About ready to round-file my state licence !!

mdvaden

Treehouser
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May 4, 2007
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In Oregon, most tree services are under the CCB / Construction Contractors Board and Landscapers under the LCB / Landscape Contractors Board. The CCB license does not allow planting / landscape work but the LCB enables tree service work. So some tree guys go with the LCB if they want to plant trees too. Landscape maintenance is exempt for lawn and general yard care, needing no state license. The CCB has a "carve-out" for pruning done from below 15 feet and branches a few inches in diameter. The latter is where I started in the 1980's. Eventually I got the LCB license and did a bit bigger pruning and a bunch of landscaping. But nowadays, 95% of my pruning as a semi-retired part time pruning specialist is the sort of stuff that doesn't need a license.

The LCB takes 2 licences. One personal for someone to pass a test and one for the business. Those are now going to be LCB @ $575 PER YEAR !

The CCB license is only $400 PER TWO YEARS.

The landscape board is charging almost triple.

The LCB used to be under the CCB. Way back in the 1990s or so, I was an LCB board member and voted to separate the LCB to be on it's own. It was a small license increase. Ever since, various board members have been adding CEUs requirements and raising fees. But I haven't seen any superior fruit of the investment out in the field.

There's a chance I may go one more year with the LCB renewal in September. But I may opt to go with no state license and just keep my insurance and bond. Plus I'd still maintain being a "Certified Arborist". The other option is just taking a cheap 16 hour class and getting the CCB license which I don't really need but would allow a bit of flexibility. I could gladly set aside planting. And the last 4 months, I only planted 3 small Parottia trees and 3 Camellias.

If I could go back in time, I'd reverse my vote and keep the LCB under the CCB to tame the beast of price increase. Actually, the CEU / CEH thing is pretty annoying too. The LCB wants just 4 hours per year for folks who have been working for quite a while. They may as well skip it altogether. People who have been in landscape work for the longhaul usually learn more than 4 hours worth of learning in a year. They don't need to pay babysitters to document it.
 
I am so glad I live in the free state of Florida. Republican governor, republican congress, no state income tax, lowest taxes in the nation, best schools in the nation, etc. And the only thing needed for tree work is proof of insurance and a $25 per year county license.
 
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Holy bureaucratic red tape Batman! Needing a license to plant trees is mind blowing to me.

I think homeowners should be more responsible to do vetting. After 40 years watching licensees do tree or landscape work, I don't think the testing and CEUs did much for the citizens.

For example, a friend of mine (real friend) installed a back lawn and drainage in a Lake Oswego, OR, yard. The whole thing fell apart in a year. The homeowners called me, knowing the other guy was my friend, and asked not to say anything. They just "ate" the loss and didn't even take it to the LCB board to report or go against the bond. My friend's weakness, like many other taking the test, was a lack of experience and lack of years. The test doesn't fix that. Nor do CEUs.

My friend and his crew put a "French Drain" that's supposed to be open to the surface under sod that capped it. Then no drain line where the heaviest runoff was. And he put a 2nd drain line 8 ft. from sizeable evergreens with no root barrier and the roots entered through trench fabric, rock and the pipe within 365 days.

The homeowners probably should have had my friend replace it, or report him to the LCB

But it's a classic example why all this extra licensing, testing and CEU hours pales in comparison to the basics of experience, adequate insurance and homeowners asking for sufficient references or experience.

Meanwhile, to continue exercise moving from age 66 to hopefully 80 years or more, I can find near unlimited small pruning of trees and shrubs. When they get too big after 10 or 20 years, I just pass it along to other tree service guys who climb or have lifts. It keeps pruning costs lower for homeowners because my smaller and equipment overhead are much less. So everybody benefits.
 
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Arizona is the wild West. A simple LLC, or even a contractors license is more than enough for tree work. Insurance is cheap (relatively), and regulation is minimal. TCIA, ISA? Who are they? Sounds government alphabet soup-ish, no thanks, seems to be how everyone thinks.

Don't know where we rank in tree worker deaths, but I'd be surprised if Arizona didn't beat Florida, with all the Mexicans I've seen bite it.

Been waiting for OSHA to step into our industry for 20 years, and they show no sign of giving a flying fu... But I can see how tree work, at the actual labor level could be very hard to regulate. So much of what we do is guessing, approximating, or even "instinct", you can't really write rules on it. If you can't effectively regulate the work itself, I don't see how you could regulate the rest of it.
 
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