southsoundtree
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Olympia, WA
difference b/t a 5\' stump and a 50\' tree--heads up
We had incident that I attribute to fatigue and and employee wanting to do as asked, even against his better judgment.
During a several day job mostly removing alders in tight quarters and over a house, we were on the last of the trees when it happened. I'd been trying to train my groundmen in digestible chunks from green to more aware, more knowledgeable safe workers.
I sent the first groundman up a 25' alder spar to block it down in firewood-sized pieces, as we had to cut it up anyhow, but more to the point, to get experience with the whole set-up of spiking up and down, blocking down wood, and re-arranging the emergency exit line rigged with a running bowline and a Petzl GriGri. He did well, though he lost one piece the bounced off the triplex power line a little. No harm done. Funny how when he got down he commented that it is a lot more work up there than he realized (part of the training). As well, he commented the next day that his inner legs were sore, just from 25' of blocking down.
On to the more interesting part. Just outside of the fence were a line of Doug-firs that were alternating 20" with 12" DBH trees. Maybe 10 in all. They were too dense, so I'd worked out that I'd spike up a skinny one to access the climbable branches on the larger trees to set a climb and a rigging line with block to remove all the overhanging alders, then remove the spiked tree to thin the overcrowded stand.
To ease the other groundman into it, I chunked it down from the skinny wood into 8" wood on the roughly 25' tall spar. The groundman slowly and safely worked his way up and chunked it down until he was on the ground. Not being used to the cumbersome gear, when he reached the ground, he un-flipped and removed the running bowlined emergency rope, took off the harness, spurs, and put it away, not returning to cut the 5-6' stump.
As we were doing the final clean-up, the second groundie asked the first to finish cutting the few remaining alder stems as he was frustrated with the stumping and the saw, that he'd rather drag the remaining brush and be done cutting for the day. This was a good decision on his part as he was tired and getting frustrated. It would be safer to stop cutting. This is what we discuss. If you don't feel safe, just say so. I even tell them that if something happens and they go out the night before work and overindulge and come to work a little hungover, I'd rather hear that and assign them to work like dragging brush and raking, keeping them away from lowering limbs, cutting, and chipping with the Chuck and Duck.
So, back the the final clean-up. I saw the 5' stump and asked the groundie #2 to finish cutting his spar at the stump, unbeknownst to me that he'd asked groundie #1 to finish the cutting for the day. #2 said he'd cut the 5' stump from the spar that he'd just climbed.
So this is the end of the day, getting toward dusk, and for some reason I wandered up the small hill where all the alders were to the fence which divided the alders from the line of Doug-firs on the small hills top. #1 and #2 were there kinda looking at each other. #2 sheepishly looked at me, when #1 tells me that #2 started stumping the wrong tree. From the looks of it, he'd gotten 1/2" into the side of the wrong tree's base of about 14", so through he bark and into the sapwood a couple of inches wide, but shallowly. "F#$k!" I thought. "Well its not too bad." The tree should be able to compartmentalize that and continue to grow. Tell the homeowner to keep an eye on it, as it was a relatively small injury to the tree, IMO, not that I wanted it to be there, but it was there. If it declined, we'd come back and remove it from the still overcrowded line of trees.
He'd been tired and frustrated, and it was dusky, and he'd not been "Heads up". In his frustration with the screw-up and going against his judgment to be done with cutting because the boss asked him to cut, he was not really saying much.
It could have been worse, right? Right. As I continued to clean up I saw that the steep downslope on the far side of the tree had the soil disturbed as though someone had been around that side for some reason. I better investigate. Turns out that #2 was not cutting from the hilltop a tiny bit into the tree, but from the downslope, and what looked like a small kerf cut into the tree was just part of what was a large cut, 75% through, cut from the downslope. "HOLY F$#K!!" Only the house 20' away to the one direction and powerlines across the 2 lane road on the opposite side, oh yeah, and its getting dark.
Tapped two wedges into the kerf just to fill the space then, hate to say it, but I had to spike, as little as possible, up an adjacent keeper tree to do a speed, top-down, Saw-muria removal to 20', which I figured would be stable until the next day.
