Trained tree care team tackles tight timeframes

Vermeer BC1200XL operators on the job site.

Reasonable and reliable are the brand cornerstones for Duane Cornett’s tree care business. His belief in these tenets of business is so strong that he named his business R&R Tree Service.

“Those principles are what made my company as prosperous as it is,” Cornett says. “We do big tree removals, emergency removals, tree and hedge trimming and uprooting.”

The Salem, Ore.-based entrepreneur handles a variety of landscaping tasks and is also a general contractor. In order to achieve his goals as a business owner, Cornett has surrounded himself with a well-equipped and knowledgeable team. He believes that they utilize the best equipment and take maintenance very seriously. With multiple mechanics on staff, Cornett dedicates a great deal of time and energy to make sure all work vehicles and machines are properly maintained.

One of R&R's main business strategies is having well-equipped machinery from Vermeer.

“Our equipment and our upkeep set us apart from the competition. We put the best equipment on the road and spare no expenses in doing so,” Cornett says.

The equipment includes stump grinders, brush chippers and well-equipped trucks that are outfitted for any situation.

“All of my trucks are outfitted with anything you could possibly need to climb a tree or rig a tree. Our crews have all the secondary gear if they have to do an aerial rescue, and they all have chain saws. So when a truck goes out they have everything,” Cornett says.

R&R Tree Service has nine crews working for a variety of customers. The three-man crews are trained in-house and learn about jobsite safety and how to properly care for equipment. Aided by a trusted foreman, Cornett hosts a number of training classes for his employees. This training keeps all workers on the same page and is crucial when R&R needs all hands on deck for a project.

A road-widening project for the Oregon Department of Transportation was just such a project. Cornett bid on the tree-clearing portion of the $44 million project and was chosen to remove all the trees and install a temporary fence for the general contractor.

“The project is going to stop a bottleneck coming into Woodburn. It’s a very congested area during the midday hours and school hours. By doing this, it will also allow the ODOT to put up a sound barrier to keep sound from the freeway down and not disrupt the nearby residents,” Cornett says.

Operators of R&R Tree Service use the BC1800XL Vermeer brush chipper.

With a sizeable fleet in tow, the large R&R crew set to work. The fleet included a number of Vermeer machines: two BC1800XL, three BC1200XL and two BC1000XL brush chippers, and one SC352 and one SC60TX stump cutter.

After trying a number of other machines over the years, Cornett’s preference remains with Vermeer.

“I like the crushing feature on some of the new brush chippers. They are able to process the material quicker and can handle branches that are otherwise tough to handle. I really like the drum feature more than any disc-type feeder,” Cornett says. “I like the new EcoIdle™ electronic control system in the BC1800XLs; it just runs smooth and it’s quieter.”

The large number of reliable machines was needed to process the vast amount of material at the Woodburn site. They removed blue spruces, willows, firs, pine trees, mimosas, maple trees and sequoias. An estimated 100 truckloads of chips needed to be shipped, at 10,000 pounds (4535.9 kg) per truck. The processed material was recycled locally, with a majority of the trucks unloading in a set of nearby horse pastures.

“One of the major challenges was making sure brittle trees didn’t break and watching for the possibility; we are aware of this so that nothing happens to our workers while they are up in the tree,” Cornett says.

Another concern was working around power lines. This meant that Cornett needed to have line-certified employees on site to efficiently and effectively work in the area.

The other unique challenge was the Migratory Bird Act. Enacted in 1918 as an agreement between the United States and Canada, the Migratory Bird Act is meant to protect bird species that migrate across North America. With this stipulation came a tight timeframe so that the job would not interfere with the migration of passing bird species. The crew had only 10 days to finish the job, but worked at a timely pace to avoid any issue with the Act.

Even with this unusual jobsite demand, R&R Tree Service was able to complete the job. Through the use of highly maintained equipment and highly trained employees, the company was able to achieve its goal, and did so reliably and reasonably.

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