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Summer Tree Work
I was given the opportunity to apprentice with a family friend and arborist. Over the summer I would work 2-3 days a week at different job sites in NH. The first 2 days I was just learning how to be safe around the equipment, so I wasn't much help until i was trained properly. over the next two weeks, I was taught the process of cutting down a tree and processing it using the wood chipper.
Skills I Learned
Skills I Learned
How rig a pulley.
On some of the jobs I worked there were trees that were considered too dangerous to be pulled over by hand, so we used a method involving pulleys and anchor points to create a 5:1 mechanical advantage. the process involves anchoring one end of the pulley mechanism in the tree and the other end to an anchor on the ground, creating a stable point to pull the tree down to
Communicating with clients.
one thing that is important to know how to do is communicate with the land owner properly to make sure we know what exactly they want. It is important to know what questions to ask and how to ask them so that you done over complicate your job or confuse your costumer
Job site Safety
Working with trees can be very dangerous, so learning how to make a job-site as safe as possible to avoid any unnecessary risks is imperative. One of the first things I was taught on the job was to respect the equipment, from the loud and intimidating wood-chipper, to the small and unassuming hand pruner, no matter how big or small if its meant to cut through wood like butter it will not hesitate to do the same to you. make sure when operating machines maintain safe working limits with the machine, because no matter how comfortable or confidant you feel your agility to operate the machine safely it can still hurt you. Special awareness is by far the most important when working with trees, there are so many different variables that could potentially harm you on a job site, things like ropes wrapped around your feet or machines moving behind you and especially falling trees. even though it is inherently dangerous, working with trees can be made much safer by being aware of your surroundings and being safe with machinery
How to Observe the trees around you
learning how to identify issues in the trees around you can be interesting to see how the forest grows around you, for me it reminds me that the trees are ever changing and evolving to adapt to the situation that they grow into. it can take a while to become familiar with the trees around you and it can begin to feel repetitive and overwhelming with how dense and intertwined a forest can feel. the thing that helped me the most was looking at every tree as an individual, start low look at the roots are they exposed or are they covered and healthy? look at the trunk, does it have boreholes, does it look rotted? look up further to the branches, are any of them broken? Do they extend up to sunlight directly above it, or is it in the shade and having to strain to get sunlight? Finally, look up to the leaves are the leaves lush and complete, or are they sparse and thin, if a branch is damaged and isn't getting nutrients, It will decay but still stay attached which can be dangerous. learning to survey trees can be very helpful not only just for tree work, knowing how to tell if a tree is healthy or being able to find out what's wrong with it can be a useful skill to have.
A Day On The Job
my day would start bright and early around 5:30 in the morning. I would have to leave my house at 6 to drive roughly an hour to work where I would meet up with my boss at 7:15 and will drive together to the job site. a work day starts around 7:45 a.m. when we arrive at the job site. Most of the time we don't have to set up our equipment, because it's left over from the day before. If it's our first day at a job site we have to back up the chipper to level spot and uncover and unload all of the tools. after setting up for the day we would start cutting trees. we had an assembly line style process of cutting down 2 or three trees, de-limbing them and preparing them for the chipper. we would repeat this process until we ran out of space to safely stage trees to be chipped (see image below)
We would usually shoot to get all the trees cut and processed before our lunch break, so we wouldn't have to be doing all of the heavy lifting at the hottest part of the day. after lunch we would clear any remaining debris firm our work area before starting the final chip for the day, packing in chips in places where we want to promote growth/tamp down the invasive small plants. afterwards we talk with the property owners and finish packing up for the day.
a tree fully processed after being cut down, ready to be feed into the chipper so the wood chips can be used as filler and bio waste for the trees and forest to grow with.
My boss throwing a throw line into a tree to be uses to pull the tree as it is cut to guide the tree where we want
A healthy finished section of forest after being cleared of invasive and cleared of competing clutter trees.
Skills I Learned
Skills I Learned
overall the main job skill I learned from working in such a demanding yet beautify environment is keeping focus. maintaining focus in a work environment ensures that whatever you are doing has your full attention and as an extension of that ensures that you are doing your best work. when I comes to working with heavy machinery like the wood chipper it seems like an obvious and safe choice to stay focused, but in an environment like a kitchen maintaining focus and devoting your full attention to your task makes sure that you aren't doing sloppy work and submitting sub par dishes that could potently disappoint your clients, and loose the restraint money
What I took away
What I took away
For me the part that stuck with me the most about working with tree work is my own work ethic and focus. it was quite tasking waking up early and pushing myself to go and work, but every day I never regretted doing so. I always came back home exhausted but never unhappy because I Would always learn something new, weather it was how to control a large powerful equipment or how to direct a tree to fall where you want it. over the summer I think my biggest take away was my own physical ability and work ethic.
skills I improved/learned
improved skills or learned skills
I improved my safety with high power tools
I learned how to use a wood chipper
I improved my communication skills with clients
I learned how to cut down a tree
I learned how to manage time correctly on a job site
I learned how to load and unload machinery from a trailer safely
I learned how to pull down a tree safely
I learned how to process a tree
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