Latest news with #arborist
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Trees should not be given celebrity status
As an arborist for over 25 years, I would not disagree with your editorial (18 July) that trees are literally part of the air we breathe. What I object to is the rise of the celebrity tree. All trees are equally important. In terms of the natural environment, the Sycamore Gap was just a tree, no more no less. The men who cut it down arguably deserve to be punished, but if they had been given community sentences working in woods, for example, they may have benefited from some shinrin-yoku and emerged as more enlightened GoetzeeLiverpool No mention of Spike Milligan's cure for sea sickness in your praise of trees. It always GlenPort Seton, East Lothian My Belgian mother liked cricket so much that she became the official scorer for my father's club (Letters, 18 July). She claimed that she took up scoring to avoid the fate of cricket wives – making the tea. But she enjoyed a day out at Edgbaston and never missed Test Match Special on BBC CampionTimperley, Greater Manchester Some advice for Paul Comaish for his cunning plan to get around the hosepipe ban (Letters, 18 July) – I was advised by a gardener to use the product fresh and dilute it 10:1 with water for best FeltonCrewe, Cheshire I always knew no good would come from going to a Coldplay concert (Tech CEO caught with company's HR head..., 19 July).Michael Leigh Nottingham Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
RNZ News
09-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Ngamatapouri locals cut off by flooded Waitotara Valley Road remain unfazed
The Waitotara River breached its banks covering the upper Waitotara Valley Road in several places. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Torrential rain in Taranaki last week caused the upper reaches of the Waitotara River to breach its banks, covering the Waitotara Valley Road in places with debris and silt. While nowhere near as devastating as the 2004 and 2015 floods, the tiny settlement of Ngamatapouri has been cut-off to all but residents with four-wheel-drive vehicles and the entire road closed down periodically. The Waitotara Valley Road is recognised as the longest no-exit road in the country, snaking 55 kilometres up from State Highway 3 to Ngamatapouri where it splits into two unsealed tracks headed out into the wilderness. The 280 millimetres of rain that fell in Taranaki caused the Waitotara River to rise rapidly to 10.5 metres at Waitotara Village, where it was being monitored closely in case an evacuation was required. Ngamatapouri has been off limits to all but residents with four-wheel drive vehicles this week. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin When RNZ visited, arborist Hayden Wildbore was leading a team clearing debris from Waitotara Bridge on the state highway. "We're setting up to clear the logjam that's sitting under the bridge. I suppose it's just jeopardising the structure of the bridge really the amount of logs underneath it. It seems to have a lot of slash there and big pine and poplar trees all jammed up creating a dam." It was an involved task. "We're going to have some aborists abseil off the bridge down onto it so that if it does get swept away they're all tied in and safe and then we've got the crane here to lift the logs out and the digger to load the trucks and ship them out." The work meant the Waitotara Valley Road, which ran beneath the bridge, is closing until 5pm. Corrine Kawana, who had travelled down from Ngamatapouri and just managed to get out to visit Whanganui, was not letting the disruption upset her. "I've been up here 23 years, so this is about the third big flood - not the biggest - but major flood we've had. I just take it in my stride, no use worrying about, eh, that's life." Sutton Waugh was attempting to drain a small lake which had formed on a freshly sewn paddock she intended to graze cattle on. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin About 10km up the road, Sutton Waugh was clearing standing water from a paddock on land she and her husband had only owned for six months. A former forestry block, she wanted to graze cattle there. "This has just come up from the last rain and has nowhere to go, so we've hired a mini-excavator to dig a trench and let the water out because we've just sown this. It's new grass seed and it will just die, it will be drowned if we don't get the water off pretty soon." Dianne Frewin, who has lived on the Waitotara Valley Road most of her life, has scrapbooks full of newsclippings from previous floods. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Dianne Frewin lived 35km up the valley and had done for most of her 69 years. The latest flooding barely registered with her. "Oh to me it was just the same as normal, it wasn't as bad as the 2015 flood because it wasn't as high and it came in and we got the power back on about four hours later, so I'm pretty okay." She said the secret was being prepared. "I've got a store room. I've got flour, I've got sugar, I've got all the basics that I need to live up here except milk. Usually, I have about six or eight 2-litre containers in the fridge and I'd just been to town because we were going to have a pig hunt competition, so I was fully stocked up." Frewin, who had scrapbooks filled with news clippings of similar floods, also had a generator and an internet-based phone connection for emergencies. Scott and Julayne Thompson run beef and sheep at the Rimunui Station with an adventure tourism offering on the side. