Ricky Folse, founder of Veteran Tree Care, a second-year TCIA member company based in Houma, Louisiana, is a man on a mission, and that mission is to help both men and women. Military veteran men and women, to be more precise. Even though Folse was unable to complete the requisite military time commitment, he considers himself an “extreme veteran-activist” and has dedicated his adult life, and the entire business model of Veteran Tree Care, to the employment of and advocacy for veterans.

Ricky Folse, founder of Veteran Tree Care, has dedicated his entire business model around the employment of and advocacy for veterans. All photos courtesy of Ricky Folse.

Folse enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 24, but within the second phase of his service, his body succumbed to the same genetic spinal defect that afflicted his father. It seemed, after five or six hours of walking with a heavy pack on his back, that a shock would travel down his spine to his sciatic nerve, causing pain. Although he enlisted, because he could not complete his service, he doesn’t consider himself a veteran. So he chose another way to serve.

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, you signed up.’ And I say that term (veteran) belongs to the ones who did fully serve,” Folse says. “I’m an activist, a veteran-activist, and I’m proud of that term. If I had gone to Iraq, I guarantee I would not be doing what I’m doing today, because I would have felt like I did my part. But because of what happened, I always felt bad that I didn’t get to serve. So now I feel the universe wanted something greater from me, a better purpose, and I’m proud to be helping save the ones I’m serving with today.”

Folse’s foray into a tree care business did not originally start as a haven for veterans to find employment. Taking a cue from Arnold Schwarzenegger, his original business was named “The Tree-A-Nator,” a la The Terminator. But his marketing gimmick, with phrases like “Hasta la Treesta,” had limited business life, and he needed a new approach and did not want to shut down. Folse adds, “I had two veterans working for me, and I was thinking, ‘What are they going to do if I shut this down? Where are they going to go?’”

At the beginning of 2025, Folse, who declares himself “The Tree Messiah from the Cajun Baya,” thought the best thing to do for his veteran employees was to make them part of the business. When he developed his business model, he wanted to make sure that veterans were part of the management team, so he promoted Lori Williams to the company’s director. Williams is a West Point graduate and a medically retired Army captain, was deployed in Afghanistan and is a recipient of the Bronze Star. Veteran Tree Care is pursuing a number of certifications because of her leadership, including being a woman-owned business, a veteran-owned business and a minority-owned business.

Branching out
Eventually, according to Folse, he’d like 10 branches of Veteran Tree Care, each primarily owned by a veteran. The office in Houma will remain “headquarters” and the main base of operations. Other “branches” will fall under the Veteran Tree Care umbrella, starting with Alpha Company, based in Key West, Florida, where Folse lives, then Bravo and Charlie and so on.
He details his ownership structure. “Florida is actually Veteran Tree Care – Alpha Company, with Lori the director there as well. Right now, I’m at 49% ownership, and I’ll select my team with two leaders who will start at 5% ownership and then, based on their commitment, we’ll add 5% per year, eventually dropping me down to roughly 10% (ownership). If I do this, I could employ up to 70 soldiers with changed lives.”

Origins of the mission
Folse says his passion for helping comes from his personal background, and his determination is what brings his mission to fruition. His father was a driving force in these initiatives, along with two veteran friends who took their lives. “My dad got sober in 1988 and he lived his life, after he became disabled, by helping others. I remember my dad leaving at two in the morning to help others with similar drinking situations, and he instilled in me the desire to help people. My dad drove me into this, so I’m very grateful to him.”

Lori Williams, the company’s director, and Ricky Folse.

A mission beyond hiring
It’s not just ownership and trained arborists where veterans factor into his business, either. Folse says, “If I find out there is a combat veteran who needs a job, even if we don’t have an availability at that moment, we hire them and find something for them to do. If they served in combat, we take them, whether we need them or not.”

While Veteran Tree Care also hires non-veterans as needed, Folse makes sure his customers know he employs veteran workers. He relates, “I tell each customer at the time of the estimate, ‘I appreciate you considering wanting to put our veterans to work, and as much as I enjoy making money, I’m much more grateful to be putting food on my veterans’ tables, so thank you.’ I let the customer know they’re not just hiring the tree company, they’re creating a livelihood for the employees.”

Folse also will especially help a veteran customer. “If we find out there’s a disabled veteran with no money, or it’s somebody in bad shape and it’s a veteran, we go do it for free. We also do this with the police and fire departments by giving a hell of a discount and extending payment terms where they give me what they can at the time of service and send me what they can down the road.”

