Apply tar or other protective substances to cut surfaces or seal surfaces and to protect them from fungi and insects.

“Apply tar or other protective substances to cut surfaces or seal surfaces and to protect them from fungi and insects.” is a supplemental task performed by Tree Trimmers and Pruners. Among the occupation's 26 rated tasks, workers place it 5th by importance (#22 most important). About 35% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Apply protective solutions or coatings. in Handling and Moving Objects

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines. · importance 4.4
• Operate boom trucks, loaders, stump chippers, brush chippers, tractors, power saws, trucks, sprayers, and other equipment and tools. · importance 4.4
• Clean, sharpen, and lubricate tools and equipment. · importance 4.3
• Cut away dead and excess branches from trees, or clear branches around power lines, using climbing equipment or buckets of extended truck booms, or chainsaws, hooks, handsaws, shears, and clippers. · importance 4.3
• Hoist tools and equipment to tree trimmers, and lower branches with ropes or block and tackle. · importance 4.3
• Climb trees, using climbing hooks and belts, or climb ladders to gain access to work areas. · importance 4.1
• Supervise others engaged in tree trimming work and train lower-level employees. · importance 4.1
• Trim, top, and reshape trees to achieve attractive shapes or to remove low-hanging branches. · importance 4.1
• Plan and develop budgets for tree work, and estimate the monetary value of trees. · importance 4.1
• Load debris and refuse onto trucks and haul it away for disposal. · importance 4.0
• Inspect trees to determine if they have diseases or pest problems. · importance 4.0
• Prune, cut down, fertilize, and spray trees as directed by tree surgeons. · importance 4.0
• Provide information to the public regarding trees, such as advice on tree care. · importance 3.9
• Trim jagged stumps, using saws or pruning shears. · importance 3.9

See all tasks on the Tree Trimmers and Pruners page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-13133,
  title  = {Apply tar or other protective substances to cut surfaces or seal surfaces and to protect them from fungi and insects.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-13133}
}