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Scott and Julayne Thompson run sheep and beef at Rimunui Station a couple of kilometres beyond where the road was closed to everyone but residents. Scott was on the same page. "I mean everyone up here, up the valley, is pretty well prepared. We've got generators, you know, and we don't get 2-litres of milk at a time. You have some milk in the freezer or some powdered milk and just plenty of supplies, and, yup, a few candles and a pack of cards." He said driving on wet, silt-covered roads was not for the faint-hearted. "Yeah as you've experienced it can be quite entertaining at times, but generally speaking if you've got four-wheel drive and you just take it easy, stick to the centre you'll be pretty right." South Taranaki District Council had now closed Waitotara Valley Road to everyone except residents until 14 July. Residents would still have to negotiate NZTA's work clearing debris from the Waitotara River Bridge until Saturday. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Globe and Mail
01-07-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
Tree Service In Jersey Village, TX Proudly Offered By Monster Tree Service Northwest Houston
Monster Tree Service of Northwest Houston is branching out—literally—by bringing its professional tree service to Jersey Village, TX. Homeowners dealing with unruly branches, risky limbs, or stubborn stumps can now call on one of Houston's most trusted tree care teams. Monster Tree Service of Northwest Houston is branching out—literally—by bringing its professional tree service to Jersey Village, TX. Homeowners dealing with unruly branches, risky limbs, or stubborn stumps can now call on one of Houston's most trusted tree care teams. Known for fast response times and customer-first service, Monster Tree Service of Northwest Houston offers trimming, pruning, emergency removal, and more. Their expert crew brings the tools and the know-how to handle everything from mild overgrowth to full-blown backyard jungle. 'Jersey Village deserves more than just tree cutting,' said Tobias Judd of Monster Tree Service of Northwest Houston. 'We bring expert advice, certified arborists, and a real commitment to doing the job safely and efficiently.' Whether it's routine maintenance or storm cleanup, their certified arborist or tree specialist ensures every project is handled with care—for both your property and the trees. The company has already built a strong reputation throughout Northwest Houston and is ready to deliver the same level of service in Jersey Village. You can see their exact location and service area on Google Maps. Residents searching for reliable tree service in Jersey Village, TX now have a local solution that combines speed, safety, and skill. Visit their website to request a quote—or check out their latest mention on Tree Service Jersey Village, TX. Media Contact Company Name: Monster Tree Service of Northwest Houston Contact Person: Tobias Judd Email: Send Email Phone: 713-903-7302 Address: 7075 Farm to Market 1960 Rd W Suite 1045 City: Houston State: TX Country: United States Website:
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Ushers In A Bleak Future For Our National Parks
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park started this year with 70 employees working across its 184.5-mile length. Just a few months into the Trump administration, the park is already down to 65. Among those it lost were its only arborist, its only carpenter and the superintendent who ran the park for five years. The superintendent, Tina Cappetta, decided to retire early at the end of May. Cappetta suffers from chronic health conditions that are exacerbated by stress. She realized that managing a highly visited federal park through President Donald Trump's workforce cuts was literally making her sick. 'What I was noticing, as this year progressed, is that I was having more bad days,' said Cappetta, who lives in rural Maryland, about 60 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., right across from the park. 'I could see the writing on the wall, health-wise, that it was better for me to leave.'Cappetta worked more than three decades across eight sites within the National Park Service, a career spent not in Yellowstone or Denali but in the less-flashy historical parks that make up a large chunk of the National Park System. She'd planned to work three more. Her premature exit is just one example of the deep experience being drained from the park service as many employees choose to hang it up rather than face budget cuts, layoffs and uncertainty. Cappetta worked more than three decades across eight sites within the National Park Service, a career spent not in Yellowstone or Denali but in the less-flashy historical parks that make up a large chunk of the National Park System. She'd planned to work at least three more. Her premature exit is just one example of the deep experience being drained from the park service as many employees choose to hang it up rather than face budget cuts, layoffs and uncertainty. Around 100 of the park system's 433 sites — or nearly one-quarter — are without a superintendent right now, according to the office of Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Senate committee overseeing the park service. Five of the system's seven regional director positions are also vacant. 'The amount of expertise and institutional knowledge that has left the National Park Service over the last couple of months – it really is a major concern,' said Edward Stierli, a regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that advocates for park funding. 