In the end the HO was cool with it, and got a free removal of a small tree in an overcrowded stand.
What can we take away from this?
1) Train new climbers slowly and safely. Its an intense experience for someone newer to it. Easy digestible steps. I think that I was doing that here.
2) As they say about everything in the Forest Service, "HEADS UP". The things on the ground are more apparent to groundworkers and more likely to be noticeable risks. Keep your heads up, checking constantly for overhead dangers and the whole situation in which you are working. Had he looked up when he was walking down the row of trees, he'd have seen the difference between the 5' stump and the 50' tree that looked the same at the base.
3) Tell everyone, and re-iterate, that they have the right and responsibility to say that they don't feel safe doing something, and that they won't be in trouble for keeping things safer.
4) People want to do what the boss asks them to do. This can override good judgment which #2 exercised in asking #1 to finish that stumping, but then #2 went against this good judgment when the boss asked him to finish a task. This is especially true of younger employees, and older supervisors.
5)Fatigue clouds judgment and awareness.
6)Dehydration and low blood sugar factor into lots of accidents and incidents, both in hot, dry situations, and cold, wet situations, and everywhere in between. Also it reduces productivity.
I keep Gatorade powder in the truck and try to keep food on hand. I expect my guys to come prepared with lots of food and water/ drink. I also have that available to them whenever they run short for whatever reason. The tax-deductible expense of the food and Gatorade is going to pay off in productivity and safety, as well as hopefully morale, and a feeling that I'm looking out for them.
7) Both groundies thought that I'd seen the full extend of the cut, whereas I only saw a little bit of it from the other side of the fence. I didn't ask how much was cut, as I thought I had all the information, which as it showed, I didn't. Make it a work situation where everyone can feel comfortable to offer pertinent information.
We got lucky in that there was no damage, the HO came out ahead and was cool with it. I say, "An expensive lesson learned cheaply."
Stay safe. Beware complacency. Hope our mistake helps others to avoid some of their own.
OMG that was a long post!
We had incident that I attribute to fatigue and and employee wanting to do as asked, even against his better judgment.
During a several day job mostly removing alders in tight quarters and over a house, we were on the last of the trees when it happened. I'd been trying to train my groundmen in digestible chunks from green to more aware, more knowledgeable safe workers.
I sent the first groundman up a 25' alder spar to block it down in firewood-sized pieces, as we had to cut it up anyhow, but more to the point, to get experience with the whole set-up of spiking up and down, blocking down wood, and re-arranging the emergency exit line rigged with a running bowline and a Petzl GriGri. He did well, though he lost one piece the bounced off the triplex power line a little. No harm done. Funny how when he got down he commented that it is a lot more work up there than he realized (part of the training). As well, he commented the next day that his inner legs were sore, just from 25' of blocking down.
On to the more interesting part. Just outside of the fence were a line of Doug-firs that were alternating 20" with 12" DBH trees. Maybe 10 in all. They were too dense, so I'd worked out that I'd spike up a skinny one to access the climbable branches on the larger trees to set a climb and a rigging line with block to remove all the overhanging alders, then remove the spiked tree to thin the overcrowded stand.
To ease the other groundman into it, I chunked it down from the skinny wood into 8" wood on the roughly 25' tall spar. The groundman slowly and safely worked his way up and chunked it down until he was on the ground. Not being used to the cumbersome gear, when he reached the ground, he un-flipped and removed the running bowlined emergency rope, took off the harness, spurs, and put it away, not returning to cut the 5-6' stump.
As we were doing the final clean-up, the second groundie asked the first to finish cutting the few remaining alder stems as he was frustrated with the stumping and the saw, that he'd rather drag the remaining brush and be done cutting for the day. This was a good decision on his part as he was tired and getting frustrated. It would be safer to stop cutting. This is what we discuss. If you don't feel safe, just say so. I even tell them that if something happens and they go out the night before work and overindulge and come to work a little hungover, I'd rather hear that and assign them to work like dragging brush and raking, keeping them away from lowering limbs, cutting, and chipping with the Chuck and Duck.
