Tree Trimmers and Pruners

Career Description: Cut away dead or excess branches from trees or shrubs to maintain right-of-way for roads, sidewalks, or utilities, or to improve appearance, health, and value of tree. Prune or treat trees or shrubs using handsaws, pruning hooks, sheers, and clippers. May use truck-mounted lifts and power pruners. May fill cavities in trees to promote healing and prevent deterioration.

Industry: Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance

Other Job Titles for Tree Trimmers and Pruners:

• Realistic: Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
• Investigative: Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
• Artistic: Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.
• Social: Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
• Enterprising: Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Conventional: Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
• First Interest High-Point: Primary-Rank Descriptiveness
• Second Interest High-Point: Secondary-Cutoff/Rank Descriptiveness
• Third Interest High-Point: Tertiary-Cutoff/Rank Descriptiveness

• Supervise others engaged in tree trimming work and train lower-level employees.
• Operate boom trucks, loaders, stump chippers, brush chippers, tractors, power saws, trucks, sprayers, and other equipment and tools.
• Climb trees, using climbing hooks and belts, or climb ladders to gain access to work areas.
• Clean, sharpen, and lubricate tools and equipment.
• Cut away dead and excess branches from trees, or clear branches around power lines, using climbing equipment or buckets of extended truck booms, and/or chainsaws, hooks, handsaws, shears, and clippers.
• Trim, top, and reshape trees to achieve attractive shapes or to remove low-hanging branches.
• Prune, cut down, fertilize, and spray trees as directed by tree surgeons.
• Hoist tools and equipment to tree trimmers, and lower branches with ropes or block and tackle.
• Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines.
• Load debris and refuse onto trucks and haul it away for disposal.
• Inspect trees to determine if they have diseases or pest problems.
• Cable, brace, tie, bolt, stake, and guy trees and branches to provide support.
• Collect debris and refuse from tree trimming and removal operations into piles, using shovels, rakes or other tools.
• Provide information to the public regarding trees, such as advice on tree care.
• Clear sites, streets, and grounds of woody and herbaceous materials, such as tree stumps and fallen trees and limbs.
• Remove broken limbs from wires, using hooked extension poles.
• Trim jagged stumps, using saws or pruning shears.
• Transplant and remove trees and shrubs, and prepare trees for moving.
• Spray trees to treat diseased or unhealthy trees, including mixing chemicals and calibrating spray equipment.
• Plan and develop budgets for tree work, and estimate the monetary value of trees.
• Water, root-feed, and fertilize trees.
• Apply tar or other protective substances to cut surfaces to seal surfaces, and to protect them from fungi and insects.
• Harvest tanbark by cutting rings and slits in bark and stripping bark from trees, using spuds or axes.
• Scrape decayed matter from cavities in trees and fill holes with cement to promote healing and to prevent further deterioration.
• Split logs or wooden blocks into bolts, pickets, posts, or stakes, using hand tools such as ax wedges, sledgehammers, and mallets.
• Install lightning protection on trees.
• Deliver television sets, ironing boards, baby cribs, and rollaway beds to guests' rooms.
• Move and arrange furniture and turn mattresses.

Emerging Tasks

• Identify lawn and plant diseases to determine the appropriate course of treatment.
• Maintain grounds area, for example, by removing snow and mowing the lawn.

