New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 7 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 3A - BOARD OF TREE EXPERTS › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 7:3A-1.3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
"Act" means the Tree Expert and Tree Care Operator Licensing Act, N.J.S.A. 45:15C-11 et seq.
"Advertising" or "advertisement" means the description or presentation of a product or service in some medium or communication to induce the public to support, purchase, or enter into an agreement to utilize tree care services, including, but not limited to, telephone directory listings, letterhead, business cards, pamphlets, flyers, lettering on vehicles, television and radio advertisements, e-mail and internet websites, newspapers, magazines, billboards, signs, telephone for the purpose of solicitation, and any other written, oral, verbal, visual, or other media.
"ANSI" means the American National Standards Institute.
"Applicant" means an individual who has submitted an application to take the examination for licensure.
"Arboriculture" means the art, science, technology, and business of utility, commercial, and municipal tree care.
"Board" or "Board of Tree Experts" means the Board established by the Department pursuant to N.J.S.A. 45:15C-13.
"Branch office" means any location of a business, other than its principal office, that holds its own mailing address and from which the business offers tree care services for hire in the State of New Jersey, including the location of any subsidiary company that is under the same ownership as the principal office.
"Business" means any corporation, company, partnership, firm, sole practitioner or association that either wholly, or in part, holds itself out for hire to perform tree care services in the State of New Jersey.
"Candidate" means an individual who has submitted an application to take the examination for licensure, which has been approved by the Board.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department.
"Contested case" means an adversary proceeding, including any licensing proceeding, in which the legal rights, duties, obligations, privileges, benefits, or other legal relations of specific parties are required by Constitutional right or by statute to be determined by the Board by decisions, determinations, or orders, addressed to them or disposing of their interests, after opportunity for a hearing in the Office of Administrative Law pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:14B-2. The contested case hearing must be designed to result in an adjudication concerning the rights, duties, obligations, privileges, benefits, or other legal relations of specific parties over which there exist disputed questions of fact, law, or disposition relating to past, current, or proposed activities or interests. Contested cases are not informational nor intended to provide a forum for the expression of public sentiment on proposed agency action or broad policy issues affecting entire industries or large, undefined classes of people.
"Continuing education" means professional development activities whose purpose is academic and professional instruction to advance a tree expert or tree care operator's professional knowledge or skill.
"Continuing education credit" means a unit that indicates a quantity of continuing education undertaken by a licensee. One continuing education credit shall be equivalent to one hour of instruction.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.
"Duly authorized representative" means, with respect to the Board of Tree Experts, an individual or company retained by the Board to perform administrative, investigative, or testing functions.
"Employee" means an individual who works full-time or part-time in the service of a person or business entity providing tree care services in New Jersey under an express or implied contract of hire for a specific wage or salary and under which the employer has the right to control the details of work performance.
"Employer" means an individual or business engaged in providing tree care services for hire in the State of New Jersey, which employs the services of others and pays their wages or salaries.
"Examination" or "licensure examination" means an examination to evaluate the knowledge and competence of a candidate to perform as a licensed tree expert or licensed tree care operator.
"Good moral character" means the possession of honesty and truthfulness and a commitment to the canons of professional ethics and standards of conduct set forth at N.J.A.C. 7:3A-8.2(a).
"Good standing with the Board" means that a licensed individual or registered business is current with all required fees and not currently the subject of any disciplinary action by the Board, meaning a currently suspended or revoked license or business registration, and does not have any outstanding penalty payments.
"Ground-based landscape maintenance" means operations that do not involve climbing, the use of aerial lifts, cranes, rope, and rigging operations, or the removal of trees over six inches diameter at breast height.
"License" means a document issued to an individual by the Board of Tree Experts indicating that the Board has determined that the individual is licensed and qualified to perform or supervise the provision, as applicable, of LTE or LTCO services for hire in New Jersey.
"Licensed tree care operator" or "LTCO" means an individual licensed by the Board to provide or supervise the provision of tree care operator services for hire in New Jersey.
"Licensed tree expert" or "LTE" means an individual licensed by the Board to provide or supervise the provision of tree expert services for hire in New Jersey.
"Licensee" means an individual who has been licensed by the Board as a licensed tree expert or licensed tree care operator.
"Model Tree Safety Training Checklist" means a document filed annually with the Board identifying the type of safety training the business provides for its employees.
"NJTC" means a New Jersey tree company.
"Principal office" means the primary location from which a business offering tree care services for hire in the State of New Jersey operates.
"Quarantine" means a restraint upon the activities of persons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of plant disease or pests.
"Registered business" means, for the purpose of this chapter, any business that provides tree care services for hire within the State of New Jersey and is registered with the Board pursuant to this chapter.
"Registration" means a document issued by the Board pursuant to N.J.S.A. 45:15C-11 et seq. which must be obtained by a business as a condition precedent to the business performing tree care services for hire in the State of New Jersey.
"Revocation" means the cancellation or annulment by the Board of an individual's license or a business's registration.
"Suspension" means a temporary termination by the Board of an individual's license or business registration.
"Tree care operator services" means and includes tree pruning, repairing, brush cutting or removal, tree removal, and stump grinding or removal.
"Tree care services" means tree care operator services and tree expert services as established by N.J.S.A. 45:15C-11 et seq.
"Tree expert services" means and includes tree pruning, repairing, brush cutting or removal, tree removal, stump grinding or removal, tree establishment, fertilization, cabling and bracing, lightning protection, consulting, diagnosis, and treatment of tree problems or diseases, tree management during site planning and development, tree assessment and risk management, and application of pesticides or any other form of tree maintenance.