Arborist Advisory Council Meeting Minutes, September 15, 2010

Members Present

Tim Basham, Chuck Cotton, Brian Dugas, Tom Hoerth, Kathy Hopkins, Mark Lamberton

Members Not Present

John Lamanna

Staff Present

Bob Batteese, Debbie Davis, Ann Gibbs

Introduction of Members

Ann welcomed all the new members and called the meeting to order at 9:00 am

Mark Lamberton - Vegetation manager of Bangor Hydro for the past 12 years. Has experience in the private sector doing arborist work.

Chuck Cotton - Manager of residential services and utility services in Maine for Lucas Tree. He has been with the company for 26 years.

Kathy Hopkins - Extension educator from Somerset County for the past 17 years. She is responsible for broad based programming and is the point person for the maple syrup industry.

Tom Hoerth - City forester/arborist for Bath. He is a staff of one managing the forest resources for the city. He also serves on the board for the Maine Arborist Association and teaches several courses including arboriculture at Southern Maine Community College.

Tim Basham - Self employed arborist for the past 20 years. Doesn't advertise and lately is focusing on buying land to log at his discretion. This helps him to ricochet with the economy.

Brian Dugas - City forest for Bangor for the past four years. His position is housed in the public works department where he has four arborists on staff. They are responsible for maintaining 1400 acres of open space, which includes 750 acres of publically accessible forest lands.

Review of Duties and Operation of the Council

Ann indicated that the advisory council advises the arborist program. The arborist advisory council can make recommendations, but the Department has the final say on what is done. The council operates by selecting a chair who is responsible for running the meetings and helping to put the meeting agenda together. The number of meetings per year has varied depending on the activities of teh group. When the council was first established we had seven to eight meetings per year, but recently it has been one to two per year.

Review of Previous Council Actions

Licensing

Revised the exam - rewrote the exam questions, changed the study guide, reworked teh tree ID materials
Require proof of insurance certificates
Modifications to exam application process - pay up front, need notice of no show
Rule changes - mostly housekeeping to clean up language etc.

Outreach

Brochures "When do I need to Call a Licensed Arborist?" developed and distributed far and wide
Distribution of the Maine Arborist Association (MAA) video to public access TV channels
Developed two different press releases timed when people would be thinking of working with their trees
Pruning demonstration at Maine Garden Day
Survey of select town clerks and master gardeners asking what they would do if they needed a tree pruned or removed. Of the 103 responses, 47 had hired a licensed arborist
Survey of renewing arborist regarding information sources and education topics. Most receive information from magazines

Processing Complaints

Develop list of information required to file a complaint
Developed a flow chart listing the steps involved in processing a complaint

Issues Discessed, but not resolved

Offering continuing education credits (CEU)
Changing the license categories
Block Ads in yellow pages alerting people of the need to hire a licensed arborist

Tom mentioned the MAA was investigating the process of keeping track of CEUs for their members.

Issues of Interest to Council Members

Mark brought up the issue of the Maine Dept. of Transportation using logging contractors in situations where there should be an arborist on site. There should probably be a bid requirement that a licensed arborist be involved. Tim mentioned he had noticed tree cutting near Sebago Lake with cutting very close to utility lines. Tom mentioned that arborists need to be OSHA compliant and EHAP certified.

Brian suggested that a newsletter geared towards licensed arborists with news regarding new trends in arborist practice or other issues to keep them current would be appreciated. The group discussed maybe trying this into existing newsletters such as "The Log" by MAA or "Trees on Main Street" by Project Canopy, Maine Forest Service.

Program Update

Debbie provided some statistics regarding the arborist licensing and exam results:

Currently licensed:

First Class Landscape - 270
First Class Utility - 323
First Class Landscape and Utility - 246
Master - 9
Apprentice permits -16

Total - 864

License history:

Licensed as of April, 2005 = 569
Licensed as of April, 2006 = 568
Licensed as of April, 2007 = 614
Licensed as of April, 2008 = 639
Licensed as of April, 2009 = 731
2009 = 825 renewals sent in November

Even though we offer an option to maintain the arborist license, each year 30-40 people do not renew their license

Exams:	Total	Passed	Did not pass
2006 - 4 Sessions	74	69	5
2007 - 6 Sessions*	114	106	8
2008 - 5 Sessions	101	94	7
2009 - 5 Sessions**	117	106	11
2010 - 4 Sessions so far	108 (as of 9/8)	89	17 (+2 did not complete)

*included a special session at SMCC and an extra session just for Lucas Tree employees
**number is less than it could have been because a storm event required us to cancel an afternoon session

Since the exam and study guide was updated for 2006:

More people pass the exam the first time
The number of people who show up to take the exam has improved, therefor fewer "no shows"
There have been fewer phone calls to counsel people about taking the test

Licensing Spanish Speakers

Ann indicated that this year there has been an increase in Spanish speakers taking the arborist exam. This seems to be a trend that will continue and the state will need to make some allowances to meet their needs. Ann has investigated alternatives such as the ISA exam which is given in Spanish, but more costly. Also if we continue with the oral portion of the exam the Dept. will need to supply a translator for this portion. Ann asked for suggestions from the council members. Some suggested that during this bad economy there are plenty of local people looking for work. One questioned why it was the State of Maine's responsibility to offer the exam in Spanish. It was also suggested that there are several dialects of Spanish, so what would you choose? How can landowners communicate with crews who only speak Spanish? One suggested that the oral portion of the exam was important, especially for folks who have difficulty taking written tests. The goal of licensing is to promote professionalism and some standard.

Other Business

Tim asked how many arborists have taken EHAP training? He thought this would be helpful to know and indicated that this training should be required for loggers.

Next Meeting

No meeting date was set, but it was agreed to schedule the next meeting in March 2011 in Augusta.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 am

Respectfully submitted by,

Ann Gibbs

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