International Woman’s day is about celebrating achievements. Though the owner, Amy Langbein Heath may hate this, this is the perfect time to brag about her accomplishments at Texas Tree Surgeons. Below is a post she wrote for, Women in Wood.

Growing Together

I did not start out as an arborist thinking I wanted to have a woman owned and operated business, I started because I love this industry and taking care of trees.

I bought Texas Tree Surgeons in 2010 after working/managing the company for 3 years. Before I was hired at the company, I did not even know “tree care” was a job. I was 30 and had graduated college with a degree in psychology, taught middle school, been a paramedic for a 911 system, waited tables, was a wanderer and had finally found myself by chance in tree care.

While owning this company I have had and raised my children, married and divorced, dealt with health challenges, lived a life worth living, and while lots of people talk about work life balance, I had never worked somewhere they really meant it and I try every day to make that a reality for the people I work with.

When trying to buy Tree Surgeons from the original owner, I was rejected by 12 banks. Banks insisted on having my husband’s name on business documents. I had crews quit because they did not want to work for a woman despite me having fully managed the company for years.

Listening to and tolerating mansplaining in this industry has become a superpower for me, where I am able to acquire information while having my comprehension underestimated. The amount of times clients have dismissed my voice, assuming I wasn’t an arborist, and asking when would “he be there”. Emails sent to Texas Tree Surgeons CC’ing men in the company when they wanted to talk to the owner. Just recently Texas Tree Surgeons received a holiday gift from our bank addressed to a man who is not associated with the account or business.

The subtle and not so subtle sexism female arborists encounter every day in this field is startling.

When will he be there…

Needing proof of credentials

Second guessing their knowledge

Asking how they know what they are talking about when they have never climbed a tree

Calls to the office asking if they are single

When I found out in 2018 that I was the first woman in Texas to be a Board-Certified Master Arborist (BCMA), I was mad instead of proud. How could I be the only one? Why were women not being urged to take this test? It also made me consider the access other minority groups in our industry have to equal education, leading to my mission to expand bilingual education. Working on the Board of the International Society of Arboriculture Texas (ISAT) and Trinity Blacklands Urban Forestry Council (TBUFC) has allowed me to do this.

I feel like many of the steps I took to get to where I am were unnecessarily challenging because I was a woman (education, finding mentors, finding financing, hiring, and managing production staff, selling tree work to people who asked what made me qualified) it is important to me that the other people I work with (woman and men) do not face these challenges.

Along the way I found that working with women created an environment for us all to grow together and support one another in a competitive male dominated industry.

We currently have 4 women BCMA’s, that’s 33%, much higher than the national average which is less than 2% of all ISA Certified Arborists becoming BCMA’s. In addition, 57% of our employees are women, most of them compromising positions of leadership. 100% of production employees are men, so if anyone knows some female climbers…

At Texas Tree Surgeons, a big part of our culture is education. There is never a class I will not pay for, a certification, a new project etc., or a role we will not create for someone who wants to grow professionally and personally.

Rather than building a tree care company based on the “old school” (a nice way of saying “dudes with a chain saw”), my background in other fields allowed me to approach this industry with a fresh perspective. Each one of our staff members is an individual and I want them to bring that to our company.

The people I get to work with are amazing and I learn something from them every day. I’ve been fortunate to attract other people who have also possibly been underestimated or not given the chance to bloom. I nudge them, the same way they have supported me, to grow, get involved, and chop it up. Just like trees we are all different and embracing that diversity will make our forest grow healthier and happier. This is my mycorrhizal network; this is how Texas Tree Surgeons has been able to thrive and grow. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.” – Herman Hess