Will “Tree Surgeon” be Automated?

Core Skills & Abilities

• Inspect trees to determine if they have diseases or pest problems.

• Cable, brace, tie, bolt, stake, and guy trees and branches to provide support.

• Apply tar or other protective substances to cut surfaces or seal surfaces and to protect them from fungi and insects.

• Load debris and refuse onto trucks and haul it away for disposal.

• Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines.

• Collect debris and refuse from tree trimming and removal operations into piles, using shovels, rakes, or other tools.

• Water, root-feed, and fertilize trees.

• Split logs or wooden blocks into bolts, pickets, posts, or stakes, using hand tools such as ax wedges, sledgehammers, and mallets.

• Cut away dead and excess branches from trees, or clear branches around power lines, using climbing equipment or buckets of extended truck booms, or chainsaws, hooks, handsaws, shears, and clippers.

• Transplant and remove trees and shrubs, and prepare trees for moving.

• Scrape decayed matter from cavities in trees and fill holes with cement to promote healing and to prevent further deterioration.

• 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.

• Plan and develop budgets for tree work, and estimate the monetary value of trees.

• Hoist tools and equipment to tree trimmers, and lower branches with ropes or block and tackle.

• Supervise others engaged in tree trimming work and train lower-level employees.

• Spray trees to treat diseased or unhealthy trees, including mixing chemicals and calibrating spray equipment.

• Provide information to the public regarding trees, such as advice on tree care.

• Climb trees, using climbing hooks and belts, or climb ladders to gain access to work areas.

• Prune, cut down, fertilize, and spray trees as directed by tree surgeons.

• Trim, top, and reshape trees to achieve attractive shapes or to remove low-hanging branches.

• Trim jagged stumps, using saws or pruning shears.

• Clean, sharpen, and lubricate tools and equipment.

• Operate boom trucks, loaders, stump chippers, brush chippers, tractors, power saws, trucks, sprayers, and other equipment and tools.