TCI Magazine Audio Edition

By TCIA Staff If you’re in the tree care world, ticks are more than a seasonal nuisance – they’re an occupational hazard. On TreeBuzz, a forum where arborists swap war stories and wisdom, a recent thread dug into ticks, Lyme disease and the oddball allergy known as alpha-gal. The conversation was frank, sometimes funny and loaded with lessons for anyone who spends their workdays in the woods. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY ANDREAS ALUIA, CTSP, AND DYLAN PENKETHMAN It was a perfect summer Saturday in Medford, Massachusetts, a small suburb just west of Boston. Steve Mauras, fire department district chief of neighboring Somerville, was driving by a municipal park while running errands. He glanced at the impressive oak tree that towers over the athletic fields and noticed several people suspended from ropes high up in the canopy. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY BRIAN KANE, PH.D. Decay is a common defect that occurs in all parts of a tree. Decayed wood has very little strength and often leads to hollows, cavities or both. When decay or a hollow is present in a tree part, its load-bearing capacity is reduced. The amount of reduction depends on the extent of decay – how much is present and where it’s located in the cross section. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

By TCIA Staff Every industry breeds its own folklore. In tree work, cutting, hinging and rigging theories might make for some of the loudest campfire stories of all. On a TreeBuzz thread dealing with these topics, a post about “rip cuts” lit up the board – veteran climbers, would-be physicists and wisecracking pirates all weighing in. The premise was that a controlled tear could turn a brutal stop into a soft hand-off. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

By TCIA Staff This discussion began on July 19, 2025, when a climber using the handle DRBetz started a thread on the TreeBuzz forum titled “Let’s Talk About Electrical Awareness.” Within a few days, the post had drawn replies from more than a dozen arborists, all dissecting a near miss that could easily have turned fatal. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY PAUL WOLFE II Most of us have pretty good memories. Like taking the driver’s-license test, first dates with our significant other, a sibling’s birth date, etc. I don’t remember any of those things as time is slowly eroding my mind. I do, however, vividly recall the first tree I climbed as a professional. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

by Jon Gerstenberger TCI Magazine celebrated 35 years of publication in 2025. For 427 issues, since June 1990 – through recessions, global pandemics and spikes in printing and postage costs – TCI Magazine has hit the industry’s mailboxes every single month. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY TIM BARTELT Deciding if and when to spend money on large capital-equipment expenditures is a strategic part of any business, and the tree care industry is not immune to that struggle. Buy outright or finance? Long-term rental or RPO (rental-purchase option)? These are questions being mulled on a daily basis, and interest rates, tariffs and business/economic outlook are all factors to consider. “Uncertainty” may be the keyword for the current economic situation, according to a group of fina...

BY JEFF INMAN, CTSP, TRAQ Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re trying to have a conversation with someone and they don’t agree with what you’re saying? You could be making the best case in the universe for your point of view, with facts, figures, graphs, statistics, life stories, testimonies, technological advancements, etc. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY JOHN BALL, PH.D, BCMA, CTSP Electrical hazards to tree workers are, for the most part, within the realm of those who access tree canopies. True, we do have electrocutions and electric-shock injuries among ground workers, but they are the minority. Tree canopies and electric supply lines often are intertwined with, or at least near, climbers and aerial-device operators. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY ANTHONY TRESSELT Crane-assisted rigging is a complex layering of skills, equipment and knowledge. Like many involved tasks, it looks relatively simple when done well. However, the truth is that when poorly planned, cranes and trees can be a difficult combination. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by clicking here.

BY TAMSIN VENN Rare is the employer who does everything he or she can to help an employee secure their next job. But that was the case with Daniel Miraval, BCMA, and Brianna White, ISA Certified Arborist, co-owners of Emerald Tree Care LLC, a 14-year TCIA member company in Roselle, Illinois, when they sent Anthony Santisi, who had been with them for three years, off to his new job at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Remember to get your free subscription to TCI Magazine by c...