Tree Trimmers and Pruners
Using sophisticated climbing and rigging techniques, cut away dead or excess branches from trees or shrubs to maintain right-of-way for roads, sidewalks, or utilities, or to improve appearance, health, and value of tree. Prune or treat trees or shrubs using handsaws, hand pruners, clippers, and power pruners. Works off the ground in the tree canopy and may use truck-mounted lifts.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Tree Trimmers and Pruners. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $37,940 | $18.24 |
| 25th | $44,840 | $21.56 |
| 50th · Median | $50,960 | $24.50 |
| 75th | $63,900 | $30.72 |
| 90th | $80,310 | $38.61 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (19)
Typical tasks
- Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines.
- Operate boom trucks, loaders, stump chippers, brush chippers, tractors, power saws, trucks, sprayers, and other equipment and tools.
- Cut away dead and excess branches from trees, or clear branches around power lines, using climbing equipment or buckets of extended truck booms, or chainsaws, hooks, handsaws, shears, and clippers.
- Clean, sharpen, and lubricate tools and equipment.
- Hoist tools and equipment to tree trimmers, and lower branches with ropes or block and tackle.
- Climb trees, using climbing hooks and belts, or climb ladders to gain access to work areas.
Expand more tasks (18)
- Supervise others engaged in tree trimming work and train lower-level employees.
- Trim, top, and reshape trees to achieve attractive shapes or to remove low-hanging branches.
- Load debris and refuse onto trucks and haul it away for disposal.
- Inspect trees to determine if they have diseases or pest problems.
- Provide information to the public regarding trees, such as advice on tree care.
- Trim jagged stumps, using saws or pruning shears.
- Clear sites, streets, and grounds of woody and herbaceous materials, such as tree stumps and fallen trees and limbs.
- Collect debris and refuse from tree trimming and removal operations into piles, using shovels, rakes, or other tools.
- Cable, brace, tie, bolt, stake, and guy trees and branches to provide support.
- Plan and develop budgets for tree work, and estimate the monetary value of trees.
- Prune, cut down, fertilize, and spray trees as directed by tree surgeons.
- Remove broken limbs from wires, using hooked extension poles.
- Water, root-feed, and fertilize trees.
- Scrape decayed matter from cavities in trees and fill holes with cement to promote healing and to prevent further deterioration.
- Spray trees to treat diseased or unhealthy trees, including mixing chemicals and calibrating spray equipment.
- Apply tar or other protective substances to cut surfaces or seal surfaces and to protect them from fungi and insects.
- Transplant and remove trees and shrubs, and prepare trees for moving.
- Split logs or wooden blocks into bolts, pickets, posts, or stakes, using hand tools such as ax wedges, sledgehammers, and mallets.
Skills used in this work
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Expand more skills (29)
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
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