Career Change to Arboriculture: Reality vs Romanticism

Matt, I hope you enjoyed the conference!

Anyone wanting to switch from office work to tree work: Don't quit your day job! It's a self-defeating mindset in this industry when arbs say "Pruning is for people not for trees." Every tree I consult on and specify care for needs, and gets, some structural pruning. Not for gutter health, but to keep the tree from failing.
 
Never give up on a dream of doing something you find rewarding.
I went to Purdue in 1981 and spent five years there and ended with a Bachelors Degree in Forestry. I took a job selling cabinets out of college. Stayed in sales for the next couple of years. Got married. And after taking care of my first born daughter for the first two years (My wife was also the bread winner), my wife said I need to get out of the house because I was losing my marbles. Sitting at the dinner table reading the job wanted section I saw a city next to ours was hiring police officers. What a cool thing I thought. So I applied and was hired as a Police Officer in Gary, Indiana. (You can checck out Gary on your own). Three years ago I decided I wanted to get out of law enforcement and Gary as it was not getting any better and NObama has put a target on our backs. I decided to pursue my first love of trees.
I pulled out and dusted off my old books, did some research and decided to start my own tree service. Most of the tree services in my area have no Arborist on staff or anyone with a degree in Forestry. Plus they pretty much all rely on a bucket truck. Without it they can't do a job. So I saw a niche I could fill. Use all traditional techniques, i.e. climbing, rigging and removal using ropes, blocks and all hand equipment. The climbing part was a bit of learning, however I have done lots of rock climbing in canyons of Colorado and was a rapel instructor for our SWAT team, so it was a matter of learnign new tecchniques and new equipment. I chose not to buy a chipper and truck (too much debt). I rent a chipper when needed for the brush pile I create on my property then sell the mulch. Good grade logs go to another pile that I am slowly milling up for live edge shelving and tables. I have a nice woodshop to work in over the winter. The demand is high for such items. The rest of the wood goes to firewood for me to heat my loghome with.
I am on year three and am a Certified Arborist and licensed pesticide applicator. I have gotten educated and certified for injection treatments. If I am not totally sure of a diagnosis I use Purdue to confirm. I bought a small Kubota tractor to move large material, other than that we do it all by hand. I have several workers and usually take a crew of tree or four men depending on the job at hand. We may not work as fast as a bucket truck but our margin is much better as we are not trying to pay down debt.
I am 54 years old. I climb and cut on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I do assessments and estimates, gear maintenance, treatments and other things to take care of business side. I am doing well and have business pretty much booked through the middle of November for now. By then I will retreat indoors to work in the woodshop to create live edge products to sell during the winter.
I am very happy with my decision and am enjoying every moment of it. I plan on doing this for the next 6 years at least.
Never give up on a dream.
 
Hey guys I did not read the whole thread but has anyone mentioned the pay cut yet?
I had worked as an auto mechanic and recently have been doing some gym equipment repair as a kind of retirement gig. I also did some IT work in my past. I was myself regretting being too old to do tree work for a living until I saw the wages that even highly skilled employees are getting, to me its absolutely shocking how low they are particularly considering the risk involved. But as long as the Assplundering type companies continue to hire illegals the wage will be continue to be low (IMHO).

I just saw his post on the previous page. Glad its been brought up and I hope for all you hard working people the industry changes so that you are properly compensated for your skill, knowledge, risk and the hard work you do on a daily basis.
 
I believe the reason for low wages is because companies spend way too much capital buying big equipment and then trying to fight the debt monster and never get ahead. Because I chose not to go into debt I don't have to deprive my workers to stave off the debt monster. I pay $20/hour for ground crew, $25/hour to foreman/rigger and bill my time for anything from $45 to $60/hour depending on the complexity of the work.
 
Thanks for the great post waross... very inspiring! Glad to hear you found a good niche for yourself, and that you pay your people well!

New2trees, I totally agree about the pay. I don't have any exact numbers for wages in my area (Seattle / central Puget Sound), but when I see groundsman jobs openings posted, it's typically about $15 to $17 per hour ($15 an hour is the legal minimum wage in Seattle at the moment). So I assume a climber with a few years experience will make around $20 to $25 an hour (but that's just a guess on my part). That is absolutely NOT a livable wage in a city like Seattle. The cost of living here is sky-rocketing (most likely due to our ridiculous real estate prices). Honestly, I don't know how people are getting by on anything less than $25 an hour.
 
waross said:
I believe the reason for low wages is because companies spend way too much capital buying big equipment and then trying to fight the debt monster and never get ahead. Because I chose not to go into debt I don't have to deprive my workers to stave off the debt monster. I pay $20/hour for ground crew, $25/hour to foreman/rigger and bill my time for anything from $45 to $60/hour depending on the complexity of the work.
Click to expand...