• Analyzing Data or Information: Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
• Assisting and Caring for Others: Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
• Coaching and Developing Others: Identifying the developmental needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or otherwise helping others to improve their knowledge or skills.
• Communicating with Persons Outside Organization: Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates: Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Controlling Machines and Processes: Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).
• Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others: Getting members of a group to work together to accomplish tasks.
• Developing and Building Teams: Encouraging and building mutual trust, respect, and cooperation among team members.
• Developing Objectives and Strategies: Establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.
• Documenting/Recording Information: Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
• Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment: Providing documentation, detailed instructions, drawings, or specifications to tell others about how devices, parts, equipment, or structures are to be fabricated, constructed, assembled, modified, maintained, or used.
• Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships: Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
• Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information: Estimating sizes, distances, and quantities; or determining time, costs, resources, or materials needed to perform a work activity.
• Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards: Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
• Getting Information: Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates: Providing guidance and direction to subordinates, including setting performance standards and monitoring performance.
• Handling and Moving Objects: Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events: Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Material: Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Interacting With Computers: Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
• Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others: Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
• Judging the Qualities of Things, Services, or People: Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems: Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Monitor Processes, Materials, or Surroundings: Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
• Monitoring and Controlling Resources: Monitoring and controlling resources and overseeing the spending of money.
• Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment: Running, maneuvering, navigating, or driving vehicles or mechanized equipment, such as forklifts, passenger vehicles, aircraft, or water craft.
• Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work: Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
• Performing Administrative Activities: Performing day-to-day administrative tasks such as maintaining information files and processing paperwork.
• Performing for or Working Directly with the Public: Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
• Performing General Physical Activities: Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
• Processing Information: Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
• Provide Consultation and Advice to Others: Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.
• Repairing and Maintaining Electronic Equipment: Servicing, repairing, calibrating, regulating, fine-tuning, or testing machines, devices, and equipment that operate primarily on the basis of electrical or electronic (not mechanical) principles.
• Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment: Servicing, repairing, adjusting, and testing machines, devices, moving parts, and equipment that operate primarily on the basis of mechanical (not electronic) principles.
• Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others: Handling complaints, settling disputes, and resolving grievances and conflicts, or otherwise negotiating with others.
• Scheduling Work and Activities: Scheduling events, programs, and activities, as well as the work of others.
• Selling or Influencing Others: Convincing others to buy merchandise/goods or to otherwise change their minds or actions.
• Staffing Organizational Units: Recruiting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and promoting employees in an organization.
• Thinking Creatively: Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
• Training and Teaching Others: Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge: Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.

Detailed Work Activities

• advise clients or customers
• climb ladders, scaffolding, or utility or telephone poles
• demonstrate or explain assembly or use of equipment
• develop budgets
• direct and coordinate activities of workers or staff
• drive truck with capacity greater than 3 tons
• fell or buck trees
• mix paint, ingredients, or chemicals, according to specifications
• monitor worker performance
• move or fit heavy objects
• operate agricultural equipment or machinery
• operate tractor with accessories or attachments
• recognize plant diseases
• repair and maintain grounds keeping equipment and tools
• use chain saws
• use hand or power tools
• use herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides or related products
• use high voltage apparatus
• use plant disease control techniques
• use portable hand spray equipment
• use truck-mounted hydraulic lifts or other accessories
• use hand or power tools
• use herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides or related products
• use portable hand spray equipment
• use power mower
• monitor worker performance
• operate agricultural equipment or machinery
• orient new employees
• oversee work progress to verify safety or conformance to standards
• perform safety inspections in agricultural, forestry, or fishing setting
• plan or organize work
• prepare cost estimates
• prepare or maintain employee records
• publicize job openings
• recognize plant diseases
• recommend improvements to work methods or procedures
• repair and maintain grounds keeping equipment and tools
• resolve landscaping problems
• resolve or assist workers to resolve work problems
• schedule employee work hours
• schedule facility or property maintenance
• supervise grounds keeping or landscaping workers
• understand second language
• use chain saws
• use hand or power tools
• use herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides or related products
• use oral or written communication techniques
• use plant or crop transplant techniques
• use power mower
• use truck-mounted hydraulic lifts or other accessories

Overall Experience
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience may be helpful in these occupations, but usually is not needed. For example, a teller might benefit from experience working directly with the public, but an inexperienced person could still learn to be a teller with little difficulty.

Job Training
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees.

Education
These occupations usually require a high school diploma and may require some vocational training or job-related course work. In some cases, an associate's or bachelor's degree could be needed.

Examples
These occupations often involve using your knowledge and skills to help others. Examples include sheet metal workers, forest fire fighters, customer service representatives, pharmacy technicians, salespersons (retail), and tellers.

• Average hourly wage (2007) -$14.33
• Average annual wage (2007) - $29,800.00

• Projected growth (2006-2016): 11.12%
• Projected need (2006-2016): 4,510
• Employment (2006): 40,560

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• Hunters and Trappers
• Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
• Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers
• Plating and Coating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
• Prepress Technicians and Workers
• Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons
• Postmasters and Mail Superintendents
• Social and Community Service Managers