Tree Stand Falls: What the Evidence Says About Staying Attached

Our checkable figures on falls come from a survey of bowhunters, an agency statement, three series of hospital patients and an injury report from a state. Because those sources measure different things, neither adding their counts nor ranking them is valid. They do share an injury pattern and guidance for a routine. In Wisconsin, one hospital series placed two thirds of its spinal fractures in either the thoracic region, meaning the mid-back, or the thoracolumbar junction, where that region joins the lower back. Guidance published by Three state agencies overlaps. Across all three, the recommendations include a safety harness, another name for a fall-arrest system; three contact points; a haul line; and informing someone of your location. Wisconsin also calls for attaching to a lifeline at ground level and carrying a foot strap.

Start with the table before making comparisons. Wisconsin's one quarter comes from bowhunters surveyed about remembered falls and close calls. Minnesota publishes its one in three on an agency webpage without explaining the method; that figure concerns falls resulting in serious injuries. Each hospital row includes patients who arrived at that particular facility. Michigan's rate divides cases at one hospital by the hunter population in the surrounding area. These sources cannot supply a combined estimate of an individual's risk. We therefore leave the counts separate instead of calculating a shared injury rate, and present Michigan's rate solely as the figure reported by its source. The common direction across the rows is that falls happen often enough for every agency to put wearing a safety harness first.

Using the trauma database at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Hamilton's research team searched records covering 1999 to 2013. They identified 117 patients assessed following falls from tree stands. Sixty-five had spinal fractures and ranged in age from 16 to 76. The fractures occurred throughout the spine, spanning the skull's base through the sacrum. Compression fractures and burst fractures in the thoracolumbar region occurred most often.

Twenty-one patients from the group of 65 (32%) sustained one fracture; 44 (68%) had fractures numbering more than one. Twenty-five (38%) required fixation surgery. According to the abstract, neurologic function was lost in 19 patients, including 5 with complete injuries to the spinal cord. There were also 2 deaths, both attributed to cardiopulmonary causes. The researchers recommend wearing safety harnesses and using them correctly. They also report an association between stands at 10 feet or less and a reduced likelihood of injury to the spinal cord. That finding concerns patients at one hospital; the study does not claim that lowering a stand prevents falls. With several fractures present in most patients, the researchers also recommend examining the entire spine whenever a fracture is identified.

A second series of trauma patients, conducted in Rochester in New York, includes 54 patients treated between 2003 and 2011. At 54%, spinal fractures occurred more often than any other injury. Falls averaged 18.2 feet in height and ranged from 4 to 40. For only 13 patients, the records included a reported reason for the fall. Among those patients, broken safety harnesses were recorded for 3 out of 13.

Claims of a sharp nationwide drop in emergency department visits following tree stand falls often attribute that drop to safety standards and fall-arrest systems packaged with new stands. We were unable to connect the claimed figure to federal records. Scripted requests to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's injury webpages were rejected. Our only source for the number was a periodical, so we leave it unpublished.

Neither of the two primary series available for our review shows that improvement. The Rochester researchers concluded that prevention of neurologic injuries had not improved relative to a decade earlier, even though safety had advanced. The abstract from Arkansas reports that tree stand injuries submitted to the state rose by 0.06 per 100,000 licensees from 1993 to 2022, while projectile injuries fell by 0.24. The abstract specifies an overall annual decline in hunting injuries of 0.16 for every 100,000 licensees. It provides no time unit for either of those two changes, however, so we do not describe them as annual rates. The national situation remains unresolved by either series. Arkansas measures reports submitted to a commission, and reporting habits can affect those counts. Rochester represents a single center. Those limits and findings support treating the following routine as necessary, without assuming equipment standards have fixed the problem.

Two statements in the table deserve particular attention. Wisconsin DNR describes the tether's purpose as holding you in your seat rather than catching you following a fall. Minnesota DNR recommends a safety strap that limits the distance you fall to no more than 12 inches. Keeping the tether short limits the drop. The second statement concerns what happens once the safety harness has done its job. Wisconsin warns that suspension trauma can develop in a span shorter than 20 minutes and can cause death. Using a foot strap reduces pressure against the upper legs. The table's phone and planned return time address the situation of a hunter suspended alone whose predicament goes unnoticed.

The fracture graphic uses an abstract describing a single hospital series. Its units are fractures rather than individual patients. The abstract gives the following neurologic counts: 5 complete spinal cord injuries, 5 incomplete spinal cord injuries, 2 central cord syndromes and 8 radiculopathies. Those categories total 20, although the abstract states 19. We use the stated total and report the 5 complete injuries. Our reading of the Arkansas, Michigan and Rochester studies was limited to their abstracts.

The routine table restates guidance on the Minnesota DNR, Wisconsin DNR and Virginia DWR webpages as viewed on 2026-09-29. Their content can change and does not replace a safety course. Follow the manufacturer's directions for your stand and safety harness first. Our scripts received 403 responses from CPSC injury-data webpages; a browser query was not attempted. Our search found no injury or safety metric within the 604 metric names in a single FDR table or within the FDR data catalog's 35 tables; we left other FDR stores unsearched. As a result, the chart shown here uses a published study.

Use "connected from the ground to the seat and back" as your rule, checking that connection each time you climb. While still standing on the ground, put on your safety harness and attach it to a lifeline. Maintain three contact points. Use a haul line to raise and lower your pack and an unloaded bow or gun, then use a short tether while seated. Bring a foot strap and phone. Let someone know your destination and expected return time. Minnesota DNR advises keeping the platform below 10 feet. The Wisconsin hospital study also found that stands at 10 feet or less were associated with a reduced likelihood of injury to the spinal cord. After a safety harness arrests a fall, replace it. Avoid climbing if you feel tired or sick, or if you are taking medication. Be extra careful with rain, snow and ice.

The state agency webpages identified in the table supply all of those items except the hospital study's association involving stand height. To plan stand locations and routes into them on a map, our food plot layout guide uses an actual parcel to explain the process.