2023-06-17 08:54 A Snapshot of BC-based Tree Services Incident Metrics Part 2  Continuing in the review of public data from Worksafe BC's Tree Services Classification Unit (CU), I will look at a couple of different timeframes and introduce a comparison CU to better ...
BC Incidents Analysis
2023-01-13 12:08 A Snapshot of BC-based Tree Services Incident Metrics (2016-2020) Public data is made available via Worksafe BC's website that outlines industry-specific safety performance. How to find and interpret that information might come easier to an occupati...
2023-01-09 12:11 I've been in research mode since summer of 2021 at UBC looking at the arborist experience in BC from a few different angles. One of those angles was a 3 month job posting analysis which began in March of 2022 to get a sense of the recruiting trends a...
PNW ISA Removes President and President Elect
2023-01-09 11:37 A timeline of events in 2022 for your consideration constructed from received correspondence:   Feb 28 - PNW ISA - Minutes from Board of Directors Special Meeting Mar 28 - PNW ISA - Ballot Action in Lieu of A Special Meeting Ballot Mar 28 - Charl...
Gatekeeping in Tree Care
2022-03-13 12:13 A quick check of arborist and urban forestry job posting sites suggests that demand might be getting well ahead of availability of tree workers. You might notice that in some cases there are multiple job openings in one workplace. Owners and managers...
Government contracts
2021-01-21 22:09 The contracted arborist services file has attracted considerable attention in recent weeks following a couple of stories out of Ontario.  The coverage is not a good look for anyone involved.  A private tree care company has filed a $31 million lawsui...
Pathway for Arbs to Felling Compliance
2020-04-15 16:30 Over 10 years after the pathway for arborists to tree felling compliance was made, industry has more or less waffled at the idea of meeting that bar.  Many tree business owners, supervisors and workers not happy to settle with regulatory non-complian...
BC Arborist Regs
2020-04-07 13:41 WorkSafe BC Part 26 February, 2020   In the spring of 2019, WorkSafe BC summoned a group of industry subject matter experts for consultation on proposed changes to Occupational Health and Safety Regulation Part 26: Forestry Operations and Similar ...
Visors: Compliant face protection?
2020-04-05 13:36 After much effort and consultation, we have finally gotten to the bottom of that polycarbonate visor PPE matter.    The lack of clear language offered in the technical literature from visor and face shield products or clarity through CSA/ANSI/EN PP...
COVID 19
2020-03-18 12:29 COVID-19 April 3, 2020   Canadian Arborists and Arborists around the world find themselves in precarious territory and have been forced along with almost every industry to make major adjustments on how work continues. Regardless of our professiona...
Payback time  
2017-12-14 18:19 It doesn’t matter where you are in Canada or who you work for as an arborist when it comes to the  challenge of keeping good help.  The industry has struggled to retain and retrain skilled workers, and I  know many people who would go to great length...
Baggage check 
2017-11-14 18:15 Mistakes on the job? I’ve made a few.  Those hours immediately following the big oops can really drag  out while your mind spins twice as fast with emotions redlining.  Accepting responsibility is not  something I struggle with, which provides the ad...
Fresh ideas
2017-10-23 14:32 This Monday morning I checked my email and found the same rather grim message I receive every week at the same time (the TCIA accident brief).  I didn’t open it, and realized that the impact of this weekly email alert had lost most of its impact on m...
The Outsiders
2017-09-15 14:25 I had the chance to take part in a recent event for tree climbers where I saw many familiar faces and as many that I hadn’t seen before.  I was amazed by the contributions made by a few individuals that were either not from the area or were new to th...
A downward spiral?
2017-08-3 09:28 A memory popped in my head on my drive in to work this morning that was inspiration for this installment.  It was a reflection on how a safety management program I was involved in administrating for years, one that I had felt to be strong and getting...
Performance upgrade 
2017-08-14 14:01 I woke up the other day and reached for my phone to do the morning news/social media checks, and up  popped a Facebook memory of my felling a tree from 10 years earlier.  For the most part, everything  went well.  The tree went where it was supposed ...
Arborist of the future
2017-08-08 13:15 Automation and its looming impacts on the workplace is a subject getting a lot of attention and discussion world-wide.  We tend to think of our jobs as being highly dynamic, with access being the primary difficulty for technology to overcome.  Being ...
A downward spiral?
2017-08-03 12:25 A memory popped in my head on my drive in to work this morning that was inspiration for this  installment.  It was a reflection on how a safety management program I was involved in administrating  for years, one that I had felt to be strong and getti...
Giving feedback
2017-07-28 09:33 Giving feedback.  Over the years on tree crews, I’ve witnessed some situations on the job that I couldn’t keep to myself and I made  the move to sound the alarm.  In some cases, the feedback I gave lead to heated exchanges that created a tension  tha...