They grabbed their safety helmets – personalized with their names on the sides – and equipped themselves with sunglasses, earplugs, and a water bottle. The last step in their process before heading out to work on their lab was to spray themselves with insect repellant.

It’s especially important this time of year since one student found a tick in his wallet after class.

Utility arborists are workers who specialize in removing trees and other kinds of vegetation from power lines. Any plant life that interferes with a power line can be dangerous, so they need special training to handle these removals.

Patrick Belanger, one of the three students, said he starts the utility tech program in the fall.

News Photo by Michael Gonzalez Students throw dismembered tree branches into the school wood chipper as a part of their class.

“I got a letter in the mail talking about this [program],” he said. “So, there’s one morning, I gave Walt a call… And then a little bit later, me and my parents came over here and met Walt, and signed up.”

Walt Wiltse, director of utility line clearance, oversees the program. He works with Thunder Bay Tree Service, but teaches these students to help them understand how to properly work in their field.

Once everyone’s geared up, Wiltse got a truck ready to hitch a woodchipper behind. The students hitched it themselves and walked down the street to get into their lab: a vegetated field with trees caught between two utility poles with a dead power line in the middle.

ACC built this program with the mindset that students should experience a realistic simulation of what their work looks like. To give students that feeling, the college gained a grant through Michigan Works, called MI-LEAP.

“If a live power line touches that tree, you’ll get an electrical shock if you touch the tree, possibly killing you, or getting severe injuries,” Wiltse said. “Anybody could go to work in this industry, but they’re gonna start out at a lower pay scale. We’re gonna give you the credentials to be able to climb the tree, work around the power lines, then you’ll acquire a CDL and a pesticide license, which is mandatory to have to go to work for this company. They’ll hire you without them, but you’ll have to get them.”

News Photo by Michael Gonzalez Ryan Skowronek is sprayed down with insect repellant by Chance Wheaton to ward off ticks on June 23.

The class also gives certifications for CPR and First Aid training to these students in eight weeks.

With the grant funds and a large campus, the college was able to plant large utility poles in areas that would provide a probable scenario in their line of work — such as the two poles with trees in between.

ACC plans to keep the program going with a fall semester class open for students. This time, the class will be 16 weeks.

“Walt is an absolute cornucopia of knowledge,” Chance Wheaton, another student said. “Not only is he teaching about the (arborist) industry, but he’s opened my eyes to a lot of other aspects and just in life, in general, too. The trades are alive again.”