Some Cftan^es in 



A 



RBORICULTURE 



JEFF GARLAND 



"THE CLIMBER played his 

 line out slowly as he cdccd 

 toward the end of the almost horiEon- 

 tal oak leader. His cliinbin« rope was 

 looped over a high crotch on the main 

 trunk. He kept his weight on his rope 

 to help maintain his balance. The 

 bark of the leader was smooth and 

 cluttered with suckers and deadwood. 

 The stinging hair of old gypsy moth 

 larvae irritated his bare arms as he 

 inched out the limb to do his pruning. 



Uaing the rope again, he returned to 

 the trunk, repeating these hazardous 

 journeys several times before the 

 tree was pruned properly." 



Such are the daily tasks of a professional tree 

 climber, as he becomes more trusting of his 

 si<ills and gear, his competency quotient rises 

 In modern arboriculture, the scenario has be 

 come less frequent 

 Today, many tree companies have varied pieces of 

 equipment to move a climber around the tree automati- 

 cally Aerial lifts, cranes, brush chippers, stump grinders, 

 spray rigs, and loaders are some of the entrees on the 

 arborists' menu Climbing aids, cabling equipment, chain 

 saws, fertilizing needles, pole pruners and so forth are 

 just some of the endless desserts 



As in many fields, the improvements in equipment 



have been achieved through constant modifications. For 

 a practicing arborist with over twenty-five years of expe- 

 rience tucked under his climbing belt, each change usu- 

 ally is greeted with heavy skepticism, followed by great 

 wonderment that the new thing works so 

 well 



At the beginning of my work career, 

 aerial lifts, or bucket trucks, were quite new 

 in our industry These were developed and 

 used primarily for the utility end of our 

 business Most utility poles were shorter 

 and trimming specifications were narrower, 

 so many buckets only had a working height 

 of about 45 feet Poles have gotten higher, 

 trimming specifications wider, creating a 

 need for more sophisticated lift devices. 

 Buckets reach higher and can work at 

 greater angles to be able to reach laterally 

 for greater distances 



Today also has seen a much greater use 

 of lift trucks in the private sector of our 

 trade Buckets are being mounted on the 

 rear of many trucks to enable an operator 

 to back to a tree, getting more height and 

 keeping away from the cab 



Operation of many of these new lifts is 

 quite simple and mastering their manipula- 

 tion is much easier than hooking up a VCR Conse- 

 quently, our vocabulary is even changing: instead of tree 

 surgeons and climbers, we seem to have more techni- 

 cians and operators 



Brush chippers of the past were definitely beasts to 

 use They were what we called "drum chippers." which 

 had whirring knives that ripped the brush from an un- 

 suspecting hand Generally, you had to throw the brush 

 at the chipper mouth, one stem at a time and exit in a 

 hurry, before you were whipped to death by its end 

 Today's modern chipper is mostly of the disc-type, 

 which pulls the brush from you in a much more civilized 

 manner The chipper has two rollers, which enables the 

 operator to feed whole armfuls of brush into the chipper 

 mouth The drum chippers used to spit wood back at 

 the operator, but today's chippers can chew a very large 

 diameter piece of wood Remembering those old drum 

 chippers make me shudder in several ways They not 



OCTOBER/ NOVEMBER I9Q4 



