On opting out of NA-TCC: incidents, accidents, measles and mutual aid

Graphic by N.O. Bonzo. (@nobonzo).

At the time of writing, there’s a growing, undercounted measles outbreak in west Texas, New Mexico, and now Oklahoma. Although mostly located in different counties than the site of the 2025 North American Tree Climbing Championship (NA-TCC) that’s scheduled to be held in less than two weeks, there’ve been  exposures in San Antonio and New Braunfels, the site of the event itself. It has been a very, very hard decision, but I’ve decided to skip NA-TCC because of this, despite being registered and having flights and lodging already booked. Together with the ITCC in 2022, this will be the second TCC I’ve qualified for that I’ve skipped due to infectious disease (that time, COVID-19), and I have lots of Thoughts and Feelings about all of it.

In arboriculture we have this concept of incidents versus accidents. Broadly speaking, an incident is preventable with reasonable precautions an accident is not. A measles outbreak, in 2025, is very much an incident. I was hopeful that I could still attend NA-TCC by confirming my levels of IGG antibodies, but unfortunately, secondary vaccine failure (SVF) with measles is very much a thing. And when it comes down to it, I’m simply unwilling to run the risk, however small, of myself or my family contracting or spreading measles for a recreational event, even one I really, really enjoy and was very, very excited to attend.

Graphic by Wendy Anderson

After all, we’re in the tree care industry. Theoretically, we care for trees. We care for people. Trees are not disposable, and neither are people. We value the old, the young, the immunocompromised, the disabled, and the "unhealthy".  I believe our actions and our industry need to be grounded in care. Even in the face of public abandonment of the precautionary principle, a trend that became very obvious with the response (or lack thereof) to COVID-19, even in the face of a defunding and dismissal of the entire concept of public health, we need to have the integrity to value life and quality of life. I was trained to Lysol my handsaw and snips in between pruning different branches of Rosaceous trees where fireblight spread could be an issue; I’ll be damned if I contribute in any way to the spread of infectious disease between people in a situation where it could be avoided.  

As I see it, if the risks are collective, the rewards better be collective. If the costs are collective, the benefits better be collective. If the reward is personal and the risks are collective, that is not the world I want to live in. That is not an ethic of care, and we are trying to build a business of care. I’m not willing to go play games that could indirectly cost the life of a stranger or result in a hospital stay for a baby in my community, even if they’re fun games for me personally.  If the games are going to be fun, they cannot cause harm, directly or indirectly. Any other course of action would be perpetuating the sequence of events that got us into a preventable measles outbreak in the year 2025.

“Oh you’re just afraid”. No. I feel pressure to have as close to 0% chance of spreading disease as possible in no small part because I’m not particularly afraid for myself personally. I’m currently able-bodied, in the prime of life, doubly vaccinated, serologically immune, with great access to healthcare. Mostly so is my family (the baby is vaccinated once, early, because we had hoped to be in a different position right now). I’m not the one likely to bear the greatest costs of this outbreak, which is exactly why I feel a responsibility to avoid furthering it. Also? Even if I was afraid? Some level of fear helps keep us safe, personally and collectively.  I’m not going to stress out some healthcare worker busy managing measles by showing up with a sprained ankle from a TCC. Fuck that. No way. Safety first.

This is a position paper. I'm not here to argue with anyone about this. We're rallying a coalition. Me & my friends will be out here building an arboriculture built on moral principles and science, an arboriculture that is unapologetically intellectual and inclusive. We’ll have fun and play games at times and locations that are as safe as possible, for everyone. We reshape the physical world every day with our saws, and will also reshape it with our praxis. Onwards and upwards. Solidarity is the floor.

Graphic by the Olympia Commune.