Section 2951: the nine subsections that govern a line clearance crew's day
8 CCR 2951 is California's work practice rule for line clearance tree trimming. Its nine subsections require a pre-job inspection, tail gate briefing and voltage determination, restrict the work to qualified line clearance tree trimmers and their trainees, forbid violating the section 2940.2 approach distances, and set rules for a second person, weather, equipment, sprayers and rope.
On August 18, 2014, a climber was 5 to 6 feet from a 12,000 volt conductor, in a 40 foot tree on Maybert Road in Washington, California. That distance broke nothing.
The Division of Occupational Safety and Health did not dispute that Ysidro Nieto was a qualified line clearance tree trimmer under section 2700, and the Appeals Board recorded as much in its Decision After Reconsideration in Synergy Tree Trimming, Inc., filed May 15, 2017. Anybody outside that credential and its narrow exceptions owed 10 feet at 12 kV, and still does.
What put Nieto in the tree at that distance is section 2951 of Title 8. He fell 30 feet when the crown he cut took his climbing rope with it, the Division cited a different section entirely, and the Board sustained that citation as serious with a penalty of $4,385. Section 2951 is the section that had already decided who was allowed to be up there.
The nine subsections, and what each one governs
Section 2951 is short. It is also the whole of California's work practice rule for line clearance tree trimming, which makes each subsection carry more than its length suggests.
Subsection | What it governs |
(a) | Inspection of the work locations, tail gate briefing, and determination of nominal voltage, before the operation commences |
(b) | Who may perform the operation, and the prohibition on violating the section 2940.2 approach distances |
(c) | Coordination of de-energizing and re-energizing with the operator of the line |
(d) | A second qualified line clearance tree trimmer or trainee within unassisted voice communication |
(e) | Removal of contacting branches with nonconductive equipment only |
(f) | Stop work in adverse weather, except emergency restoration |
(g) | Approach distance limit for ladders, platforms and aerial devices |
(h) | Slip resistance and guardrails on sprayers and related equipment |
(i) | Two rope rules, one for storage and one for wet or contaminated rope |
Article 38 of the High Voltage Electrical Safety Orders holds two sections and no more. Section 2950 sets the article's scope and prints the approach distance everybody outside the credential owes, and Table 1 and who it binds is the page for that half. Section 2951 is this one.
Before the saw starts: an inspection, a briefing, and a voltage
Prior to commencing line clearance tree trimming operations, the employer shall ensure that an inspection of the work locations is made in order to identify potential hazards and a tail gate briefing is conducted to discuss the work procedures to be followed. A determination shall be made of the nominal voltage of electric power lines posing a hazard to employees. However, a determination of the maximum nominal voltage to which an employee will be exposed may be made instead, if all lines are considered as energized at this maximum voltage.
Three duties, all of them on the employer, all of them due before the first cut of the operation. The voltage determination has an escape hatch built in. A crew that cannot get a definitive voltage for every span may instead treat every line as energized at the highest voltage present, which is usually the cheaper answer on a distribution circuit with a transmission line overhead.
Cal/OSHA restates that choice in plain language in its Tree Work Safety Guide:
The employer performing the line clearance work is required to determine the nominal voltage of the electric power lines that pose a hazard to the workers. They may opt to determine only the maximum nominal voltage instead if they choose to treat all power lines as energized at the maximum voltage.
The frequency is where this bites. A construction employer's general tailgate obligation under section 1509(e) runs at least every 10 working days. Section 2951(a) runs on the operation, not on the calendar. Move the crew to a new circuit on Thursday afternoon and a new briefing is owed Thursday afternoon.
Section 2951(a) says nothing about writing any of it down. The retention rule is in section 3203(b)(1), which requires records of the inspections that section 3203(a)(4) calls for, naming the persons who conducted them, the unsafe conditions and work practices identified, and the action taken, kept for at least one year. A crew that holds the briefing and records nothing has satisfied 2951(a) and left itself no way to prove it.
Only two kinds of person may do the work
Only qualified line clearance tree trimmers, or trainees under the direct supervision and instruction of qualified line clearance tree trimmers, shall be permitted to perform line clearance tree trimming operations as described in Section 2950.
Two categories, and the list is closed. Both terms are defined in section 2700 of the same orders, and what separates the credential from a qualified tree worker reads both definitions against each other. The trainee half carries its own standard, because "direct supervision and instruction" is not the same thing as having a qualified trimmer somewhere on the crew. What direct supervision has to look like is a question of who is watching whom, continuously, and it sits behind this sentence.
The practical shape of that sentence is a staffing rule. In Synergy, the first element of the employer's affirmative defense turned on whether the injured climber was experienced in the job, and the Board recorded that the Division did not dispute his status as a qualified line clearance tree trimmer under section 2700. That was the easy part of the case. Where the employer lost was on its apprenticeship program, which it described to the Board only in outline.
