It’s still early removal season here in the UP and this black cottonwood was a prefect size job for a two man crew. One tool that we use a lot that was well suited for the rigging on this job was the NOTCH SafeBloc. This is a negative rigging device that allows the groundmen to pass the load to the climber in the tree once the rig has come to a stop and for the duration of the lowering. We had a decent amount of space to free fall most of the tree but rigging can also help guide the work towards the drop zone and away from hazards. We were fairly close to the building and our chipper was parked close to minimize the drag. All in all the safe block made this two man job far more efficient and helped keep the workload on the climber and groundman minimal all while improving the security of the tree work environment.