Q&A
Staffing challenges in the Forestry Division and recruitment efforts
1:04:09
ยท
117 sec
Assistant Commissioner Osborne discusses the staffing challenges faced by the Forestry Division and the efforts to recruit and train new personnel.
- The pandemic created staffing challenges across many industries, including the Parks Department.
- Key titles for forestry work include climber and pruner, and forester.
- To address shortages, the department developed a 15-month in-house training program.
- The first class of 17 graduates completed the program in October, with a second cohort starting in November.
Nantasha M. Williams
1:04:09
I had a conversation maybe about a year and a half ago with someone from the Forestry Division about the fact that, the staffing has not achieved, like, I guess, pre pandemic levels.
1:04:23
So can you just talk a little bit about the staffing in the Forestry Division?
1:04:26
I know it's very difficult to also, like, recruit people because it's New York City.
1:04:31
So who actually, like, is an arborist and can actually work on trees?
1:04:35
But if you can just talk a little bit about the staffing and the shortages.
Ben Osborne
1:04:38
Sure.
1:04:39
Yeah.
1:04:39
So, you know, as as you mentioned, you know, the the pandemic created challenges for for staffing everywhere, and, hiring has been a a problem across many industries.
1:04:50
You know, the 2 key titles, that that we employ, for forestry work are climber and pruner and forester.
1:04:58
And, we have, experienced climber and pruner shortages, difficulty in recruiting climbers and pruners for several years.
1:05:08
And, to respond to that, we developed an in house training program.
1:05:14
We have a 15 month long training program, where we train existing park staff from other titles, city park worker, gardener, associate park service worker, and some other titles, to become climbers and pruners.
1:05:27
And, we graduated the 1st class of that program this past October.
1:05:32
I believe we have 17, graduates of that program who are now climbers and pruners adding to our our workforce across the city.
1:05:39
And we started the second, cohort of that class, just a few weeks later this past November.
1:05:44
So, you know, come, you know, a little over a year from now, we'll have another, you know, dozen and a half or so, to add to the workforce.
1:05:51
So that's that's a a big investment, but an important one in in bringing this, bringing bringing additional, personnel into this really, technical, job that requires, you know, specialized training.