"Under no circumstances," and the distance Article 38 never prints
Under no circumstances shall the minimum approach distances specified in Section 2940.2, be violated.
That is the second sentence of subsection (b). The figure it enforces lives in section 2940.2, where the employer gets a choice of methods, plus an altitude correction for work above 3,000 feet, plus a prohibition that stands independently of whatever distance the method produces. Which method an employer picked, and what it has to keep is the sibling question, and an evaluator should expect a one sentence answer to it.
One practical note for anybody who clicks through. DIR publishes the tables in section 2940.2 as embedded images hosted on govt.westlaw.com, not as text. Searching that page for a voltage returns nothing, and the numbers have to be read off the pictures or off a printed copy.
Subsection (g) applies the same pointer to equipment:
Ladders, platforms and aerial devices shall not be brought closer to an energized part than the distances listed in Section 2940.2.
So the bucket and the boom owe the same number the climber does. That matters on a narrow street where the lift has to be set to reach the work without the upper boom crossing under a secondary. How the lift itself is operated and tied off is a separate set of requirements with its own inspection.
Set this against the other column. Table 1 of section 2950 gives 10 feet 0 inches at 1.1 to 15.0 kV to everybody the credential does not cover. The credential is what moves a crew off that row and onto the employer's own section 2940.2 number. Section 2951(b) is where the move is written down.
The second person, and the words added in 2018
During all tree trimming operations performed in accordance with the requirements of subsection (b) above, there shall be another qualified line clearance tree trimmer or trainee within normal (that is, unassisted) voice communication at each work location to render immediate assistance.
Unconditional. Any operation performed under subsection (b) needs the second person, at every work location, for the whole of the operation. The federal rule is built the other way round. 29 CFR 1910.269(r)(1)(ii) requires a second line-clearance tree trimmer only under three listed conditions, and 1910.269(r)(1) opens by excluding qualified employees from the paragraph altogether. How the federal tiers sort a crew explains why that exclusion is there.
The phrase "within normal (that is, unassisted) voice communication" arrived on April 1, 2018. Before that date, subsection (d) said only "at each work location," with no proximity standard at all. California took the replacement language from the federal paragraph.
Two things the words still do not settle. There is no distance in feet, so whether a given separation counts is a fact question for the Division in the first instance and the Appeals Board on appeal. And voice communication is not reaction time.
In Synergy, the crew foreman was in a tree ten feet away from the climber when the crown came down, and the Board noted that even the most diligent supervisor cannot watch employees every minute of the workday. The second person satisfies (d) by being close enough to hear. Whether that person can reach an injured climber in the canopy is a different readiness question, answered by drill rather than by proximity.
The note to subsection (d) opens one substitution:
A qualified high-voltage electrical worker shall be permitted to be the second employee, provided the employee doing the line clearance tree trimming is a qualified line clearance tree trimmer.
The proviso does real work. A trainee can never be covered by a line worker standing by, because a trainee is already entitled to direct supervision and instruction from a qualified line clearance tree trimmer under subsection (b). The substitution is available only to the fully credentialed trimmer.
There is also a loose thread in the note. Section 2700 defines Qualified Electrical Worker and Qualified Line Clearance Tree Trimmer. It defines no term called "qualified high-voltage electrical worker." Every definition in section 2700 belongs to the High Voltage Electrical Safety Orders, so the intended referent is plainly the Qualified Electrical Worker, a person with a minimum of two years of training and experience with high-voltage circuits and equipment.
A contractor relying on the substitution should document that person against the section 2700 definition and not against the note's wording. Only the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board can fix the text.
Who calls the utility, and what the call is for
The employee in charge of each independent crew shall coordinate the de-energizing and re-energizing of high-voltage lines with the operator of the high-voltage line(s).
Subsection (c) was filed on November 19, 1997 and became operative on December 19, 1997. It is the only sentence in section 2951 that names an individual rather than the employer. The duty attaches to the employee in charge of each independent crew, so a two crew job on one circuit has two people carrying it.
What it requires is coordination in both directions. A foreman on a 12 kV tap who wants the circuit out calls the operator's switching center, takes the clearance, and calls again to release it before anything is re-energized. Cal/OSHA's public Tree Work Safety Guide tells tree workers generally to contact the local utility before work begins. Subsection (c) is narrower and harder: it names a person, and it covers the return of the line to service as well as its removal from service.
The branch already touching the conductor
Branches contacting energized conductors or equipment shall be removed only by using nonconductive equipment.
One sentence, added December 12, 1994, operative January 11, 1995. It reaches the single most common way a trimming job turns into a contact: a limb that is already resting on the primary, which puts the whole limb at line potential.
