When I first sat down to breeze through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Tree, Shrub, and Other Woody Plant Management - Standard Practices years ago, my initial reaction was how self-evident the requirements were. Before I opened these documents, I was expecting to learn new sage advice about professional practice. But now I know I was approaching the standards all wrong. What I did not understand at the time was, as consensus documents, the "standards" are a documentation of what industry stakeholders can agree upon within the context of the ANSI approval process. The power behind these standards is not from imparting knowledge of yore, but rather, it is an articulation of what is generally acceptable and unacceptable by the industry. When wielded correctly, the standards can be powerful defensive legal weaponry.
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