I was born into a timber farming family, so I learned at an early age to appreciate trees. A well managed forest will produce good yields for generations. One winter we planted 20,000 trees on a 300 acre tree farm. From the big woods of Oregon, I moved on to The University of Kansas, where I graduated with a bachelors degree in environmental studies in 1993. The Air Force brought me to the gulf coast in 1994, and I fell in love with the area, but I saw a real lack of fundamentals, education, and integrity in the tree services. I started Backridge Tree Service to offer a real alternative.
My first goal as a consulting arborist is to find the right answer, not the most profitable answer. Many times I am brought in as a second opinion, and we find that the first was a sham to scare the customer into senseless tree removal or over pruning. My second goal is to provide good, solid information to the client that they can use and compare. Thirdly, I work very hard to keep the customer in the process from the initial evaluation through the final product.
Besides the basic skills involved with making a tree inventory, it is of paramount importance for a consultant to recognize potential conflicts between proposed construction and trees being preserved. Communicating with engineers, City planners and architects, early in the planning process is critical. Our goal is to find a way for the property owners to build what they want while still retaining trees in a viable condition. We will not recommend the inappropriate retention of trees.
By our definition, tree preservation excludes the retention of trees that will be damaged to the extent that they become hazardous or defective after construction is complete and unsuspecting people inhabit the spaces around them.