So, back the the final clean-up. I saw the 5' stump and asked the groundie #2 to finish cutting his spar at the stump, unbeknownst to me that he'd asked groundie #1 to finish the cutting for the day. #2 said he'd cut the 5' stump from the spar that he'd just climbed.
So this is the end of the day, getting toward dusk, and for some reason I wandered up the small hill where all the alders were to the fence which divided the alders from the line of Doug-firs on the small hills top. #1 and #2 were there kinda looking at each other. #2 sheepishly looked at me, when #1 tells me that #2 started stumping the wrong tree. From the looks of it, he'd gotten 1/2" into the side of the wrong tree's base of about 14", so through he bark and into the sapwood a couple of inches wide, but shallowly. "F#$k!" I thought. "Well its not too bad." The tree should be able to compartmentalize that and continue to grow. Tell the homeowner to keep an eye on it, as it was a relatively small injury to the tree, IMO, not that I wanted it to be there, but it was there. If it declined, we'd come back and remove it from the still overcrowded line of trees.
He'd been tired and frustrated, and it was dusky, and he'd not been "Heads up". In his frustration with the screw-up and going against his judgment to be done with cutting because the boss asked him to cut, he was not really saying much.
It could have been worse, right? Right. As I continued to clean up I saw that the steep downslope on the far side of the tree had the soil disturbed as though someone had been around that side for some reason. I better investigate. Turns out that #2 was not cutting from the hilltop a tiny bit into the tree, but from the downslope, and what looked like a small kerf cut into the tree was just part of what was a large cut, 75% through, cut from the downslope. "HOLY F$#K!!" Only the house 20' away to the one direction and powerlines across the 2 lane road on the opposite side, oh yeah, and its getting dark.
Tapped two wedges into the kerf just to fill the space then, hate to say it, but I had to spike, as little as possible, up an adjacent keeper tree to do a speed, top-down, Saw-muria removal to 20', which I figured would be stable until the next day.
In the end the HO was cool with it, and got a free removal of a small tree in an overcrowded stand.
What can we take away from this?
1) Train new climbers slowly and safely. Its an intense experience for someone newer to it. Easy digestible steps. I think that I was doing that here.
2) As they say about everything in the Forest Service, "HEADS UP". The things on the ground are more apparent to groundworkers and more likely to be noticeable risks. Keep your heads up, checking constantly for overhead dangers and the whole situation in which you are working. Had he looked up when he was walking down the row of trees, he'd have seen the difference between the 5' stump and the 50' tree that looked the same at the base.
3) Tell everyone, and re-iterate, that they have the right and responsibility to say that they don't feel safe doing something, and that they won't be in trouble for keeping things safer.
4) People want to do what the boss asks them to do. This can override good judgment which #2 exercised in asking #1 to finish that stumping, but then #2 went against this good judgment when the boss asked him to finish a task. This is especially true of younger employees, and older supervisors.
5)Fatigue clouds judgment and awareness.
6)Dehydration and low blood sugar factor into lots of accidents and incidents, both in hot, dry situations, and cold, wet situations, and everywhere in between. Also it reduces productivity.
I keep Gatorade powder in the truck and try to keep food on hand. I expect my guys to come prepared with lots of food and water/ drink. I also have that available to them whenever they run short for whatever reason. The tax-deductible expense of the food and Gatorade is going to pay off in productivity and safety, as well as hopefully morale, and a feeling that I'm looking out for them.
7) Both groundies thought that I'd seen the full extend of the cut, whereas I only saw a little bit of it from the other side of the fence. I didn't ask how much was cut, as I thought I had all the information, which as it showed, I didn't. Make it a work situation where everyone can feel comfortable to offer pertinent information.
We got lucky in that there was no damage, the HO came out ahead and was cool with it. I say, "An expensive lesson learned cheaply."
Stay safe. Beware complacency. Hope our mistake helps others to avoid some of their own.
OMG that was a long post!
