Today in Elkland New York at around 9:45 a.m. a man around 60 years old was injured severely.  He apparently was back in the woods performing logging operations.  Rescue workers got into him via a helicopter and four-wheel-drive trails. 

Our prayers at AboutTrees.com go out for this logger and his family.

This message goes out to Mark Chisholm up in New Jersey.

Mark Chisholm is one awesome  tree climber.

This guy is arboriculture at its best.  He just broke the world record for foot locking (a method that Tree Service professionals use to climb their ropes).

 

The new world record now stands at 13.80 seconds for a 50 foot ascent.  When you really stop and think about that, that is some lightning fast climbing.  The old record was at 14.3 seconds.l

 

So congratulations Mark, we honor you hear it AboutTrees.com.  That is some wonderful climbing!

Okay, I don't mean to rant and rave but what Edward Smith of champions Tree Service is alleged to have done is appalling.

This is a prime example of the risks that clients face when they need Tree Service work performed.

I just read an update on the charges being filed and apparently this guy charged one person to remove some limbs from the neighbor's tree  that were over hanging his house.
Then, allegedly, this guy goes it and charges the neighbor for the same work!

But it gets worse,  he digs a ditch in a ladies yard and treats it for bugs and then demands $2600 from her.  Later on she called him back and request $2000 refunded.  He says that he'll do it but of course he never pays.  Once again, this is the risk of using an illegitimate tree.

But here's the worst part.  On August 31 he bids a job for Miss Betty Blanton.  He told her he could cut some of the limbs down for around $200.  But when Betty asked for a quote he said he couldn't do it.
So in classic hacker style, this guy gets into her tree, destroys it to the point where it has to be removed, and comes down and requests $34,000.
She says she doesn't have that type of money, and so he kindly excepts to checks, one for 9000, and one for 6000.

Apparently there was a certified arbor is that came in after this to evaluate the work and judge to that it would have been around 20 to 25 hours.  Any arbor's opinion this would've ran between $3700 to $5,000.

This is the most egregious type of tree work in gouging out there.

So to anybody reading this, please be careful and check references.
There are a lot of really good salesman/scam artists who decide to get in the tree industry and prey on innocent people.

That's not what true arboriculture is about.

 

There was a tree climber who died today in Orangeburg South Carolina.

His name was Charles Saylor.  The guy was 44 years old and worked for Sack Tree Service.

The news didn't have any direct details however on the video it was obvious that the pine trees roots had failed.

Tree climbing is such a dangerous job.  It was hard to believe that the roots had failed because the tree just didn't look that bad from the video.

Tree failure is one of the hardest things to predicting tree service.  You can have all the spec sheets and charts diagramming out the strength of certain trees, but if the tree is rotten inside, the tree can fail regardless. 

Tree failure and electricity are two things that the tree climber has less control of than others.

If something swings wrong on a rope, or a branch takes a bad bounce, it could contact electric lines.  The same goes with tree failure.  A climber can do all he can but you never really know for sure if there is a weak spot in the tree.

Stories like this made me very sad and my heart goes out to his family.

Apparently down in Winter Haven Florida there was a guy to was overcharging for tree work.  He got busted today.  I don't know the exact details but the owner of Champions Tree Service got there butt in a sling today the cops apparently came out and arrested them.

They're charged with over priced work, substandard work, and charging for stuff they hadn't not done! Does this sound familiar to any of you legitimate tree guys out there???? Super frustrating when guys like this give our industry a bad name.

George Edward Smith and his wife Bonita Cathrall got busted.  They apparently been bids them work for a senior citizen.  The nephew of the senior citizen came over and told him to stop because that the man was to" slow" to make the correct decision.

Apparently these guys went ahead and put up a fence for him, it was tying it to the neighbor's fence with trashbag close ties. 

That's horrible!!!!!!

But wait it gets worse.  After they get the job done, the old man can't fill out his own check.  So these two jokers take the check from him and fill it out and just get them to sign it.  

So let this be a warning to all the hacker tree guys out there who think they can bust apart trees and have no repercussions.

So who knows, maybe this guy is legit.  But it sure sounds non-legit if you ask me.

about trees .com is excited to anounce that they are very close to launch