Botanical gardens · Illinois
The Morton Arboretum
Lisle, IL · ~377 workers · 7 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.
- D
- Poor Safety Record
- 5.1
- Avg TCR
- 3.1
- Industry avg
- 0
- Fatalities
The verdict
The Morton Arboretum runs at 165% of its industry's injury rate - more dangerous than the typical Botanical gardens workplace, earning a grade D.
- D
- Poor Safety Record
- 5.1
- avg TCR · per 100 workers
- 3.1
- industry benchmark (BLS)
- 63
- recordable injuries tracked
Grade compares The Morton Arboretum's OSHA Total Case Rate to the BLS industry benchmark across 7 years of Form 300A filings (2016–2024). This reflects reported recordable injuries, not an independent safety inspection -- underreporting is a known limitation of employer self-recordkeeping.
Injury rate over time
The Morton Arboretum's yearly Total Case Rate, against the 3.1 industry benchmark.
Where The Morton Arboretum falls in its industry
177 Botanical gardens establishmentsSafer than 63% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 6.3.
Narrower to Illinois alone (the establishments it most directly competes with for workers and contracts): ranked #3 safest of 6 Botanical gardens employers in Illinois.
The Morton Arboretum has an average TCR of 5.1, which is 165% of the industry average (3.1) for Botanical gardens. This is worse than average.
The letter grade is a transparent derived index PlainSafetyScore computes from public OSHA ITA and BLS benchmark data, not an official OSHA rating or safety certification. Full formula and thresholds: Methodology.
Trend analysis for The Morton Arboretum
Between 2016 and 2024, The Morton Arboretum's Total Case Rate improved from 6.0 to 4.8 recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers, a 20% decrease across 8 years of OSHA reporting.
The safest year on record was 2019, at a TCR of 2.5, while 2021 saw the highest rate, at 8.2, a spread of 5.7 points between the best and worst reporting years. That's a wide swing relative to the establishment's overall rate, worth checking the year-by-year table below for whether a single severe year is driving the average, rather than a sustained trend.
Summed across those 7 reporting years, The Morton Arboretum recorded 63 total injuries and illnesses, with no fatalities reported in any of those years. Readers comparing establishments should weigh the 7-year trend above alongside establishment size, since a larger workforce naturally accumulates more raw incidents even at a lower per-100-worker rate.
Verify This Employer with OSHA
All injury, illness, and fatality figures on this page are sourced from The Morton Arboretum's own mandatory OSHA Form 300A summaries. Cross-check the underlying establishment record directly against the federal source, name, NAICS classification, recordable case totals, and inspection history are all searchable on OSHA's Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data system.
Verify on OSHA Establishment SearchSource: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data. NAICS 712130 - Botanical gardens.
DART Rate, Transparent Calculation (2024)
DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) is computed by OSHA as incidents × 200,000 ÷ hours worked. The 200,000-hour denominator equals roughly 100 full-time workers, which lets establishments of very different sizes be compared directly.
8 DART incidents × 200,000 ÷ 621,624 hours worked = 2.57 DART
Methodology: 29 CFR 1904, OSHA Form 300A recordkeeping
Cross-Validating Context, Establishment vs Industry vs State
| Benchmark | TCR | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The Morton Arboretum (this establishment) | 5.12 | OSHA ITA Form 300A, 7-year avg |
| Zoos industry avg | 3.10 | BLS IIF, NAICS 712130 |
| Illinois state avg (all industries) | 4.73 | OSHA ITA, state-level rollup |
Industry benchmarks: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) program
Reportable Incident Timeline
Year-by-year reportable incidents (recordable injuries + illnesses + fatalities) submitted by The Morton Arboretum to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application. Each row anchors to OSHA's inspection records search where you can pull the underlying inspection case numbers and citations for that establishment-year.
- 2024: 15 reportable incidents · 10 injuries, 5 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2023: 12 reportable incidents · 9 injuries, 3 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2022: 15 reportable incidents · 11 injuries, 4 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2021: 17 reportable incidents · 13 injuries, 4 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2019: 6 reportable incidents · 4 injuries, 2 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2018: 13 reportable incidents · 9 injuries, 4 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2016: 14 reportable incidents · 7 injuries, 7 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
Source: OSHA Inspection Information System (IMIS) - inspection case-number records
Year-by-Year Safety Data
| Year | TCR | DART | Injuries | Illnesses | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4.8 | 2.6 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
| 2023 | 3.9 | 2.6 | 9 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | 5.1 | 2.7 | 11 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021 | 8.2 | 4.3 | 13 | 4 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| 2018 | 5.3 | 2.5 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| 2016 | 6.0 | 2.1 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
What this grade means for you
Use this grade as a relative read on The Morton Arboretum's reported OSHA injury record versus its Botanical gardens peers, not a verdict on whether any single site is safe today.
- At 165% of the Botanical gardens benchmark, The Morton Arboretum reports more injuries than typical peers, ask specifically how the employer is reducing them. Know your rights
- Judge this record against the wider Botanical gardens sector, where injury rates vary widely, before comparing it in isolation. See the industry
- Grades reflect 2016–2024 filings; check the latest establishment record straight from OSHA, or look up a different employer. Look up another
Safety grades reflect employers' self-reported OSHA Form 300A filings from 2016 to 2024 and can lag current conditions. A grade is not a guarantee that any specific workplace is safe or unsafe today. See our methodology and disclaimer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Morton Arboretum's safety grade?
How many injuries has The Morton Arboretum reported?
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Every figure and grade on PlainSafetyScore is computed directly from OSHA's published Injury Tracking Application data and BLS industry benchmarks, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these safety grades, or report a data error. Data current as of 2016-2024 OSHA ITA release.