Arborist Council Meeting
March 20, 2006
Dept of Agriculture, Augusta
Members Present
Wes Davis, Art Batson, Ted Armstrong, tish carr
Members Not Present
Lois Stack, Dave Newell, Bob Levesque
Staff
Debbie Davis, Ann Gibbs
Minutes
The minutes from the 2/13/06 meeting were reviewed and Ted requested that the statement he had made regarding EHAP training be changed to indicate that he would not supply this information to folks. The group voted and passed the corrected minutes.
Program Update
Debbie mentioned there are 494 licensed arborists and 114 who have not renewed for 2006. She sent out 125 reminder letters. The next test is scheduled for April and filling up. Lots of new study guides are being sold.
Recent Complaints
An article concerning the Lamarre case was printed in the Portland Press. Wes mentioned he had been sent an advertisement stating that a licensed landscape arborist would do arborist work around wires. He has a landscape license does he need a utility license? Not according to the law because it appears that the utility work is not his primary work. Ann mentioned we have been receiving insurance cancellation notices after issuing a license. It was agreed to wait awhile to see if the insurance was reinstated and then send a letter reminding the licensee that they couldn’t do arborist work.
MAA video
Ted hasn’t received the MAA video, but he is working on it and will have copies made. The group agreed that these should be sent out to the public access stations before the June meeting. Ann will get a list of which towns should receive them and who agreed to send the video.
Public Education
Jennifer O’Leary and Mike Debonis are no longer available for help with this effort. Draft press releases have been written. tish will be doing a pruning demonstration at Maine Garden Day in April and talk about hiring a licensed arborist etc. We are still collecting data from our surveys of Master Gardeners and Town Clerks. Wes will check with Jan Santerre regarding arbor month in May. We will suggest having a booth at the Project Canopy event with literature on hiring an arborist, as well as the press release regarding pruning. We will also have someone at the session to answer questions.
Rotation of Council Members
All members’ appointments are 3 years which end Dec 2006. We need to get a system in place to stagger appointments so we don’t lose all the experienced members at once. Members can serve for 2 terms or 6 years, so maybe have the current members serve for a second term and then rotate one or 2 folks off during that second term. All members present were interested in serving a second term. The group decided to develop a policy and research how this is handled by other groups. It would be good to have some new people on the council. Ann will develop a draft policy for the next meeting in June.
Future Rule Changes
Ann presented the changes discussed from the last meeting. Most dealt with 3 areas: clarifying definitions, eliminating the apprentice permit and requirements to take the utility exam. The group suggested a few other changes and Ann agreed to date when the changes are suggested. These included adding specifically “for line clearance” to the Utility Arborist definition and leave the statement regarding the Department recommending prior experience before taking the exam. These proposed changes need to be discussed with the industry before they are included in a formal rule making process. These changes will not be proposed in the near future. Ann sent out a list of the proposed changes for Wes and Art to share at quarterly crew meetings.
Topics from past discussions
Ann passed out short-term goals from 7/05 and long-term goals from12/04. Many of the short-term goals were completed or are in progress. The group reviewed the long-term list and made comments. For example, code enforcement officer training through the State Planning Office should be set up and would include having someone go and talk to the group; move the tree warden issue from enforcement to education; Continuing Education Units (CEU) is a stumbling block regarding logistics of who can actually keep track of this. Tish asked if we should continue to discuss CEUs or should we look at requiring ongoing training differently. Ted will bring an example how the Massachusetts arborist association keeps track of their CEUs and Wes will provide an example of maintaining a forestry license in Maine. A suggestion was simply to have licensed arborists submit proof of completion of training and file it. This topic will be discussed at the June meeting. Ann will make the changes to the short and long term goals for the next meeting.
LD 1657 ‘An Act to Minimize the Risk to Maine’s Marine Waters and organisms Posed by the Application of Pesticides’
Gary Fish came and discussed this bill which would affect arborists spraying to control brown tail moth on the coast. He presented the final wording and mentioned that the lobsterman’s association was determined to get something in place this year. He suggested that people need to be especially careful when spraying for BTM this year. The Pesticide Control Board is supposed to be notified before spraying is planned in Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York counties. This section will be repealed in March 2007.
Agenda topics for the next meeting: next meeting is June 12 in Augusta, topics include
CEUs, rotation of council members, public education – surveys, rule updates
Respectfully submitted by,
Ann Gibbs
