One community in tree care work is increasing, and that would be the league of extraordinary women.
“It’s definitely growing, we’re not so much an outlier anymore. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a boys’ club, but at the same time it’s not weird to just be with all guys,” says Nicole Benjamin, tree climber, math minor, business owner, rugby player and mom.
Benjamin is owner of Two Dog Crew in Pineville, North Carolina. She is an ISA Certified Arborist and works as a climber, equipment operator and ground tech.
Her first job in tree care was with Heartwood Tree Service, an accredited, 28-year TCIA member company based in Charlotte, N.C. She still works as a contractor with Heartwood today.
“When I started, I was the only woman in production tree work; all the other women worked in the office. It’s a weird thing when I’m the only woman at a company or there are only a couple of us. It feels like a small world. And as horrible as social media can be at times, it’s how I’ve met and been able to stay in touch with women (in tree care) all over the world,” says Benjamin, who notes that Heartwood has added three women in the field since she left.
Abrupt start
Benjamin was working as a project manager for an environmental testing lab and realized she didn’t want to sit behind a desk all day and read numbers. She had worked landscaping in college and enjoyed the sense of completion at the end of the day. She thought she would move into that field.
“I just needed to change things up. Both my parents had mid-life career crises when they were in their 40s, and I thought, ‘This is great, I’m doing this when I’m 30.’” Her parents were pretty stressed out when they looked at the statistics for tree work, it being one of the most dangerous professions in the U.S. “Now they are super proud,” she notes.
In her job search, Benjamin looked online for a company that would be reputable but also welcoming to women. “Because of the way computer algorithms work, a Facebook ad popped up from Heartwood Tree Service that said, ‘Climb trees, get paid for it.’ I said, ‘What? No way.’
“It was 2015. I saw a lot of bucket trucks and lifts all the time and didn’t think people still climbed trees. I climbed trees all the time as a kid, so I applied. They called me that same day asking me to come in for an interview the next day. I didn’t understand the difference between corporate-world applications and most tree companies, that if they’re hiring they need someone tomorrow,” she says. She was hired the next day.
Team sport
The company owner, Patrick George, was in the rugby club she played with – she on the women’s team – so that gave her a foot in the door. “And they figured at the very least that I would be a good team player, but also capable of moving brush on the ground.”
“Nicole walked off the field of rugby and onto the field of tree care,” says George, who 40 years ago started his company with all rugby players, and who still has several former rugby players on the team.
“She wanted to leave her lab job and work outdoors. We knew she had the grit because she was a rugby player, and she took to it as a fish to water. She understands the discipline to perform the work that is safe and beneficial to the tree. There is an aesthetic in the work itself, the aesthetic in taking care of trees and in playing rugby, and that is like nothing else,” says George.
Benjamin worked at Heartwood for three years. In 2019, she left to consider some other options and became a private subcontractor for Heartwood, climbing plus helping with technical pruning, cabling and on-the-job training, “which is pretty fun,” she says. She also subcontracts with different companies in the Charlotte area and throughout the country.
At Heartwood, “They have a really awesome group of climbers now. But they are also very young climbers, so it’s kind of cool going back to the place where I learned everything, helping climbers try new things and learn how to do specific tasks,” Benjamin says. “Normally, I’ll climb and have one of the other climbers climb with me, (so I can make sure) at least there is one little thing they learn each day,” she says.
Building Community
Nicole Benjamin lists the following things she says “I’ve found that have helped build community.”
- Tree-climbing competitions – Either volunteering or competing. You will make new friends.
- Educational workshops/expos/conferences – if you can’t pay for a ticket, see about volunteering. They link you to people who are stoked to learn more and grow.
- Lunch and/or breaks – do them as much as you can together as a company. Food is a uniter, even if it is just a break for some coffee, chicharrones or cold beverages. It gets crew members talking about themselves, and you can learn about the people you’re working with.
“Communities can be big or small. Pick what works for you and nurture it. Community is there for us when we stumble, when we are tired, when we don’t believe in ourselves.
“Community is also there to celebrate our wins, to hype us up and to push us to continue striving to be our best selves.”
Building her team
She also runs her own company, Two Dog Crew, with her husband, Colby, to whom she is eternally grateful for his support. “When my husband and I started the company, we had no idea what to name it. We had two dogs, Jax and Block, that we brought with us everywhere. We decided they would make a great logo.”
Jax and Block have since passed, “But they gave us a great life, and they’re with us forever in our hearts and company name.” Her husband was not an arborist, but Benjamin trained him on how to run the ground work and on climbing. “Now we’re able to work together. He’ll run ropes for me and is our human Ditch Witch, picking up heavy things and putting them down,” she says.
