Arborists on the front page!

[Tom Dunlap]

This morning I met up with some of my buddies from up in Boulder for a tree climb. When we gathered at Jeff's house Fred Berkelhammer was showing us the nice article that was written about his company and tree work in the area.

This article is on Page 1, above the fold, of today's paper...in the business section. I think that is a great place to be positioned to make a point about a professional service.

Fred and his employees do great work keeping the trees healthy.

Congratulations Fred!

Tom

http://tinyurl.com/lkot4

 

[Jamin_Mayer]

Tom. My buddy James Melton was with you today! He trained me with the basics about 4.5 years ago. Great day to climb! /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[guymayor]

""It helps us that we're established here. We have a niche — people who want their trees, including ornamental trees, to be pruned for strength and beauty. We try to position ourselves at or just below what the bigger companies charge."

"I look for educated employees. If we need extra help, I try to find someone I can hire year-round, and I try to match the workload to the number of employees, not the other way around," he says. "I started alone and I want to stay small because it's important in maintaining good customer communication. The disadvantage is that we sometimes get backed up."

Berkelhammer's residential client list, filled with repeat customers and referrals from clients and landscape architects, diminishes the need for a lot of advertising, he says.

"In Denver, the customer just wants to see the shiny truck at their house, but Boulder County clients are educated and motivated to learn about holistic tree care and the processes we use," he says. "They recognize that pruning is an art form. It's working on a living medium, and the tree responds to everything we do. We get a sense of attachment to trees we work on for years."

A silver-tongued devil who does our profession proud.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

James, Dustin, Fred and Jeff were playing tag. It was really fun to see four excellent climbers playing hard in the tree.

The trees under Fred's care are fortunate.

 

[samwise930]

@Tom Dunlap I was there! I think that was the first big tree I ever climbed. I was ~80 ft up a big cottonwood in Missoula today, I think I must have caught the bug...

(I searched my dad's name on TreeBuzz, that's how I found this thread)

 

[Tom Dunlap]

@samwise

So you would have been 15 that day?

Pretty cool!

Nice to see youy h

 

[samwise930]

Yep I was 15 and wearing sneakers. I had been working on the ground under James and Jeff and thought that climbing didn't look that hard, and I remember being surprised at how hard it was to body thrust up big sections of cottonwood with no branches to stand on.