INTRODUCING ...
The New ANSI A300 Standard: Part 8, Root Management
by Gordon Mann, Consulting Arborist and Urban Forester, ASCA Past President, and Owner of Mann Made Resources, Auburn,
California; Guy Meilleur, Practicing Arborist and Aerial Consultant, Apex, North Carolina; Dane Buell, ANSI A300 Committee
Chair and Director of General Tree Care, SavATree, Bedford Hills, New York
The ANSI A300 Committee
is pleased to
announce that the Part 8 - Root Management Standard
has been published. The Committee has worked on the
Part 8 Standard for several years, and it is finally ready
for use! It was introduced at the last TCIA Expo and the
SMA annual conference in November.
espalier, and palm pruning, and the new Part 8 - Root
Management Standard includes the practices of selective and non-selective root pruning. Note that just "following the standard" allows all the practices present in
the standard.
Tree care practitioners need to know about the stanLike all ANSI A300 standards, Part 8 - Root Management dards, use them to write quality specifications, perform
standardizes the way tree care professionals write work in accordance with those specifications, and
quality specifications—in this case, for managing tree inspect work to assure compliance. The ANSI A300
standards are voluntary until they are included in speciroots. The ANSI A300 Committee stresses that the
fications or adopted in a local, regional, or state law.
standards are not to be used as specifications in and
The standards are referred to if work practices are chalof themselves. Rather, the standards create the framelenged in a lawsuit.
work for writing specifications. The standards cover the
full scope of work practices; for example, the Part 1 ANSI A300 standards unify and take authoritative
– Pruning Standard includes the practices of pollarding, precedence over all previously existing tree care indus-
When tree roots are exposed, we may see things we never expected. Photo by Dane Buell
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City Trees