The federal counterpart is drawn wider and defined tighter. 1910.269(r)(1)(iv) covers branches contacting energized parts and branches merely within the table distances, requires "insulating equipment," and adds a note treating a tool as insulated when the employer can demonstrate the material meets 1910.269(j)(1) and the tool is clean and dry.
California says "nonconductive" and defines nothing. A dirty fiberglass pole pruner is a question the federal note answers and Article 38 does not, and the answer in California comes from the Division on the facts of the inspection. The conservative reading, and the one a contractor can defend, is to hold its tools to the federal test.
Adverse weather, and the two wind numbers
With the exception of emergency restoration procedures, line clearance tree trimming work shall not be performed when adverse weather conditions such as thunderstorms in the immediate vicinity, high winds, snow storms or ice storms, make the work hazardous in spite of the work practices required by this section.
The note attached to subsection (f) is the only place in section 2951 that prints a number:
A high wind is one which would expose an employee to being blown from an elevated location, or cause an employee or material handling equipment to lose control of the material being handled, or expose the employee to other hazards not controlled by the requirements of this section. Winds exceeding 40 miles per hour, or 30 miles per hour if material handling is involved, meet this criteria unless precautions are taken to protect employees from the hazards described herein.
Forty miles per hour for a climber aloft. Thirty when a chipper truck is taking brush, or a crane is setting a log, or a groundman is on a tag line. Those are thresholds rather than ceilings, because the first sentence of the note defines a high wind by its effect, and a 25 mile per hour gust that pulls a butt log out of control has met the definition on its own terms.
The exception at the front of subsection (f) is California's, and it is broad. Emergency restoration procedures are simply carved out of the stop-work rule. The federal paragraph grants no such exception and instead requires that every employee doing storm work be trained in the special hazards of that work.
California wrote neither half of that sentence into section 2951. The California answer to storm work training is the credential in section 2700, which turns on 18 months of training and on-the-job experience, plus the training duty in section 3203(a)(7), which is triggered whenever the employer becomes aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard.
Sprayers, rope, and the five federal rules that did not come across
Subsections (h) and (i) arrived with the 2018 amendment, and both point out of Article 38 for their detail.
Sprayer surfaces must be covered with slip-resistant material, or else the crew uses slip-resistant footwear or handrails and stair rails meeting section 3214, whose railings installed on or after April 3, 1997 stand 34 to 38 inches above the nosing. Equipment employees stand on to spray while the vehicle is moving needs guardrails built to section 3209: 42 to 45 inches high, designed for a live load of 20 pounds per linear foot at the top rail.
Subsection (i) has exactly two rules. Stored rope is coiled and piled or suspended so air circulates through the coils. Rope that is wet, or contaminated enough to impair its insulating capacity, or otherwise not insulated for the voltage involved, stays away from exposed energized lines. Both are electrical rules wearing rope clothing, and both were taken from the federal standard.
The federal standard has seven rope provisions at 1910.269(r)(7). California adopted two. The five left behind are the climbing rope specification of 0.5 inch and 2,300 pounds breaking strength, inspection before each use, storage away from cutting edges and chemicals, securing rope ends against unraveling, and the ban on splicing a climbing rope to repair it. Those are not missing from California law.
They sit in section 3422 of the General Industry Safety Orders. That section sets the climbing line spec at synthetic fiber with a minimum rated tensile strength of 5,000 pounds, which is more than twice the federal figure. It also requires inspection before each use that involves re-rigging, and forbids splicing a climbing line to effect repair. A crew reading only Article 38 will get the electrical half of the rope rule and miss the mechanical half.
The amendment history
Filed | Operative | Register | What changed |
12-10-1987 | 01-09-1988 | 1988, No. 1 | Amendment |
12-12-1994 | 01-11-1995 | 1994, No. 50 | New subsection (e) and its note |
11-19-1997 | 12-19-1997 | 1997, No. 47 | New subsection (c), remaining subsections relettered |
02-27-2018 | 04-01-2018 | 2018, No. 9 | Section heading and subsections (a), (b) and (d) amended; new subsections (g) through (i)(2) |
The 2018 entry is the one a reader is most likely to trip over, because older training material still quotes the previous text. Four things changed on April 1, 2018, and the December 24, 2016 capture of the section shows all four.
The heading read "Line Clearance Operations" and became "Line Clearance (Tree Trimming) Operations." Subsection (a) stopped after the tail gate briefing and gained the two voltage determination sentences. Subsection (d) read "at each work location" and gained "within normal (that is, unassisted) voice communication." And subsection (b) pointed at "the minimum distance specified in Section 2940.2(b) Table 2940.2," which it had to stop doing, because the same rulemaking amended the heading and text of section 2940.2 on the same date and that single table no longer exists.
