OSHA's one-page tree care sheet: traffic, drop zones, chippers, lifts and lines
What OSHA publication 3940, a one-page sheet for tree care crews, covers in its five columns, with the prevention tips as OSHA lists them and the link to the sheet.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 9, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the named codes, regulators and makers say. It is not training and does not teach the work. It describes one safety sheet that OSHA publishes for tree care crews and links to it. The sheet is the regulator's own, and this page does not replace it or add a talk of its own. All pages were read on October 9, 2026. The courses that teach the work are in the guides on chainsaw tickets and certifications by country.
The sheet
OSHA publication 3940, Solutions for Tree Care Hazards, is a one-page sheet dated 2018. It is set out in five columns, and each column gives a short statement of the risk and a list of prevention tips. The columns are traffic control, drop zones, chippers, aerial lifts and power lines. At the foot it links to OSHA's highway work zones page, the tree care topics page, the wood chipper safety and health bulletin, an aerial lifts fact sheet and the publication on electricity and tree care work.
What each column says
| Column | Risk the sheet names |
|---|---|
| Traffic control | Workers can be struck by moving vehicles, and the traffic zone could interfere with pedestrian traffic |
| Drop zones | Workers can be struck by falling trees, limbs and hand tools, with enough force for serious or fatal injury |
| Chippers | Workers pushing material by hand or leaning into the hopper, injury from thrown material, and hazardous noise |
| Aerial lifts | Falls or being thrown from the bucket; the major causes are falls, electrocutions and equipment collapses or tip-overs |
| Power lines | Electrocution when a limb, branch or uninsulated lift touches a live line |
Prevention tips as the sheet lists them
- Traffic control. Briefing workers on traffic zone safety and site setup, traffic control plans that follow the national manual on traffic control devices, cones, barricades and flaggers, high-visibility vests, certified flaggers where operations interfere with traffic, a safe route for pedestrians and lights at night.
- Drop zones. Cones or caution barrier tape to mark and manage the zone, training on entry and exit, a hard hat and eye protection, only qualified workers near the zone, and visual or audible communication between overhead and ground workers. The sheet gives "stand clear" from the worker aloft and "all clear" from persons below as an example of a verbal command and response.
- Chippers. Training to inspect and operate, following the maker's instructions, working guards and emergency shut-off devices, standing to the side when feeding, close-fitting clothing, ropes stowed away from the machine, and never reaching into the in-feed chute to clear a jam while it runs.
- Aerial lifts. Only qualified and trained operators, inspection of the lift and worksite before each use, outriggers on pads or a level surface, wheel chocks on slopes, a body harness or restraining belt with a lanyard to the bucket, and not overreaching beyond the edge of the bucket.
- Power lines. Treating all overhead lines as energized and staying at least 10 feet (3 meters) away unless specifically qualified, and if a line falls near a worker, moving away with short, shuffling steps and the feet close together.
Other OSHA sheets for the same crews
OSHA's leaflet Tree Care Work: Know the Hazards, dated 2014, lists the main causes of injury as falls, electrocutions and being struck by trees, and sets out what supervisors and employers do and what workers have the right to expect. The hazard bulletin Tree Care Work: Falls and Falling Object Hazards goes further into the first and third. The rules behind these sheets, with distances, are in the guides to drop zones and exclusion zones, chippers and stump grinders, power lines and bucket trucks and EWPs.
Sources
- OSHA, Solutions for Tree Care Hazards, publication 3940, 2018, read October 9, 2026
- OSHA, Tree Care Work: Know the Hazards, publication 3752, 2014, read October 9, 2026
- OSHA, hazard bulletin on falls and falling object hazards in tree care work, read October 9, 2026
- OSHA, tree care hazards and solutions, read October 9, 2026