Tyler Walker

Qualifications:

• ISA Certified Arborist WE-12382AU
• Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ)

Why did you become an arborist?

"Aside from mowing my grandpa’s lawn and weeding my mom’s garden, my plant career started in earnest in 2013 when I moved to Oakland, CA and took a job with a small tree company.  I had no intention of trees becoming my career, I just needed a job.  I started at the bottom and learned the business from the ground up.  After a couple years, it dawned on me that, in the vast realm of potential vocations, arboriculture is as interesting, challenging, thrilling, growing, necessary and ethical a field of practice as any other, and it was something to which I could dedicate my working life.

After developing my skills as a pruner and climber, I made it official and became an ISA Certified Arborist in 2018.  While taking arboriculture classes at Merritt College’s fantastic Landscape Horticulture department by night and climbing 100’ coast redwoods by day, I helped build a small tree company to a thriving business by establishing trusting relationships with my residential and municipal clients.  In 2020, I shifted gears and used my Tree Risk Assessment training in a new role identifying hazard trees damaged by the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA, the deadliest wildfire in US history at the time.  After a year working in wildfire recovery, I changed course again, this time into wildfire prevention.  For three years, I worked as a utility vegetation inspector and program manager, specializing in difficult customer interactions and environmental compliance, eventually earning the additional ISA credential of Utility Specialist.  Now, I use all that practical and interpersonal experience to help keep my clients’ landscapes safe, healthy, and beautiful."

Personal:

"Born and raised in Northern California (Sacramento), educated on the beach (UC Santa Barbara), finished in the forest.  In university, I studied psychology, anthropology, and ultimate frisbee and I originally planned to go into education.  After several years in schools playing with children, I found a much less stressful job; climbing trees with chainsaws and realizing my childhood dream of becoming a professional athlete (watch a climber work and you’ll know what I mean).  I love sports, music, nature, history, teaching, and science fiction.  In 2025, I met someone from Massachusetts who was able to lure me away from the Golden State, which brings us to now…"