'The future is bleak, and it's going to take a really long time to rebuild that level of talent.' The park service declined to answer several questions from HuffPost about attrition and layoffs, including how the agency plans to maintain park quality with fewer people and whether certain vacant positions will be backfilled. There are already signs of strain in the park service at large. The Assateague Island National Seashore, a park on the Atlantic Ocean in Maryland and Virginia, is heading into the July Fourth holiday with no lifeguards on its beaches due to a staffing shortage. The local emergency services director for Chincoteague, Virginia, the town beside the park, has said lifeguards handled 24 rescues last year. Affection for national parks crosses party lines, and many Republican lawmakers are worried about Trump's plans for the system. After all, the parks contributed an estimated $56 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023, with much of that stimulus going to red areas. In Allegany County, Maryland, which contains 48 miles of the C&O Canal, nearly 70% of voters went for Trump in November. The park helps boost bed and breakfasts, bike shops and other small businesses. The park is a prime illustration of what could be lost with Trump's slash-and-burn approach to federal resources and services. The administration is expected to announce the elimination of more than a thousand park service jobs in an upcoming 'reduction in force.' It already tried to fire around a thousand probationary employees and push many more into early retirement. The White House has put forth a budget proposal that would cut the park service's funding by more than $1 billion and transfer many federal park sites to the states, although state officials would have little interest in managing them. Even if bipartisan opposition stops the worst of Trump's plans, the park service will almost certainly find itself with fewer bodies and resources in the years ahead. And what many park lovers don't realize is that NPS sites were already strapped for cash before the arrival of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, despite record visitor numbers last year. That's certainly true of the C&O. Cappetta served as the park's chief resource manager for a three-year stint starting in 2002. When she returned to be its superintendent 15 years later, she found a staff that was nearly half the size it had been when she left. 'I walked into the room and I'm like, 'Where is everybody?'' she recalled. 'In large part, it's because the budget didn't keep pace with inflation. Visitation is up considerably.' Do you work for the National Park Service? You can reach our reporter confidentially on Signal at davejamieson.99 or email him . The C&O is a quiet workhorse in the NPS system. Though it isn't famous nationally, it has the highest traffic of any park designated as historical, with 4.4 million visitors last year. It follows the Potomac River from the Western Maryland city of Cumberland all the way to Georgetown, in Washington, D.C., featuring terrific views of the river, some cool old lockhouses and a gravel towpath that serves as a major cycling destination. If you want to protect the park's trees and keep the towpath clear, you're going to want an arborist. And if you want to keep the 200-year-old lockhouses and other canal structures from falling into disrepair, you're going to want a carpenter. Cappetta said that, like herself, those workers chose to take a 'voluntary early retirement,' one of a handful of resignation programs pushed by the Trump administration. Stierli said the loss of specially trained workers is happening across the park system right now. 'It's really all of these positions, many of them behind the scenes, that visitors probably don't even realize are helping to shape what the entire experience is like,' he said. 'I think you would want to know, as a visitor surrounded by trees, that there is a well-qualified arborist making sure that none of those are going to fall down on you while you're riding your bike.' Cappetta said that parks may end up having to bug one another to borrow personnel, or try to contract more work out to private firms — a cumbersome process likely to get more difficult as the White House pushes out agency administrators. The C&O also lost an exhibit specialist who happened to be the park's most experienced mule handler. The C&O currently has two mules — Jen and Julie — that help show kids what canal life was like in the 1800s. Other employees will be picking up more of the mule duties now. And one of the C&O's maintenance workers is retiring next month, Cappetta said. She described him as the most knowledgeable about a particular region of the park. It isn't clear if those jobs will be filled. Trump has instituted a hiring freeze across the federal government, though it contains a vague exception for 'necessary positions.' NPS currently has only 43 open positions listed nationally on the government's official site, for a system that covers 85 million acres. The park service did not address specific questions about staffing at the C&O. Facing political backlash and anger from park supporters, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered all sites to remain 'open and accessible' and avoid reducing hours or closing visitor centers, even with fewer staff — in other words, to make it look as though everything is fine. Stierli said this has resulted in specially trained employees at various parks taking up side duties, like fee collection and trash pickup. To keep up appearances, the Trump administration might focus its impending layoffs on 'back-of-house' positions rather than front-facing staff — think administrative clerks rather than park rangers. But Cappetta said such cuts eventually filter down to the park experience. 