? Just make sure they do it safely!” With that attitude there’s people doing tree work that don’t even know their basic knots and splices let alone the physics of what they are working with. This is why I decided to write a book, a book on practical techniques, ideas, theories, and practices used in tree work. I really didn’t think it would take eighteen years to do it though. Looking back now I realize that it was me that had to learn about tree work in order to become qualified to pass it on.

What I included in this book related to tree climbing and timber falling I could have covered in much greater detail. It is not definitive by any stretch of the imagination. It is though, a good introduction for the beginner to the wide world of practical tree work.

In this book I recommend no procedure that is unsafe; my intent is to present insights to the practical applications and techniques used in tree work. But this work is full of contingency and an accident is possible throughout everything discussed. Remember, when you walk up to a tree – to climb it, to work in it, to fall it – you are betting your knowledge, experience, and common sense that you’ll accomplish your goal without an accident. This is the lore of tree work that makes it exciting for some and fearful for others.

Climb and work safely. G.F.B.”