Being a tree care contractor is not always easy, but for Bud Clark, that’s part of the appeal.
“Every job, every day presents a different challenge for us,” says Clark, owner of Canopy Tree Specialists, which works in the suburbs north of Chicago. “It keeps it interesting and, of course, being outside and not stuck in a cubicle is a bonus.”
One job that stands out was the removal of 550 diseased or hazardous trees on an 11-acre (4.5 ha) site last year. The land was to be reopened as a park with a trail and green space.
“We’re very proud of that,” Clark says. “We’re in the area of the North Shore that’s fairly wealthy and upscale, and clients expect high-quality work out of us.”
Clark started his own tree service in 2004 and has been working in northern Chicago since 2008, and he credits his success to building relationships while smartly and steadily growing his business.
“I treat all of my clients like they’re my friends,” he says.
Clark is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) certified arborist, and Canopy Tree Specialists’ focus traditionally has been on trimming and preservation. Over the past two years, however, about 75 percent of its work has involved removing ash trees due to the destruction caused by the emerald ash borer. About 500 of the trees on that large job last year were ash. This past June they removed 37 ash trees in one day.
Canopy Tree Specialists handles this large volume of work with one four-person crew that includes Clark and a fleet with a 20-yard (18.3 m) chip truck, a 14.5-ton (13.2 T) crane, a brush chipper, a stump grinder and a mini skid steer. Those last three are Vermeer products, and Clark says they help make his company more productive, efficient and safe.
For example, the crew uses its Vermeer mini skid steer to move branches, limbs and trunks around to work faster, save manpower and reduce the risk of lifting injuries.
“What we do is hard enough already,” Clark says. “If we can avoid the pitfalls of our bodies, I think it’s a good workplace enhancement. The guys are happier. They perform better.”
With all of the ash tree removals, Clark turned to the Vermeer SC60TX stump cutter to, in his words, “stay competitive and efficient.”
“It allows you to finish whatever size stump you’re grinding in literally a third of the time, if not faster,” he says.
Clark says in his work, “efficiency helps make money,” and his Vermeer equipment makes him and his team more efficient. He goes so far as to say his equipment has never let him down. The same goes for the people at the Vermeer manufacturing facility and his local dealer, Vermeer Midwest.
“We’re a small company, but I know everybody at Vermeer Midwest by name,” Clark says. “I still find it amazing, but they treat me like a bigger company than I am.”