'Those positions make sure that the toilets get pumped… that people's paperwork gets processed [for] their health insurance benefits,' she said. 'There's just a ton of stuff, and there's no fat there to be trimmed.' Even if parks can fill open positions, it's going to be harder to attract talented people when the system's future looks so uncertain. The park service might sound like a dream internship for many college students and recent grads, but Cappetta said applicants are showing signs of hesitation. 'We had a really hard time recruiting for interns this year, and we pay our interns,' she said. 'We got a lot of feedback — 'Well, we don't know that we want to come work for the federal government. We don't know if there's a future there.' So I anticipate it will be difficult for the park service to recruit.' How much money could be saved by trimming the park workforce? In general, NPS employees don't make a whole lot. A current job listing for a park maintenance worker starts at $22.79 per hour, for an annual salary around $47,000. A mid-level park ranger position — one that typically requires park experience and graduate school — starts at $73,900. The Trump administration tried to fire the lowest-paid among them by terminating probationary employees en masse in February. These were, for the most part, workers who had less than two years of experience and hadn't attained full job protections. The administration attributed the firings to poor work performance, even for employees who had sterling records. Many returned to work temporarily under court order after a judge ruled the terminations were likely illegal. Cappetta said she and her team had to fire six probationary employees, comprising about 9% of the park's entire staff. One of them had a baby two days later. Managing employees under such conditions has felt untenable for many supervisors in the federal workforce, knowing they can't provide any clarity on the administration's plans or reassurance that workers' jobs will still be there. 'I care very much about the people that I work with, and, right or wrong, take on a lot of their stresses, too,' Cappetta said. In a lot of parks, the layoffs and attrition might reveal themselves gradually, through shorter operating hours, less visitor programming or poorer upkeep of trails and structures. Even before Trump began pursuing cuts, the park service estimated it had racked up $23 billion in 'deferred' maintenance — repairs that were already needed for roads, buildings and utility systems. But the effects could go on display suddenly, like when a summer storm strikes and there aren't enough staff to clear roads and paths. Such was the case on a recent afternoon, when HuffPost sent a photographer to the C&O to shoot pictures for this story. An extreme thunderstorm downed trees at the park's Great Falls entrance in Maryland, backing up exiting cars for more than an hour. Relief eventually arrived — in the form of locals with chainsaws. They cleared the road while park employees were busy dealing with fallen limbs along other roadways, according to Capetta, who was stuck in the traffic. 'Imagine losing even more staff,' she said afterward. 'It's just not going to get any better.'
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mount Vernon city worker hurt while trimming tree dies from injuries
A Mount Vernon public works employee hurt on the job this week has died from his injuries, the city announced. Juan Peralta Sr. passed away Friday, June 20, three days after undergoing emergency surgery following an accident Tuesday morning while he was trimming a tree near the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street. "This is a devastating loss for the Mount Vernon team, the Peralta family, and our community," said Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard in a news release issued by the city. "His work ethic and passion for this work, his family, and this community were exceptional. He will be sorely missed." Peralta had more than five decades of experience as an arborist and horticulturist, working for 20 years at the New York Botanical Gardens and for 35 years for Alpine Tree Service. He became a part-time laborer in the Department of Public Works more than a decade ago, then became a motor equipment operator and then a tree-trimmer, always known for his reliability, humility and dedication to the community, the city said in the release. Former Mayor Richard Thomas issued a statement calling Peralta a "quiet giant". Thomas said Peralta came to the city from the Dominican Republic in 1968 "with nothing but love for his family, strength in his back, and a deep hope for a better future." "He found that future in Mount Vernon, and helped build it for the rest of us," Thomas wrote. "He worked with care, dignity, and a quiet pride that never sought recognition but always earned respect." Thomas said Peralta's legacy of community service was best seen in his son's progression through the Mount Vernon Fire Department. Two years ago Juan Peralta Jr. became the city's first Hispanic deputy fire chief. He said the younger Peralta "stands as living proof of what every parent dreams of, that their child might rise higher, serve greater, and live a life even fuller than their own. That is the American Dream. That is the Mount Vernon story." This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Vernon NY mourns death of Juan Peralta Sr. after work accident
