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TRAINING & EDUCA TRAINING & EDUCATION By Michael “House” Tain Given the number of accidents, injuries, and, sadly, even deaths that occur on a regular basis in the tree care industry, it should be no surprise that emergency preparedness, aerial rescue, and emergency response are concepts with which most professional tree crews are familiar, and hopefully have even had some training in. However, given the possible severity of an accident’s outcome, further discus- sion and knowledge, or simply a timely reminder, cannot help but increase arborists’ awareness and hopefully encourage the education, training and planning that are all an integral part of responding to emergencies in and on tree care work sites. The first desired goal of any tree company’s emergency response plan should be to not have an emergency in the first place; and although this may sound glib and simplistic, examina- tions and evaluations of accident/injury statistics have shown that, in many cases, simple measures such as wearing required personal protective equipment (PPE), knowledge/training in safe cutting and rigging techniques, and even basic electrical hazard awareness training would have lessened the effect of — if not prevented — the injury/accident altogether.This does not mean that emergency response plans, aerial rescue and first aid/medical training, and 10 Arbor Age / April 2011 Tree work in isolated locations means that the crew will have to provide the initial emergency response until professional help arrives. Photo by Michael “House” Tain scenario/situational knowledge are not necessary. All tree crews know that the arboricultural universe is filled with unexpected developments and organic surprises; and to not be prepared to respond to an unexpected incident that may create an emergency is to be prepared to fail. Aerial rescue Aerial rescue should be a key component of any emergency response planning and training. But, according to Dr. John Ball’s work, given that the majority of injuries impact ground personnel, aerial rescue should be a component — not the only focus — of emergency planning and training.Training should be realistic and appropriate to the work the company primarily focuses on,and the speed of the rescue should not be the focus of the training. For example, a company that does mainly spur takedowns would focus on rescue techniques appropriate to that type of climbing, while a company that primarily uses aerial lifts might focus on rescues and/or extractions from lifts. If time and budget allow, all possible scenarios that crews might confront can be practiced. But, at a www.arborage.com