Abstract: Employee #1, a 20-year-old full-time employee of a commercial landscape contractor, was assigned the task of removing a small tree. Employee #1 was 6 or 7 steps up an 8-ft aluminum step ladder. Two other employees held a rope attached to the top of the tree to pull it away from Employee #1. Employee #1 held on to the tree with his left hand and cut the tree with a small Stihl gas engine chainsaw that he held in his right hand. When he stopped cutting the small tree the top came straight down instead of away. The downward motion forced the left arm of Employee #1 down onto the chain blade of the chain saw, partially severing his left forearm. Employee #1 was hospitalized for a fracture of his left forearm with artery and nerve damage.