Hi, I’m Devin (he/him), an arborist in Kalamazoo, MI.

I believe the future of our survival lies in the quality of our plants, our water and our soil.

When I fully embraced this truth, it changed my career path and lifestyle entirely. I went from production arboriculture (read: removing trees for money) and toward permaculture- the holistic stewardship of our shared natural inheritance.

Since I was young, trees played an inherent role in my life. From running through the forest with friends, to climbing the scraggly lodgepole pine across the street, their presence shaped my upbringing. I grew up in northwest Montana, skiing, skating and climbing in vast mountain landscapes. I cut my teeth in tree care at age 16 by planting trees with a landscaping crew. In college my work study was groundskeeper and groundie for the campus arborists at the University of Montana in Missoula. Soon after graduating in 2012, I started my career in arboriculture as a tree climber. I attained my Arborist Certification in 2014, and became a Qualified Tree Risk Assessor in 2023. In my more than a decade in the industry, I’ve worked in both the public and private sectors, as a contractor and business owner, performing all aspects of tree care from felling and pruning to cabling and chemical application.

I recently sold my share of Up Tree Care, a company I bootstrapped and ran for three years with a colleague in Montana. I’ve since moved to Michigan with my partner, where I’m now pursuing an ecologically-minded approach to tree health and maintenance. My current focus is on proper selection, planting, pruning and chemical-free retention strategies for tree resiliency in the face of impending fossil-fuel depletion and potential food shortages.