It’s been said there’s strength in numbers, and that certainly is true in the case of the Bay Area Arborist Cooperative (BAAC). Based in San Francisco, California, BAAC is a 22-year TCIA member that has just recently been re-accredited – and it definitely was a cooperative effort that got them there successfully during a pandemic year.
According to Christopher Campbell, Certified Arborist and vice president of BAAC’s Board of Directors, the Cooperative, which was formed in 1995, is something truly unique that began as one man’s vision of a way to encourage his fellow arborists. “Ted Kipping was our fearless leader and the founding father of BAAC. Most, if not all, of our members worked for Ted early in their careers. He was a mentor and teacher to us, and I know I would not likely be the arborist or businessman I am today without him,” says Campbell, who also has his Crew Leader Qualification credential from TCIA.
“He believed in many of us even early on when we were not at our best,” Campbell continues. “As some of us got side jobs and started to sort of drift away to start our own companies, Ted said, ‘I think I know of a way for us to mutually benefit each other.’ That was when the Cooperative was formed. Along the way, he always strongly encouraged education and involvement in ISA and TCIA.”
“Forming the Cooperative was Ted’s idea for offering his employees an opportunity to start their own tree care businesses gradually, with less of a business learning curve,” adds Dmitri Tioupine, BAAC’s current secretary. “In the early years of the Cooperative, while we were still working for Ted most of the time, we had an opportunity to start our own legitimate businesses. Ted gave us a space and resources, and he even sponsored some of us in our formal arboriculture education.”
Sadly, Kipping passed away in November 2019 at the age of 74. “He was known as being somewhat of a Frank Lloyd Wright of tree pruning in the San Francisco Bay Area,” says Campbell, noting Kipping performed all styles of tree pruning but was a proponent of the concept of “cloud pruning.”
“He studied some of these techniques on a visit to Japan and, with his partner Phil Danielson, adapted them for size and end-weight management, even in 100-foot-tall Monterey cypress trees!” says Campbell. Campbell himself emulates some of these techniques in his work as owner of Christopher Campbell Tree Design, but with what Campbell describes as a more natural aesthetic.
“We are in a unique situation here with our dense urban setting. Believe it or not, the average home lot is 100 by 25 feet, so pruning trees, protecting the site and cleaning it all up becomes something of an art form. And most homes abut each other, so access and staging is a real challenge; sometimes we have to drag all that debris through the inside of the house.”
Kipping’s original company, Tree Shapers, now is owned by Phil Danielson, CTSP and treasurer of BAAC. Danielson began working with Kipping in 1977 and formalized their partnership in 2002. Other Cooperative members include Elliot Goliger, president of the board, and Ian Edward Butler, Timothy Pete Butler, Michael DeGeorge, Adrian Dobarro, Sean Heskett, Howard Linacre, Greg Stagi and Didier Termingnon. Between their companies, they represent a total of approximately 35 to 40 full-time employees who specialize in urban-tree management such as tree pruning and planting, risk mitigation, root-crown excavations, root pruning, tree removals, cabling and support systems and arborist consultations.
Though each owner works independently, Campbell says they all adhere to the same safety standards and can share resources if they wish. “Sometimes I’ve worked on larger contracts with another member or helped keep another member’s crew busy if needed,” Campbell notes. “We also share education to better ourselves as professionals.
“BAAC has been an amazing organization for small tree businesses to operate legally by providing an infrastructure for its members,” Campbell continues. “The Coop provides the contractor’s license, liability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, payroll and overall administration for all these things. The member/director is responsible for their own client base, scheduling and managing their job sites, invoicing and payments and reporting employees’ hours and safety meetings. All payments are processed through BAAC, and after (the Coop) deducts expenses, the member receives the remaining profit. As a whole, the group is responsible annually for more than $3.5 million worth of tree care in the Bay Area.”
As a 22-year member of TCIA, the Cooperative has a long history of taking advantage of the Association’s resources and educational materials. “TCIA has been a huge resource for BAAC for safety and training,” says Campbell. “We’ve used their Tailgate Safety lessons for as long as I can remember. We’ve also really benefited from additional training and certifications, and credentials like the Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) and the Crew Leader Qualification (QCL).”
According to Tioupine, Accreditation became a goal of the Cooperative five years or so ago. “The first time I heard about TCIA Accreditation was at the Western Chapter ISA conference. I realized that in order for us to become more competitive and professional in the field (of local arborists), we would have to be accredited.” The group originally was accredited in 2017, and went through its re-Accreditation audit this past spring.
“The most difficult part was trying to coordinate a site visit during the COVID pandemic,” Tioupine says. “I felt that trying to communicate through video apps wasn’t easy for showing everyday tree care operations. But we managed! Thankfully, TCIA was very supportive as we were navigating through these new ways of conducting business.”
Campbell shares that successfully completing the Accreditation process definitely was a team effort. “It was driven by three to four of our directors, with a lot of help from our amazing office manager, Andrea Menezes. Phil Danielson now has done the CTSP credential twice as part of the process, and he did a whole safety presentation to the group afterward.
“We really try to communicate and share the knowledge and training we get from TCIA and ISA with the whole group,” Campbell notes, adding that he and his four lead climbers went through Crew Leader Qualification together in 2018, resulting in Campbell developing new crew-leader positions within his company.
Tioupine says there are many benefits to having gone through Accreditation, including improving record-keeping procedures and standardizing things like safety procedures, so all employees know what is expected of them on the job site. “Going through the process helped us fine-tune our businesses and become even more professional,” he says. “Our employees noticed the changes in everyday operations, and morale in crews went up considerably. And with that, the quality of work improved as well. I would definitely recommend Accreditation to any size tree care company. It will benefit our industry overall.”