Caring for plant health
Folse obviously cares for veterans and their health; he also cares about taking care of trees and their health. While Veteran Tree Care will remove damaged trees or trees that may create dangerous situations, it was tree health that drew him into the business. Folse recalls, “I wanted to get into the science, into the biology, because I’m passionate about the 300-year-old trees in Louisiana. After being requested to take down an old tree in front of a plantation that I had played under as a child, I asked four arborists to come and look at it before I cut it, because I did not want to cut it down. It reminded me of my childhood, and at that point I said, ‘I have got to start trying to save these old trees.’ That’s when I got into plant health care.

“Whenever TCIA offers certifications on anything with plant health care or something like that, I’ll take every single course they’ve got. There are some old trees near a construction site in Houma that have developed a fungus, and I go back and forth from Key West three days out of the month to inspect and inject them and put more chips around them. The construction is near a chemical plant, so I have to make sure their operations do not stress the trees. In Key West, I’m studying other historical trees. I work with an arborist who will teach me about the species here and with a biologist to learn about the endangered mangroves.”

Teaming up with TCIA
Folse says he is grateful for everything TCIA has done for his business. He attended several education sessions during TCI EXPO ’24 in Baltimore, Maryland, then made several contacts at TCIA’s Winter Management Conference ’25 in St. Thomas this past February. He has opened a training portal on TCIA’s Brightspace Training Hub and enrolled himself for the Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) program.

“What has TCIA done for us? TCIA has done everything, and it’s been life changing. I always speak up in the courses, and I basically got to tell people, ‘TCIA does not pay me for this,’ and I say how much it has changed everything about our company, because that’s how awesome it is. All the speakers remember the crazy Cajun with the accent, and at every single conference, I’m sitting at the front table asking questions. Even though I don’t have a Ph.D., I’m learning from those who do. Also, I’m also grateful for TCIA corporate-member organizations, like SingleOps, which provides our estimating software at all of our locations. They have been an amazing asset, and are in line with our mission to help veterans.”

Help in times of disaster
Hurricanes and other natural disasters often wreak havoc on communities, and lives are often in danger both before and after a storm hits. Folse and Veteran Tree Care have established relationships with local law enforcement, and he’s at the ready to pitch in in the event of a storm. Folse tells the tale of Hurricane Milton that hit the Florida Gulf Coast in October 2024. “Before the hurricane came, I met with the police and let them know, ‘I’m going to be right here, and when it dies down after the eye passes, I’ll help.’ At two in the morning, I was cutting trees off the interstate to clear roads for emergency vehicles. I was even under a bridge, in constant communication with local authorities in case the hurricane intensified to a Cat (Category) 5.”

When Hurricane Ian swept its way across south Florida in September 2022, Folse was right there as well. Folse remembers, “I knew there were veterans stranded at the Fort Myers VFW Hall. I flashed my deputy badge to get through police roadblocks and drove an 18-wheeler with 14 drums of gasoline and two pallets of water for the veterans impacted. We also fed all the police who were working the roadblocks and helped clear the roads.”

Ricky Folse, left, poses with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry during a golf fundraiser for the veterans in Houma, Louisiana, in 2024.

Participation in the Saluting Branches event
Saluting Branches is an organization that annually coordinates an estimated 100 tree care-related day-of-service events benefiting veterans, mostly on one day, every September. According to the organization’s website, it’s a national day of service where tree care professionals volunteer their time and skills to care for trees and landscapes at properties dedicated to veterans, particularly veteran cemeteries. This year’s event is scheduled for September 17. And, of course, Veteran Tree Care will be there.

Even though many other sites have been named for volunteer activities, Folse plans to help at a park in Houma. “This park has 12 live oak trees that were planted by Gold Star Mothers to honor their sons killed in World War II. They were planted in 1954, and they have not been touched. We’re going to inject them and put fresh, green wood chips around them and really make them thrive.”

Swimming for a cause
Folse says that, according to a report released in February of last year by the Department of Veterans Affairs, up to 22 veterans take their own lives every day. In honor of this sobering figure, he plans to swim 22 miles in the ocean off Key West the week after Veterans Day (November 11) this year. Folse illustrates the significance of his swim. “So that’s why I’m swimming 22 miles. That’s sad and staggering at the same time, and that’s just the ones who pull the trigger or some other (manner of killing themselves). That’s not even the ones who drink themselves to death. I’ve had a great response from TCIA about what I’m doing for the veterans.” Folse says all the funds generated from donations will go to the Key West Military Affairs Committee, whose stated mission is to “strengthen the bond between our military forces and our local Key West community.”

Conclusion
Truly, Veteran Tree Care lives up to its mission statement to help veterans and their families in a multitude of ways. Folse sums up why he does what he does. “Because, yeah, I’m more worried about saving lives than I am about getting rich. That’s what separates me from a lot of people out there.” And many veterans are grateful for his outreach.