A Passion for Tropical Arboriculture Leads to True Tree’s Accreditation

True Tree’s services include thinning, structural pruning, storm-related hazard removals and mangrove trimming. Here a climber is working in a banyan tree. All photos courtesy of True Tree Service.

Hearing him speak, no one would doubt Drake Kurlander’s passion for the environment of South Florida and its tropical flora. The co-owner of True Tree Service, LLC, a five-year TCIA member company based in Miami, says he grew up in the area climbing its trees and studying the local ecology, and has seen many changes over the years – many not for the better.

Drake Kurlander

It was while pursuing a degree in environmental studies at Florida International University that he met Ian Wogan, who shares Kurlander’s passion for the environment. “We were doing fun stuff in the on-campus garden and preserve, working with lots of native plant material like mahogany, oaks and slash pine,” says Kurlander. “We were getting ready to graduate, and we thought, ‘What are we going to do now?’ So we decided to go into business together and started Garden of Ian, doing primarily residential gardens. Then we started talking to people (in the tree care business), and realized you could get paid a lot more for climbing trees – something I love and have been doing since kindergarten! So we went the arborist route and renamed the company True Tree Service, LLC, in January 2012.”

Kurlander became an ISA Certified Arborist at age 24, and says Wogan got his Certified Arborist credential shortly after that. Kurlander notes that he also started attending tree-climbing conferences led by ArborMaster’s Ken Palmer and Rip Tompkins, learning about correct climbing gear and safety. “But my theory is, you need to intuitively be able to climb a tree with nothing first, then as an arborist you use the gear.”

Ian Wogan

Eventually, Kurlander got his EHAP certification from TCIA and became a Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) two years ago. Wogan became True Tree’s consulting arborist, and has ISA’s Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ). “Ian has a lot of other skills, he’s just not as passionate about climbing as I am,” Kurlander explains. “He is a Professional Mangrove Trimmer (PMT) for the State of Florida, which is very important. Mangroves are protected and are essential to this area. They are the nurseries for the reefs and they protect the land from storms. Essentially, they are the spawning grounds for the ocean, and we’re seeing too many of them wiped out by condos going up along the coastline.”

Currently, True Tree Service has about 20 full-time employees, according to operations manager William Trebbi. On the residential side – about 75% of their business – they do tree thinning, structural pruning, storm-related hazard removals and, of course, mangrove trimming. On the commercial side, they do tree care, grounds maintenance and water management, and provide
consulting-arborist services for municipalities and commercial projects.

“Our specialty is high-end residential work,” says Kurlander. “We have very demanding clients who expect a high level of service – and believe me, the challenges here in Miami are extreme.”

Trebbi concurs. “We don’t cut corners,” he says. “And furthermore, we’re all about the health of plants and trees. We’ll turn away business if they want something done that’s actually harmful to the trees.”

Kurlander adds with a laugh, “It seems like we’re always cleaning up other guys’ bad cuts.”

When asked what sets True Tree above the competition, Trebbi notes, “Our professional communication – we offer customer service all day, every day.”

Kurlander adds, “People are absolutely shocked when our estimator shows up on time. They’re so used to contractors saying they’ll be there at a certain time and then showing up late or not at all. My estimator tells people, ‘If you can’t trust me to be on time, how are you going to trust me with your trees?’ It’s easy to distinguish yourself in Miami – just be professional!”

True Tree Service’s 20 full-time employees have access to its growing fleet, which includes a crane.

That level of professionalism is what drove Kurlander and Wogan to seek Accreditation. “We wanted a high level of industry presence, and Accreditation seemed like one of the highest levels we could reach for,” says Kurlander. Trebbi adds that the co-owners started gathering information about the process in late 2017, but it wasn’t until late 2019 that things started “steamrolling.” And then came COVID-19.

“We got the PPP loan, and we never slowed down,” says Kurlander. Becoming accredited was back-burnered for a while, he says, while they were slammed with business. In November 2020, Trebbi – whom Kurlander has known since kindergarten – came on board and picked up the Accreditation process where the previous operations manager had left off.

“It’s a lot,” says Trebbi, “and there was a lot of other stuff going on because of COVID. The best way I can explain it is that I definitely got the motor going again.” True Tree Service earned its Accreditation in May of this year.

Accreditation tasks were split up among the team. “Ian did the business plan,” says Trebbi. “It (the process) made us think about our business model in more detail and get focused on having detailed paperwork for it. Drake focused on safety protocols, since that’s what he’s most passionate about. I did a lot of pulling the information together and spearheaded the office manual, and I was the point of contact for TCIA. Then our administrative assistant, Harley Komar, helped with the financials.”

“TCIA made us think of things we hadn’t considered, like having a liability framework and procedures for protecting ourselves if something should happen,” says Kurlander. “Although the safety information was already there, it wasn’t all documented and formatted. TCIA brought to our attention that we needed the paperwork to back up our training.”

Trebbi adds, “Basically they said, ‘Don’t just verbalize it, show us the paperwork.’”

According to Kurlander, in addition to now-documented weekly safety meetings, he is constantly having impromptu safety chats that he calls “huddle breaks” and “chain-of-command” meetings. “We huddle throughout the day, looking for any pitfalls and possible hazards on the job site,” he says. “If anyone sees something, I call a huddle.”

Trebbi, who admits he is not an arborist but is learning a lot, says, “I personally was surprised (during the Accreditation process) by the high scrutiny of safety protocols in this industry. I understand the importance of this even more now.”

Both men feel Accreditation will validate the company’s efforts and provide many benefits to True Tree Service over time. “I mentioned it (Accreditation) to the city inspector I spoke with today, and the hard scrutiny he’d have had for a non-accredited business was gone,” says Kurlander. “It carries weight.”

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