Profession tree surgeon

Tree surgeons maintain trees. They use heavy machinery to prune and cut trees. Tree surgeons are often required to climb the trees to perform maintenance.

Personality Type

• Enterprising / Realistic
• Realistic / Enterprising
• Realistic / Conventional

Knowledge

• Tree preservation and conservation

  Environmental requirements for tree preservation and conservation.

Skills

• Follow safety procedures when working at heights

  Take necessary precautions and follow a set of measures that assess, prevent and tackle risks when working at a high distance from the ground. Prevent endangering people working under these structures and avoid falls from ladders, mobile scaffolding, fixed working bridges, single person lifts etc. since they may cause fatalities or major injuries.

• Climb trees

  Ascend and descend from trees in a safely manner.

• Advise on tree issues

  Provide advice to organisations and private persons on planting trees and tree safety. Investigate current conservation and tree management projects.

• Assess hazards implied in tree operations

  Evaluate risks and hazards, perform efficient actions in order to minimize risks and to restore the trees to their orginal state or to replant new ones.

• Operate chainsaw

  Operate mechanical chainsaw powered by electricity, compressed air or gasoline.

• Lop trees

  Retract trees and big branches complying with health and safety regulations

• Perform tree thinning

  Remove some trees from a stand in order to improve tree health, timber value and production.

• Carry out aerial tree rigging

  Calculate the expected loads the rigging will be exposed to. Select compatible components to make up the rigging system and choose the position of anchor points for rigging components. Take into account the expected load and the positions of the ground crew, other anchor points, equipment, planned drop zone, and processing area. Remove lower tree sections using suitable cuts, minimising shock loading in the rigging system.

• Execute disease and pest control activities

  Execute disease and pest control activities using conventional or biological methods taking into account the climate, plant or crop type, health and safety and environmental regulations. Store and handle pesticides in accordance with recomandation and legislation.

• Protect trees

  Preserve trees taking into account the health and conditions of the tree(s) and plans for preservation and conservation of the area. This includes the cutting of trees or branches on trees applying knowlege of the biology of the tree.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB