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Davey Bulletin January-February 2020

The Davey Tree Expert Company provides residential and commercial tree service and landscape service throughout North America. Read our Flipbooks for helpful tips and information on proper tree and lawn care.

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12 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | January/February 2020 HAZARD TREE CONTRACT BRINGS HEIGHTENED SAFETY AWARENESS TO TEXAS SURGERY CREWS Two whistle blasts echo through the woods. Davey employees on the Sam Houston Electric Cooperative account now know a fellow crew member is about to start their notch cut. A chainsaw roars to life, goes to work and then falls silent. A third whistle blast rings out. Now crew members know their colleague is about to make the crucial back cut, and the hazard tree they've all been working on is about to crash to the ground. They all need to pay extra attention. "Safety, planning and teamwork, that's what we emphasize," said Joe Belfield, general foreman, Sam Houston account. "Planning and communication are absolutely the most critical aspects of our work." Davey's work for Sam Houston specializes in hazard tree removals. All day every day, crews work in rural areas removing dead, dying and diseased trees that pose a risk to utility infrastructure. Brandon Freeman, account manager, Davey Tree Surgery Company, said an abundance of dead and hazard trees started to develop in the area around 2011 as a result of prolonged, severe drought in the region. "Pine bark beetle became prevalent the few years after the droughts," Freeman said. "The client asked us to come in and evaluate the number of dead trees that could impact their lines. It was catastrophic." Davey determined the four crews, totaling 13 employees, would be kept busy removing between 200 to 400 hazard trees per week, and they have been since Davey Employees on the Sam Houston account, pictured from left, include: Ezekiel Henderson, James Hooks, Jeff Diets, John Gardner, Joe Belfield, Johnny Wisniewski, Juan Aguilar Gonzalez and Melvin Marquez Fuentes. started on the account in 2011. "Felling dead trees all day requires a different skill set due to the added concerns of fatigue and communication issues," Freeman said. In 2019, the Sam Houston account achieved a Total OSHA Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.0. Belfield attributes their excellent safety record to education, preparation and communication. "When we conduct a pre-job plan briefing we look at the tree and all the 'what-ifs,'" he said. "What if this happens? How can we avoid it, how can we address the tree without getting anybody or anything hurt or damaged? Everybody's got a role in how we take the tree down. It's about planning how we're going to do it and communicating so everyone knows the plan." The Sam Houston crews also benefit from regular training, including advanced arborist tree felling courses through Davey. "These crews aren't up and down pruning trees all day, like most conventional utility accounts," Freeman said. "In this environment our employees have to be highly trained and skilled tree fellers in order to perform this type of work safely and consistently on a daily basis." SAFETY

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