The pair plans to homeschool their four-year-old daughter, Marley, so they can all travel together for work. She likes the idea of combining her family-family with her tree-family “It’s just getting to be with everyone I love,” says Benjamin.
Part of a greater community
“It’s pretty awesome being a contractor, working for different people all the time, people from all different walks of life, and trees are the only thing we might have in common,” says Benjamin.
One community that is close to her heart is the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop, founded by Bear LeVangie and Melissa LeVangie Ingersoll in 2009 and based in Vermont. She linked up with them two years ago.
“That network is like this giant hug that is always there for you if you need it,” says Benjamin. “It’s cool because it’s mentorship and support, people you can reach out to if you’ve had a bad day, and they can help you break it down and dissect it and find a positive. We share little victories in our personal lives and work lives, too. That community has allowed me to be vulnerable in the best way,” she says.
It also has helped her realize how much teaching other climbers is a true passion of hers. “Even beyond when I can’t climb every day for work, I’ll know that I can still enjoy the aspect of arboriculture, helping people learn and keeping that fire alive for other people,” she says.
Challenges for women
One of the biggest challenges for women in tree care operations, which has been talked about a lot but that Benjamin still sees reoccurring, is the need for proper PPE that fits. Arborwear, Arbortec and Clogger, she notes, are three companies making sure, for instance, that women’s chain-saw-protection pants are not too long and not too baggy, and fit more of a hip shape versus a long, lean shape, according to Benjamin.
Another PPE challenge is finding a helmet that fits more petite heads and not having to rely on one-size-fits-all. Most often, a helmet slips back, not fitting your forehead, or down so you can’t see, as opposed to making different helmets for different head sizes, she explains.
“For now, trying to find a more tailored approach to outfit your employees is something big companies need to look at more closely,” says Benjamin.
Breaking through the green canopy
Another challenge is that women get pigeonholed into jobs such as plant health care, ornamental pruning, small-tree pruning and cleanup – the last because they are “good at detail work,” Benjamin says. “Please don’t make the women just clean up after the boys. We have other skills. Everyone can clean up,” she says. “Removals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s something people think women wouldn’t do. But we are doing it.
“A lot of us are proficient and safe at removing trees and doing crane work. It’s frustrating when you are trying to learn and build skills yet keep getting the same simple jobs over and over again,” thereby missing opportunities, she says. “If you are trying to work through the challenge and learn something new, you can be labeled as not good at that skill because you had to reset the rigging point, or something like that. And that happens to everyone when they are learning a new part of the trade,” she says. “Two steps forward and someone finds a mallet and knocks us back down again.”
Another example Benjamin offers is social-media coverage of the recent North American Tree Climbing Championship in the District of Columbia, where about a dozen women competed, including the woman’s winner, Marilou Dussault of Quebec, one of the best climbers in the world, says Benjamin.
“Everyone was showing amazing skills and grace moving through the trees, and the online comments only list the guy who won. No discredit to him, he had an incredible climb, but it feels like we’re an afterthought, and it’s discouraging. You don’t necessarily feel discredited, but hey, celebrate my friend Marilou, too,” says Benjamin.
Conclusion
Benjamin keeps a busy schedule. In January, it was the Nebraska Conference followed by the ProGreen Expo in Denver, where she got to work with Colorado arborist and climber Patrick O’Meara, owner of High Country Landscape, a seven-year TCIA member company based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. In February, she and her family went to Loveland, Colo., to work with Schra Tree Care, a first-year TCIA member company.
Ahead is the ISA Southern Chapter Tree Climbing Championship (TCC) & Conference; ArborFest with Academy Trained in Asheville, N.C.; volunteering at the ISA Mid-Atlantic Chapter TCC; then North American Open Masters (NAOM) back in Charlotte, N.C.; and Canopy Class by Burke Outdoor, a grass-roots training coalition, in Morganton, N.C.
“And that wraps up just through April,” says Benjamin, adding that, much like rugby and tree work, the schedule is organized chaos. “I want to build my experience as a trainer and still be doing the production work but tapering off to save wear and tear on my body,” she says.
“Tree work is there for a lot of people, and they forget that there’s community we can find in it that’s so supportive. It’s just awesome, it’s something that is going to help a lot of people,” she adds.
Tamsin Venn is founding publisher of Atlantic Coastal Kayaker magazine and author of the book “Sea Kayaking Along the New England Coast,” and has been a contributing writer to TCI Magazine since 2011. She lives in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
