Free safety resources for tree work, country by country

This is a reading list, not a rulebook. The rules themselves are on the safety rules by country page. Agencies move and retire pages. Nothing here tells anyone how to climb, cut or rig.

United States

ANSI Z133

The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) says the Z133-2026 safety and health requirements standard became available on May 27, 2026, in English and Spanish. Its release page says the digital version is "available as a free downloadable PDF" for individual use. The page says the free access is funded by ISA's partner organizations and by corporate licensing of the standard. Print copies are sold by ISA and authorized resellers.

The same page says companies that want to print their own copies for training, or use the digital copy with employees, may ask ISA about a licensing option. The release page covers the 2026 edition only. The ISA page makes no statement about free copies of the 2017 edition or other older editions, and the ISA release page and the ISA store show what is offered now.

OSHA

OSHA keeps a tree care industry page with sections on hazards and solutions, safety and health programs, standards and additional resources. The overview lists these publications, all in OSHA's own words:

Solutions for Tree Care Hazards, OSHA Publication 3940, 2018.
Tree Care Work: Falls and Falling Object Hazards, in EPUB and MOBI, with a Spanish edition.
Electricity and Tree Care Work, A Deadly Combination, OSHA Pamphlet 3861, 2016, with a Spanish version.
Tree Care Work, Know the Hazards, OSHA Publication 3752, December 2014.
Preventing Palm Tree Trimmer Fatalities, a California FACE Program video in English and Spanish.

OSHA also has a tree care resources page, which lists Spanish-language compliance assistance material.

NIOSH

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health runs the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program. Its program page lists tree care and arborist work as a current priority category. It also says FACE investigators do not enforce standards and do not decide fault or blame. State reports from 2016 to the present are listed on the FACE reports page, and the page says reports from 2015 and before are in CDC Stacks.

NIOSH also publishes science bulletins that touch tree work. One from August 24, 2015 is about palm tree workers suffocated by fronds in California. Another from August 10, 2021 uses Ohio workers' compensation claims to look at landscaping, including tree care. The 2015 palm bulletin and the 2021 landscaping bulletin set out what they say.

A public fatality list

OSHA publishes a fatality inspection data page that lets anyone filter work-related fatality inspections under federal and State Plan jurisdiction and export the table. The page gives its limits: federal inspections opened after April 2011, State Plan data from around October 2014, and only inspections whose opening conference was at least six months before the day you look. The victim name can be blank where OSHA lacks jurisdiction.

Canada

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) publishes fact sheets called OSH Answers. Two matter to tree workers: Landscaping, Tree Trimming and Chainsaws, Basic Saw Operations. The first has sections on set-up, ropes, power lines and personal protective equipment. The second covers felling, limbing, bucking and pruning. The tree trimming sheet says some jurisdictions may have regulations about the type of training required. CCOHS also has a fact sheet on anchor strength legislation by jurisdiction, which calls its table guidance only and says to consult the legislation itself.

In British Columbia, WorkSafeBC publishes safety bulletin WS-2023-06, dated November 2023, on arborists removing trees in residential and recreational settings. WorkSafeBC also posts incident investigation report summaries. One of them, an arborist struck by a tree that kicked back, covers an incident in June 2015 and sets out the investigation's stated cause and conclusions.

In Ontario, the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA) and Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) describe a "suite of free health and safety resources" on their arboriculture and landscaping page. It covers overhead powerline hazards, preventing falls, competent supervisors and hiring a safe arborist, plus tailgate talks for the landscape industry. The same page lists IHSA training courses, which are separate and are not described there as free. It also links the WSPS Arborist Industry Safe Work Practices Guide. The page does not say whether that guide is free.

United Kingdom

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a tree work section with a resources area for Arboriculture and Forestry Advisory Group (AFAG) guidance, case studies and research. Its AFAG publications page lists two leaflets, each with a "Download a free copy" link on its own page:

The leaflet AFAG308, Top-handled chainsaws, 2013.
The leaflet AFAG606, Mobile stump grinders, 2013.

HSE also offers INDG317, Chainsaws at work, 2012, as a free download. The AFAG publications page says the forestry-based AFAG leaflets are on the Forestry Industry Safety Accord (FISA) website. FISA's safety guides page says its guides are "all downloadable for printing direct". HSE's AFAG308 leaflet refers readers to AFAG401, Tree-climbing operations, AFAG402, Aerial tree rescue, and AFAG403, Mobile elevating work platforms for tree work. Those three are not on an HSE page linked here.

The HSE resources page also lists research reports, among them one on rigging and dismantling practices in arboriculture and one on noise from mobile woodchippers. Its case studies page sets out tree work accidents in short paragraphs, each with links to the related guidance. They are a handful of cases, not a searchable database.

Australia

Each state regulator publishes its own material.

New South Wales. SafeWork NSW has a tree work page that links the Tree works code of practice, the code of practice for work near overhead power lines and a woodchipper guide. The code says it commenced on March 27, 2026 and replaces the 1998 Amenity Tree Industry code. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 except for the material it lists as not covered.
Woodchippers. The SafeWork NSW woodchipper guide is for employers and workers using a trailer-mounted hand-fed chipper.
Victoria. WorkSafe Victoria has a two-page Working safely with trees note and six pages of basic safety checklists for the amenity tree and gardening services industry, both published January 13, 2020.
Safe Work Australia. The SafeWork NSW page links a Safe Work Australia guide to managing risks of tree trimming and removal work.

Arboriculture Australia's public pages about its Minimum Industry Standards describe them as sold, in print or as a digital subscription, so they are not on this free list.

New Zealand

WorkSafe New Zealand hosts the Approved Code of Practice for Safety and Health in Arboriculture as a PDF download. The page says it covers climbing, pruning, trimming, maintaining and removing trees, cutting brush and using equipment in those operations when electrical hazards are not involved. The page also says the code has not been updated for the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and its regulations, and that it may still hold relevant information. It says the code will be progressively reviewed and either updated, replaced or revoked.

At a glance

Country	Free to read	Publisher
United States	Z133-2026 PDF for individual use; tree care pamphlets; FACE reports	ISA, OSHA, NIOSH
Canada	OSH Answers fact sheets; BC bulletin and incident summaries; Ontario resource suite	CCOHS, WorkSafeBC, IHSA and WSPS
United Kingdom	AFAG308, AFAG606, INDG317, case studies	HSE
Australia	Tree works code, woodchipper guide, checklists	SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria
New Zealand	Approved Code of Practice, arboriculture	WorkSafe New Zealand

The rules on what the law asks of employers and workers are on the rules page.