I'm battling the dark side... and losing

Wesspur
Rugged made
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TheJollyLogger

TheJollyLogger

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Against my better judgement ... (there was money involved) I came back to Houston to help a buddy with a pipeline clearing contract. Clearing a 20' ROW through 10 miles of neighborhoods. All they want is a clear line of sight for arial surveys. The other climber is a redneck meth addict who can't climb without spurs, and prefers to be pulled up by a truck. I show up with my srt gear, and they look at me like I'm crazy. They literally have a pallet of fence pickets and rails to fix damage. It's going to be a long couple months, if I can .
 
That's how it is with ROW mate. It's all about trees/hr. If you want to do quality work you picked the wrong job. Get with the program or walk. Not every tree is sacred.

Shaun
 
Believe it or not, I'm making progress. They started to notice I can srt trims way faster than he can spur them, and if I reduce the branches back and make proper
Collar cuts they won't encroach back as quickly. Oh, and using a portawrap and block sure is eazier on the rope and the groundies... maybe there is hope. They must like what I'm doing, we went on a $1500 shopping spree at The Sawhouse (Arboristsite sponsor, and a great group of guys) yesterday. I guess the lesson is always stick to your principles, and we can beat the hacks, one cut at a time.
 
Good to hear you made a dent. There may be hope.

I had a discussion yesterday with the electric company (cooperative, actually). I had been directionally pruning my own trees, so there was a future for the trees. The guy said they must do the work for liability reasons (I understand). He also said the only options are topping or removal. I explained the functional drawbacks to topping (rapid regrowth and guaranteed problems with wires in the near future). Unfortunately, he wasn't having any. I said just cut them down.

Other trees requiring side pruning will be spiked my friend said. No options. I explained the options (ladder up to the 1st limbs or toss a rope). Again, I might as well have been talking to the trees.

I intend to have the pruning done before the crew shows up. But, damn!

Anyway, glad you had more success. Hope your couple months go well!

Tim
 
Might want to recheck a bit. Most states require right of way workers to follow proper pruning standards. They (the workers) will often tell you that they don't, but I would check anyways. If you tell them you want the standards followed, and they don't, then you often can take them to court. Get photos of the before condition if possible. They tried the same thing with a climbing friend in the Asheville area. They didn't have proper safety gear, and were being quite dangerous. He told them if the trees weren't pruned to standards, he was calling OSHA and he had photos to prove they were in violation. I didn't hear any more about it, so I guess they didn't mess up his trees.
Rick
 
I'll check on that. They've really come around, it was more a case of ignorance than resistance. The other climber is stuck in the 70's in more than one way, if you know what I mean. When we got back from The Sawhouse he was waiting for the Foreman to pull him into the tree with the bobcat. I put a stop to that.
 

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