Fundamentals of General Tree Work

As a working foreman on a line clearance crew in the mid 1970s a big part of my job was teaching young men how to climb and work in trees safely — in the vicinity of crackling high-voltage power-lines. It was dangerous work. Employee turnover was high, unfortunately, and it wasn’t seeming I spent so much time training young men the same thing over and over. I was a teacher.

Training became repetitive and eventually structured, and in the summer of 1978 I figured I might as well write a book about tree work. And sure enough 18 years later in the fall of 1996 the Fundamentals of General Tree Work debuted at the Tree Care Industry Trade Show in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Fundamentals was in print for 20 years and sold over 20,000 copies. Touted as the Treeman’s Bible the book went out of print in 2016.

It’s back! Due to popular demand the Fundamentals reappeared in 2017 in digital format, and came back into print in 2021. Although I had little to do with these later efforts, as I handed the book over to Patrick Masterson of Ontario, Canada, at Educated Climber and he’s the one who brought the Fundamentals back to life, and if I do say he’s done a mighty fine job. Thank you, Patrick!