What section 2951 does not contain
Nine subsections, and all nine are about electricity. Everything else a crew does on the same day is governed somewhere else in Title 8.
Climbing, tie-in, saw handling and felling are in Article 12 of the General Industry Safety Orders. What Article 12 asks of a tree crew applies alongside Article 38, not instead of it.
Chain saw personal protective equipment and traffic control around the work zone each have their own sections.
Who on the crew holds a current first aid and CPR card is set outside Article 38 entirely.
Heat illness prevention under section 3395 and wildfire smoke exposure under section 5141.1 reach a line clearance crew like any other outdoor crew.
The two articles are wired to each other in both directions. Note 2 under Table 1 of section 2950 says additional requirements for tree work, maintenance or removal are in Article 12. Section 3427 carries a note pointing back to Article 38 for line clearance tree trimming operations. Anybody hoping that the credential in section 2951(b) buys an exemption from Article 12 should read the Synergy decision again: the employee was a qualified line clearance tree trimmer, the citation was written under section 3427(a)(3)(A), and it was sustained as serious.
What one day's compliance looks like on paper
Section 2951 imposes no documentation duty of its own. Everything below is generated because the crew needs to be able to show the work happened, and because section 3203(b)(1) sets a one year floor on inspection records.
What 2951 requires | What the record names |
(a) Work location inspection | The date, who inspected, the hazards found, what was done about them |
(a) Tail gate briefing | The date, who led it, who attended, the procedures discussed |
(a) Voltage determination | The circuit, the nominal voltage used, or the statement that all lines were treated as energized at the maximum |
(b) Crew composition | Each person on site, and whether each is a qualified line clearance tree trimmer or a trainee |
(c) Coordination | The employee in charge, the operator contacted, the clearance number, the time out and the time back in |
(d) Second person | Who stood by, at which work location |
(f) Weather call | The wind observed, whether material handling was involved, and the decision |
Each line needs a date, a name and a fact, and no section prescribes a form for any of it. That is what an inspector asks for when the question is whether the operation was set up lawfully before anybody climbed. How a qualification file is built and kept is the practice that holds the crew composition row together over a season.
Further reading
Table 1 of 8 CCR 2950: the minimum approach distance, and who owes it: The other half of Article 38, and the three methods section 2940.2 offers an employer.
Qualified line clearance tree trimmer versus qualified tree worker: The two definitions section 2951(b) turns on, and where each one is filed.
29 CFR 1910.269(r): the three tiers, and what each one may approach: The federal paragraph most of section 2951's 2018 additions were lifted from.
Frequently asked questions
What does Title 8 section 2951 require?
Nine things. An inspection of the work locations and a tail gate briefing before the operation commences, plus a determination of nominal voltage, under subsection (a). A restriction of the work to qualified line clearance tree trimmers and their trainees, under (b). Coordination of de-energizing and re-energizing with the line's operator by the employee in charge of each independent crew, under (c). A second qualified line clearance tree trimmer or trainee within unassisted voice communication, under (d). Removal of contacting branches only with nonconductive equipment, under (e). A stop-work rule for adverse weather, under (f). An approach distance limit for ladders, platforms and aerial devices, under (g). Slip resistance and guardrails on sprayers, under (h). Two rope rules, under (i).
Who is allowed to perform line clearance tree trimming in California?
Section 2951(b) names two categories and no others: qualified line clearance tree trimmers, and trainees under the direct supervision and instruction of qualified line clearance tree trimmers. Both terms are defined in section 2700 of the High Voltage Electrical Safety Orders. Section 2950 lets three other classes of worker approach a conductor under narrow exceptions, and none of those exceptions permits line clearance tree trimming operations as such.
What is the minimum approach distance under section 2951?
Section 2951 prints no distance. Subsection (b) says the minimum approach distances specified in section 2940.2 shall not be violated under any circumstances, and subsection (g) applies the same distances to ladders, platforms and aerial devices. Section 2940.2 gives the employer a choice of methods rather than a single number, and the distances it produces must be corrected for elevations above 3,000 feet.
Does section 2951 require a second person on the ground?
It requires a second qualified line clearance tree trimmer or trainee within normal, unassisted voice communication at each work location, to render immediate assistance, during all tree trimming operations performed under subsection (b). The note to subsection (d) permits a qualified high-voltage electrical worker to fill that role, but only when the person doing the trimming is a qualified line clearance tree trimmer rather than a trainee.
At what wind speed must line clearance tree trimming stop in California?
The note to section 2951(f) sets the test at winds exceeding 40 miles per hour, or 30 miles per hour if material handling is involved, unless precautions are taken to protect employees from the hazards described in the note. Subsection (f) itself excepts emergency restoration procedures from the adverse weather stop-work rule.
