Suz
33 yrs & we r still n luv
This is not fair nor is it right!!! Jimmy is the fairest man in this business I have ever known!!!!!!!!!
Chopping Down Businesses
By Adam Bednar
ST. MARY’S TODAY
LEONARDTOWN — Jim Cullison, 50, said what makes his day is when customers see him on the street and say “hey that’s my tree guy.”
Cullison, a man of average height, with a slight gut and gray hair has been cutting trees and brush out of residential yards since 1988. In the 17 years since, his business has grown from something he did on the side, when he wasn’t working at the Patuxent Naval Air Station, into a business that supports his family.
Currently Cullison’s company, Bay Forest Tree Removal, owns nearly $140,000 in equipment and his son wants to eventually take over the business from his father. But to do that he is going to have to hit the books.
The General Assembly passed new restrictions on who can cut down trees in the state. As of Oct. 1, to operate as a commercial tree remover the state now requires a license.
A license holder, under the new regulations, must have an associate’s degree in forestry (or related field) or have studied five years under a tree expert.
Both of those requirements are forcing Cullison out of business.
“They want you to know what the genus names (of the trees) are. But what’s that got to do with taking down trees,” Cullison said.
Michael Galvin, supervisor of Urban and Community Forestry for the Department of Natural Resources, said the change in the law is nothing new. He said lawmakers closed a loophole in a law that has been on the books since 1945.
He said the former ordinance forced all tree care providers to have a license, but through a loophole in the law allowed tree removal services to operate without a license.
Galvin said licensing of tree removers is necessary, because too many scams have been perpetrated on seniors by unlicensed tree removal businesses. He also said tree removal is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and that licensing them is for the public’s good.
Galvin admitted that the new regulations have been further reaching than the DNR and the General Assembly originally realized.
But it isn’t the license Cullison says is unfair. It’s the education requirements to obtain the license that Cullison objects too.
The fact that these regulations could put Cullison out of business has rallied Commissioner Dan Raley, (D. Great Mills), to try and use the county’s legislative agenda to protect Cullison’s livelihood. Raley is pushing for a grandfather clause allowing existing tree removal businesses to be exempt from the new licensing qualifications, in the county’s legislative agenda.
Raley criticized the new regulations as just another way for the state to extract more fees from its citizens.
“You don’t need a license to cut down a forest but you need a license to cut down a limb? That doesn’t make any sense,” Raley said.
However, any legislative help Cullison may get is still several months away.
Cullison said he does not know what he will do in the mean time while the state has made it illegal for him to continue his business.
When asked how aggressively DNR would enforce the new regulation Galvin was vague.
“We can’t say we’re not going to enforce a law passed by the General Assembly but we will take it on a case by case basis,” Galvin said.
Now, who am I going to call?????????????
Chopping Down Businesses
By Adam Bednar
ST. MARY’S TODAY
LEONARDTOWN — Jim Cullison, 50, said what makes his day is when customers see him on the street and say “hey that’s my tree guy.”
Cullison, a man of average height, with a slight gut and gray hair has been cutting trees and brush out of residential yards since 1988. In the 17 years since, his business has grown from something he did on the side, when he wasn’t working at the Patuxent Naval Air Station, into a business that supports his family.
Currently Cullison’s company, Bay Forest Tree Removal, owns nearly $140,000 in equipment and his son wants to eventually take over the business from his father. But to do that he is going to have to hit the books.
The General Assembly passed new restrictions on who can cut down trees in the state. As of Oct. 1, to operate as a commercial tree remover the state now requires a license.
A license holder, under the new regulations, must have an associate’s degree in forestry (or related field) or have studied five years under a tree expert.
Both of those requirements are forcing Cullison out of business.
“They want you to know what the genus names (of the trees) are. But what’s that got to do with taking down trees,” Cullison said.
Michael Galvin, supervisor of Urban and Community Forestry for the Department of Natural Resources, said the change in the law is nothing new. He said lawmakers closed a loophole in a law that has been on the books since 1945.
He said the former ordinance forced all tree care providers to have a license, but through a loophole in the law allowed tree removal services to operate without a license.
Galvin said licensing of tree removers is necessary, because too many scams have been perpetrated on seniors by unlicensed tree removal businesses. He also said tree removal is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and that licensing them is for the public’s good.
Galvin admitted that the new regulations have been further reaching than the DNR and the General Assembly originally realized.
But it isn’t the license Cullison says is unfair. It’s the education requirements to obtain the license that Cullison objects too.
The fact that these regulations could put Cullison out of business has rallied Commissioner Dan Raley, (D. Great Mills), to try and use the county’s legislative agenda to protect Cullison’s livelihood. Raley is pushing for a grandfather clause allowing existing tree removal businesses to be exempt from the new licensing qualifications, in the county’s legislative agenda.
Raley criticized the new regulations as just another way for the state to extract more fees from its citizens.
“You don’t need a license to cut down a forest but you need a license to cut down a limb? That doesn’t make any sense,” Raley said.
However, any legislative help Cullison may get is still several months away.
Cullison said he does not know what he will do in the mean time while the state has made it illegal for him to continue his business.
When asked how aggressively DNR would enforce the new regulation Galvin was vague.
“We can’t say we’re not going to enforce a law passed by the General Assembly but we will take it on a case by case basis,” Galvin said.
Now, who am I going to call?????????????
They're supposed to be, but there are those that do it on the side without insurance. I'm lucky I cleared my own lot back in the 80's. Laid 12 big pines down on a Sunday morning. Took me 6 months to cut'em up and haul them away. Imagine what it would cost me today for 12 big pine trees. 
Someone mentions Poulan or Homelite. 