Man, your groundies make better money than climbers at 3/4 of the companies around here.
The issue that we've been having is similar to what you addressed. The boss tried to scale up about 5 years ago and decided to change directions around the time I was hired. We spent the last 3 years catching up with the debt and maintaining what we are using. That's a sizeable chunk of a career to not really be moving forward, but rather back to the beginning (with a conservative pile of reasonable amenities, of course).
The equipment also costs as much here as anywhere, but the amount that people will pay for the work is drastically lower in Arkansas than other parts of the country.

jesselangdon said:
Thanks for the great post waross... very inspiring! Glad to hear you found a good niche for yourself, and that you pay your people well!

New2trees, I totally agree about the pay. I don't have any exact numbers for wages in my area (Seattle / central Puget Sound), but when I see groundsman jobs openings posted, it's typically about $15 to $17 per hour ($15 an hour is the legal minimum wage in Seattle at the moment). So I assume a climber with a few years experience will make around $20 to $25 an hour (but that's just a guess on my part). That is absolutely NOT a livable wage in a city like Seattle. The cost of living here is sky-rocketing (most likely due to our ridiculous real estate prices). Honestly, I don't know how people are getting by on anything less than $25 an hour.
Click to expand...

Wow.
That's pretty incredible.
 
Good to read you posting. Above your forum name and each posters name is the date of that post. If it's been awhile and you really would like to address that person write - or whomever.

It's easy to quit, easy to give up, and if one wants to feel good about it there is a plethora of experts one can pay to tell them they should quit.

I finally succumbed to and bought into what chiropractors and doctors had told me for years - get another profession. Then after years in another business I started to develop similar muscle problems.

I was forced to look at me as more of the problem. I found answers, at first it took me 45 to 90 minutes per day to be pain free. I spent far more days not doing my solution than doing it.

Now, thankfully I have a better solution and only need to spend 8 to 10 minutes per day to be pain free. I only miss one day every couple of months.

By the way, I currently have an engineer talking to me and hoping I will take him on to teach him climbing as a vocation. I guess there are all kinds of directions to go and reasons to go there.
 
Merle Nelson said:
Good to read you posting. Above your forum name and each posters name is the date of that post. If it's been awhile and you really would like to address that person write - or whomever.

It's easy to quit, easy to give up, and if one wants to feel good about it there is a plethora of experts one can pay to tell them they should quit.

I finally succumbed to and bought into what chiropractors and doctors had told me for years - get another profession. Then after years in another business I started to develop similar muscle problems.

I was forced to look at me as more of the problem. I found answers, at first it took me 45 to 90 minutes per day to be pain free. I spent far more days not doing my solution than doing it.

Now, thankfully I have a better solution and only need to spend 8 to 10 minutes per day to be pain free. I only miss one day every couple of months.

By the way, I currently have an engineer talking to me and hoping I will take him on to teach him climbing as a vocation. I guess there are all kinds of directions to go and reasons to go there.
Click to expand...
Its amazing what physical condition our bodies can overcome with time and the correct routine! Surgery,setting idle, and drugs all too often are the beginning of the end of mobility
 
SomethingWitty said:
Man, your groundies make better money than climbers at 3/4 of the companies around here.
The issue that we've been having is similar to what you addressed. The boss tried to scale up about 5 years ago and decided to change directions around the time I was hired. We spent the last 3 years catching up with the debt and maintaining what we are using. That's a sizeable chunk of a career to not really be moving forward, but rather back to the beginning (with a conservative pile of reasonable amenities, of course).
The equipment also costs as much here as anywhere, but the amount that people will pay for the work is drastically lower in Arkansas than other parts of the country.



Wow.
That's pretty incredible.
Click to expand...
I am amazed at how much my position has changed over the last few years. This thread getting bumped is the only reason I am currently aware of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Kask Stihl NORTHEASTERN Arborists Wesspur TreeStuff.com Teufelberger Westminster X-Rigging Teufelberger
Back
Top Bottom