Good Oak's Coronavirus Response

UPDATE 3/25/20: Since the Coronavirus issue, and government guidelines around it are changing rapidly, I am updating this post, with the most current information. The original blog post can be found starting below the first image.

Update: 4/15/20: We are resuming landscaping services! See the fourth bullet-point below.

Good Oak to Continue Operations as a Critical Trade

Greetings All,

After careful review of the Safer At Home Order provided by the State of Wisconsin on Tuesday, March 24th, and after discussion with other local small business owners who also provide ecological land management services, Good Oak Ecological Services plans to continue all operations under the following grounds:

• First, the Order deems “pesticide application” as a Critical Trade. That would include the management of invasive plants, such as the garlic mustard control work which we are currently engaged in. It would follow that other non-chemical, pest management techniques, mechanical or manual, would also be allowed.

• Second, “forestry and arborists” are also listed as Critical Trades, these trades are strongly associated with ecological land management. The State has delegated the management of prescribed fires to the Forestry division of the Wisconsin DNR. As such, it would follow that prescribed burning is a practice associated with forestry and therefore can also continue, provided local fire officials are still allowing it.

• Third, we maintain natural areas on public lands, ranging from stormwater management areas to outdoor recreational parks. According to the Order, “Essential Infrastructure shall be construed broadly to avoid any impacts to essential infrastructure, broadly defined.” Therefore it seems reasonable that any management of natural areas on public lands should be deemed essential to prevent ecological degradation.

• According to the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) landscaping is considered "essential" as part of the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce advisory list, listed under Public Works and Infrastructure Support Services.

Managing natural areas and running a small business are always full of uncertainty. The coronavirus has leveled-up the uncertainty we deal with considerably.
 
We appreciate your patience as we have had to take time and effort to adjust our operations to assure that we are operating in a safe and responsible manner during the Covid-19 outbreak. We will continue monitoring the situation to be sure we are practicing within the guidelines of the current, and any future, Emergency Orders. We will be regularly re-evaluating whether continuing operations is both safe for our staff and clients, and responsible for our community. In the mean time, we are following the safety protocols as listed on the following page to ensure safety.

If you are waiting to hear from us, we will be in touch soon! We are, however, now limiting in-person site visits unless absolutely necessary. Furthermore, if you are uncomfortable or unable to continue a project with us at this time, we will respect your decision, so please let me know.

Stay Well,
Frank Hassler
Owner / Chief Ecologist, Good Oak Ecological Services

Good Oak’s Coronavirus Protocols (As of 3/25/20):

1. We are instructing our staff to follow all general CDC guidelines: washing hands, cleaning surfaces, maintaining a distance of 6’-10’, staying home if they feel sick, and project managers are now working from home.
2. We have broken our staff up into two smaller teams of 4-6 individuals. No members of any one team will have any direct contact with any members of the other teams.
3. Members of the same team will be driving to work sites separately, only meeting on worksites and therefore will only interact outdoors where they can maintain a safe distance. A single crew member will be driving, and accessing the interior of the work truck.
4. Only one staff member will be accessing the office portion of our building. Only the two crew members in charge of truck management will be accessing the shop portion of our building. Those two crew members are instructed to coordinate in order to avoid being in the shop at the same time.
5. All shared equipment will be sanitized after each use.
6. Staff will at all times wear gloves appropriate for the task at hand, while working on-site.
7. We are ceasing most in-person site-visits, except when absolutely necessary. In the case that we are going to meet with clients, we will knock on the door when we arrive and then step back to maintain a 6’ to 10’ distance. We will politely refuse any invitation inside. During the outdoor site visit, we will insist that clients maintain a safe distance per CDC guidelines, at all times.

The below was originally posted on 3/20/20:

All Good Oak project managers are working from home. A few staff members will periodically be stopping by the shop for supplies, materials and paperwork, but they will be coordinating among themselves to avoid contact.

I wanted to take a moment to inform you of the steps Good Oak is taking during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Good Oak is continuing operations for the foreseeable future, with many precautions which I will explain below. While we must take steps to ensure the safety of our human community, we feel that the work we do to restore and maintain the health of our natural communities must carry on. This work is both time sensitive and weather dependent. Effective natural area management cannot be postponed.

That said, we are dedicated to being good community members and prioritizing the health and safety of our staff, our loved-ones, and our community. As such, we have decided to make drastic changes to how we operate in order to avoid aiding the spread of this dangerous virus.

• We are instructing our staff to follow the CDC guidelines: washing hands, cleaning surfaces, maintaining a distance of 6’-10’, staying home if they feel sick(!), and project managers are now working from their new home offices.
• But we have gone beyond these basic steps to further isolate our employees. We have broken our staff up into two teams of four to six individuals. No members of any one team will have any direct contact with any members of the other teams. Members of the same team will be driving to work sites separately, only meeting on worksites and therefore will only interact outdoors where they can maintain a safe distance.
• We are reducing travel and in-person contact with clients as much as possible, but we will continue doing site-visits, as needed. If we are going to meet with you during this time, we will knock on your door when we arrive and then step back to maintain a 6’-10’ distance. We will have to politely refuse any invitation inside. If you will be joining us outside during the visit, we request that you always maintain that distance per CDC guidelines.

Through these measures we feel we can maintain operations with minimal risk of spreading Covid-19 among our staff and to those around us, while keeping our staff gainfully employed and continuing to provide our ecological restoration and sustainable landscaping services to our clients. If the time comes, we will be obeying any “shelter in place” or “stay at home” order that is put in place. Let's hope it doesn’t come to that in Wisconsin.

One last note: Times are about to get tough for everyone, but especially for small businesses like Good Oak and our very hard working crew. We know that many people and organizations will not be able to carry on with intended projects, due to their own financial challenges. I’d just like to ask that if you are in a fairly stable financial position, please consider throwing us a bit more work than usual. I am especially worried that our workload will slow down to a critical level come summer and fall.

I started Good Oak in this home office, and it will persevere in this home office. As a bonus, I get a window seat with a nice view!

Take care of yourself. And remember, spring is on its way!


-- Frank