Bio
As a child growing up in Harlem and the Bronx in New York City, I was drawn to the outdoors and nature. My head nearly exploded the day I discovered bonsai. I quickly became fanatical about pursuing this craft which creates a scene from the natural world, featuring a tree. On my own at first, I studied and researched the process of pruning to form a tree canopy--one that exhibits a sense of movement and attitude. Like a dancer's fluid motions captured in time by a photograph.
I went on to make plants my career and pursued horticulture at the prestigious New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). After a few years my focus transitioned from bonsai to caring for landscape trees and shrubs. Unlike most of the people who climb and care for trees, I was fortunate enough to be able to cultivate my tree care and climbing skills in a non-production environment. This afforded me the luxury of experimenting with different procedures and techniques that entail a long learning curve that just couldn't be tolerated in a high stress, production situation. over the remainder of my ten years at the garden, I attended professional classes, seminars, conferences and workshops covering all aspects of tree care maintenance and climbing.
I've always considered myself very lucky to have learned in a professional environment where doing the technically correct procedure -- not necessarily the quickest or cheapest, was the rule.
In 1993 I received arborist certification from the International Society of Arboriculture and in 1996 won the New York State Tree Climbing Competition.
In 1997, after ten years, I left NYBG to pursue a long-held dream to own and operate a different kind of small tree and shrub care company -- one that doesn't sacrifice quality tree and shrub care as large companies often must to meet production quotas. I've too often observe the results of what I call the "fast food version of tree care" -- when a large company has overwhelming overhead and responsibility dispersed over too many employees -- jobs are often rushed, employees are rarely educated -- all at the expense of your trees' and shrubs' health, sometimes your safety, and always your wallet!