Out in the 150-mile stretch between Duluth and Twin Cities, Minnesota, Brandon Pankey, owner of Blue Pine Works LLC, a two-year TCIA member company, has honed a respected reputation for tree work by having an emphasis on safety.

Brandon Pankey on the job..

“In our area in the backwoods, a lot of it just comes from the fact I have a lot of training and instill these safety values in our employees. That has built a lot of trust for our community, employees and clients in a short amount of time,” says Pankey.

Part of that trust or respect comes from Pankey’s attainment of TCIA’s Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) credential, which he earned a year ago to help raise the profile of his company’s attention to safety. The CTSP training helps trainers, or “coaches,” develop and nurture a safe work environment at their companies.

Brandon Pankey, right, provides climbing instruction with staff, which sometimes includes new recruits, such as the Pankey’s daughter, Finola.

“Understanding how adults learn and how they are motivated has helped us to structure more formal training programs and standard operating procedures. It’s really a big deal in a community where people don’t wear hard hats,” says Pankey. “Some companies have looked to me for safety and to be that voice of change, not only because of what we are doing internally to help our employees, but also externally within our community.”

Kayana Pankey is the office manager, but makes sure to sport her PPE when helping out in the field. All photos courtesy of Blue Pine Works LLC.

Pankey started Blue Pine Works in 2023 in Pine City, Minn., as a natural outgrowth of demand for his services as an experienced arborist. His wife, Kayana, is the office manager, and he’s had no trouble hiring employees. Previously, he’d worked in the industry for almost 20 years, for Davey, Bartlett and Asplundh, as well as smaller companies. At Blue Pine, he specializes in tree preservation and offers pruning, tree and shrub fertilization, pest and disease management, invasive-pest and -vegetation management, storm cleanup, urban-forestry consulting and other services.

Pankey also is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist (BCMA), is ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified (TRAQ), holds his TCIA Tree Care Specialist designation and is both a credentialed Minnesota Tree Inspector and a Minnesota Pesticide Applicator.

Providing opportunity for growth
With all his training and experience, when he started his business, he wanted to focus on his employees.

“What was at the forefront was to get people to really learn their trade and not just to do a job,” Pankey notes.

He has seen that lacking at times in other companies. “There is always pressure for production and not for (personal) growth, and not for mobility in the industry,” he laments.

“I felt everyone preached safety, but no one ever backed it up,” Pankey says. “It felt that other arborists I knew would talk about hot topics in the industry but never followed through and never had integrity in action.” He is determined to change that.

In short, “CTSP training helps wrap together educator, leadership, problem-solving, risk-management and role-processing tasks into a format that’s palatable, scalable and repeatable,” he says.

Conclusion
“Being a CTSP helps me make sure I’m equipped to teach, lead, motivate and grow my company in a safe and meaningful way,” Pankey says. “It means a lot about the industry’s ownership of past mistakes and the hard work being put in to advance our industry in a safer and more reputable future.”

For more information about the CTSP program and upcoming workshops, click here.