Keeping things orderly is a good recipe for success. Highly ordered systems are efficient, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need maintenance and lots of energy sources. I think of the tree and the tree worker when I consider stress and strain and energy consumption. I also think of both when I consider organization. Shigo often references stress and strain in Modern Arboriculture. I can relate on several levels to his interpretations and observations on stress and strain in the tree system.

Shigo tells us, “there are 5 ways to resist stress and strain in a living system: 1. Sanitation[S]; 2. Proper nutrition [N]; 3. Rest [R]; 4. Motion or Exercise [X]; and 5. Regular checkups [C].” (page 31).

As a climber I really do enjoy this point of his. I think of my tools and equipment, keeping my hand saw and hand pruners clean, but also checking my life support gear (carabiners, prussics and bridges) and making sure that it is in proper working order. Proper nutrition is essential for anyone trying to have a productive day in the field, I don’t care if you are a climber, a rigger or an IPM tech. Eating well should be something to strive for. Rest goes hand in hand with eating right. These two things combined can have a huge impact on daily performance. We may think sufficient exercise comes from the normal everyday grind of completing tasks, but I believe it’s important to supplement those daily routines with more focused training as well. Depending on what level you want to operate at will determine how much added exercise you supplement into the routine. This will add stress to the system, so a personal balance needs to be achieved. Regular check ups can come in many different forms, from actually going to the doctor for a visit to simply monitoring how you’ve personally gained physically and mentally from the efforts you’ve put forth. A healthy system is will lead to being a great physical arborist.

Follow these few guidelines and avoid strain, right?. But what separates stress from strain? Shigo explains that “health is the ability to resist strain. Strain is a nonreversible condition resulting from excess stress. Stress is a reversible condition.” (page 31).

Strain can really be translated for the tree worker as a lasting injury. Those injuries can certainly be acute, or they can be major and even career ending as far as production work is concerned. I’m sure there are many tree workers out there that have pushed their own system beyond the brink of stress and into the gloomy reality of strain. Bad knees, backs and shoulders are commonplace in the tree care industry. Those strains can all be traced back to a violation of Shigo’s ‘five forms of resistance’ that I talked about earlier. Most likely many injuries come from a lack of rest, and too much motion. The order of things becomes jumbled and imbalanced, and unfortunately those stresses become strains, which are irreversible.

Stress I believe is necessary, and a living system will always need to deal with the stresses of its environment. But the healthier a system is-the more organized a system is- then the better it will be able to deal with environmental stresses. That’s efficiency.

I can’t help but to think of the tree too. The tree is very much like the arborist in the way that it handles stress and strain. A healthy tree also needs to abide by Shigo’s five forms of resistance, but in many ways the arborist can help aid the tree in resisting stress and strain. We can help sanitize the crown by removing deadwood and diseased and damaged limbs. And also with regular check ups in the crowns we care for, searching for storm damage or structural defects or viral infections that may pose a threat to the targets below. How about root zone inspections or even excavations to get the bottom of certain stresses? Proper nutrition can come in form of fertilization programs or even establishing a mulch layer over the root zone to help keep moisture in and competition like grass and other plants out. Organic build up leads to a healthy nutrient input. That energy is critical for order and health in the system. So in this sense the arborist will spend energy so that the tree can better receive it!

Strain is sure to occur. Storm damaged limbs, disease and pest infestations, structural failures and even entire system failures are only a few of the strains that trees experience in the environment. Stress and strain are experienced by everyone and every thing in the natural world, but trees and the arborists that care for them are exposed in very similar ways to stresses and strains. It’s convenient to illustrate both in the same light.

I also like this illustration that Shigo uses of the weighted springs. To paraphrase, two springs that appear the same are made of different material and both are weighted with the same weight. When the weight is removed, one spring returns to it’s original form (stress) and one spring remains stretched out, unable to contract again (strain).

So operating at the limits for which we were designed is stressful business, whether you are an arborist or a tree. But toeing this line is necessary for growth and for success, and stress will be unavoidable because of the many factors like competition, environmental factors and the invasion of certain pathogens. If you want to operate at a high level all the time, whether you are a tree or an arborist, it’s important to micromanage the system. Organize a routine and follow it. Put healthy things into the system, and get big returns. When we maintain a highly ordered system, we maintain a system that can deal with stress easily in order to avoid the irreversible condition of strain.

It’s amazing how much trees and arborists are alike.