The Safe Arborist Techniques Fund (SATF) is a joint program of Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE Fund) and International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), established in 2015 to support research and development into the techniques and equipment that arborists use in climbing, rigging, and working on trees, and the means of identifying potential hazards, to provide a safer working environment. Grant-funded projects are expected to be completed within two years of initial fund disbursement. The maximum award value of SATF grants is $15,000.
2025 SATF grants must support useful inquiry into the areas of worker safety and/or biomechanics, to include investigation into tree failure mechanisms and causes, and offsetting practices and techniques to protect workers, residents and property. Sample topics (not all-inclusive) could include:
- Decay assessment/spread;
- Inoculating trees with root decay;
- Response growth;
- Mechanical pruning;
- Lightning protection;
- Support systems, cabling, etc.;
- Machine-aided climbing;
- Biomechanics;
- Etc.
TREE Fund welcomes research proposals and applications from a wide range of academic and technical disciplines, of both a qualitative and a quantitative nature. TREE Fund does not fund the following types of projects, and will not accept applications for such work:
- Grants to individuals;
- Projects that are primarily municipal tree surveys or assessments;
- Tree planting programs;
- Studies focused on traditional forestry and timber production, agroforestry, and ecology and conservation of forested and other natural areas,
- Product testing primarily for the benefit of the company that manufactures the product.
APPLICATION PROCESS
| Grant Cycle Open: | August 1, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Last Day to Request Letter of Intent: | September 15, 2025 |
| Grant Application Due: | October 1, 2025 |
| Announcement of Grant Recipient: | Late December, 2025 |
TREE Fund will accept completed applications only between August 1 and October 1, 2025. To apply, fill out an application on our online portal – by clicking here.
Letters of Intent (LOI) need to be completed before September 15, 2025. Your LOI must clearly identify the Principal Investigator and Institution who will be contracted for the work should your application be approved.
TREE Fund will evaluate whether your LOI concept meets all of our application criteria and is deemed to have a reasonable possibility of success given the year’s research priorities. If and only if your LOI is approved, TREE Fund will send you a notification and open the application to you. TREE Fund determinations on whether an LOI meets the application criteria are final and not negotiable.
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Application Requirements can be found here.
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
It is TREE Fund’s explicit desire that research findings eventually be freely and widely available to any and all parties who may benefit from the author’s work. At the same time, TREE Fund recognizes the importance of academic and professional journal publications and will work with grant recipients to ensure that findings are disseminated in a manner that is cognizant of all parties’ schedules and needs. Recipients should inform TREE Fund when funded research findings are published or presented at conferences so that these accomplishments can be widely publicized. Recipients should also recognize the support provided by TREE Fund in their articles or presentations related to the funded project. Recipients are strongly encouraged to publish findings to relevant professional journals, i.e. Arboriculture and Urban Forestry, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Arboricultural Journal, Trees: Structure and Function, Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology, Plant Pathology, Hortscience, Horticultural Science, Sustainable Development, Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal of Urban Health, Environment and Urbanization, Urban Ecosystems, etc.
Past Safe Arborist Techniques Fund Grant Awards
2023 was awarded to Lawrence Kahn with Tulane Law School Utility Vegetation Management Institute on project, “Can Mandatory Minimum Clearance Requirements Between Trees and Powerlines Successfully Reduce Injuries and Death to Workers and the Public?”
2022 was awarded to Dr. John Ball with South Dakota State University on project, “Evaluation of Efficiencies Among Climbing Systems and Rope Diameters.”
2019 was awarded to Matt Follett with Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) on project, “Evaluation of load distribution in removal operations: a comparison of techniques and equipment.” Matt presented a TREE Fund Webinar in March 2024. See Research Report Here