minority arborists

[highpoint-utd]

i have worked with two coulored lads in the last few years one was a climber for a local council and the other was a tree co owner in east manchester,ive worked with a palestinian and a couple of kurds while doing some landscraping work . the palestinian guy was an exccellent worker .

 

[Guy Meilleur]

I was at U of North Carolina campus last month and ran into a black dude I used to work with there. He's over 70 but can still scamper up the trees.

Most tree guys I know did not come from a family business, but jsut followed their own paths to it.. The ones who did are lucky (?) imo, but a small minority.

Aussie, good stories! If I was on a black crew I would not want to see a picture of a white guy slaving on the road sign. And I do not want a 120 kg anyone coming in to see me!

Our industry's lack of diversity really shows at conferences. A whole lot of white dudes, few others. It's hard to feel comfortable if you look different, so maybe a special effort should be made to bring in anyone who wants to attend.

 

[John Ellison]

Kind of off topic but,
In Alaska I heard, from several different people, of an excellent black hooktender (logger) on Afognak Is. Also I worked with/ knew two different women on rigging crews. One was a rigging slinger and the other set chokers on a crew I was on for awhile. Lots of lift, so it was'nt real physical. The young woman that I was around did great. This was at a logging camp and some of the guys had'nt been to town for weeks, so it was real distracting looking for a choker hole on a tight log. Un believably everybody kept the crude comments to a min. and things went pretty well.
About a year or two ago I read an article in a logging mag about a log co. owner who was in a restuarant for breakfast and found out that his skidder operator quit. He had a lot of trouble in the past with drunks and whatnot. The waitress (a single parent) said I can do that so he hired her. It worked out so well ( no more missed work) that he has since hired another and they are always there on time.
John

 

[BigJohn]

Yeah everyone in my hood is black. I have heard I look out of place and lost on the ground. I am more comfortable upstairs than down. What about those Guatmalians? Roach how about the one we had Amatto or what ever that one I called tomorrow? That guy was awfull.

 

[Dadatwins]

Worked with a couple of good minority climbers in New York, one guy was from the West Indies and used to climb coconut trees as a kid. Never used a rope until he came to U.S. Hardest part about working with him was communication. He spoke english but when he got a excited he would drift back to native tongue and we would stare up and scratch our heads wondering what the h**l he was talking about.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Climbers? Getting excited? NO way, we're too cool and calm for any of that, eh?

 

[M.D. Vaden]

In Portland, Oregon, I only know of two.

One has been in it for a while, is "okay" and rates himself very good - no certification, no formal education, hardly any effort into the right reading material. Professional appearance of company overall is a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Licensed.

There is a hispanic. Also licensed. No apparent education or credentials. Professional appearance of company about a 7 for how advertising and equipment looks.

At least they are licensed.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

In the morning the crew room is filled with a real mix of languages.

We have English-speakers from around the US, a Bosnian, a Jamaiican, Hispanics from various Central American countries, and Cambodians. I would LOVE to be around on picnic day. All I would add would be my famous Minnesota fruit salad.

There are a number of international users on TB. OZ, NZ, Sweden, Norway, all of Great Britain, Germany, Switerland, Russia. There are probably others too.

Tom

 

[Curtis James]

When I was doing line clearence there was some one representing all makes and models of mankind!

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

I'll stick with nationalities. That is all I choose to recognize. I list their citizenship, not their heritage (like Americans love to do).

I have worked with good climbers from Guatemala, Honduras, Turkey, Greece, Serbia/Montenegro, Germany, England, Mexico, USA, and the country of Georgia.

Hard to say who was the best. The fastest isn't the best and the best removal guy isn't the fastest....

You can rate climbers in many ways. Climb better than they can walk?? Jeez, I am sure hundreds could be defined that way.

Best ground man. In order - Mexico, USA, Ireland, Honduras.

In Texas, there are more hispanic climbers than non hispanic climbers.

 

[coydog]

Originally posted by M.D. Vaden
In Portland, Oregon, I only know of two.

I can assure you, there's more than two.

 

[Reed]

How many transplant patients are climbers?

That's what I wanted to find out.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Corydog - do you mean on the "eastside"?

My post is the "westside story" mainly.

 

[MasterBlaster]

One of the tree co I climb for is owned by a black guy. He doesn't really like to climb all that much, but he's ok, a little slow. It's funny sometimes, the stereotypes. I'll be the only white guy on his crew, and people ask me if I'm the boss. Actually I am, but I tell them, "No, it's that guy over there."

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I still delete things now and then.


The WAA has several black fellows who win events regularly in out TCC. Some make it to the MC most years, though this year was an exception.

Are Irish catholics still a reppressed minority? I think one of those types one the MC this year.

 

[murphy4trees]

Black is beautiful

Here's one of Big Jon's disciples... Jon had to split for a family affair... And PE took up the task beautifully.

He's wearing a tree Austria saddle, aluminum bashlins with velcro, a Pacific R-5, and is holding a special friction saver to tie off to the crane. Put 4K of trees on the ground in 3.5 hours..
And we had to set the crane 5 times...

 

[Stumper]

Have you talked Pat into joining Asite yet?

 

[murphy4trees]

He's in.... 2 posts so far...

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

Nothing like pointing out someone as a "token african american" to make them want to post.

How-a-bout Pat from Pa or where the heck ever he is from.

Are Irish catholics still a reppressed minority?

According to my Irish coworkers, "we survived a famine and 2 world wars, we'll survive this too"

 

[Stumper]

Er...I wasn't thinking of Pat as a "token" anything. I read in other posts that he is a skilled climber-rapidly advancing in skill. I don't care about anyone's ethnicity. I want to know what kind of person they are. :angel: