Careers: Education Is Key at Teacher’s Tree Service
Derrick Bailey bucking logs. Photo by Robert Nickelsberg. By Patricia Chaudoin Greg Ranallo’s company name, Teacher’s Tree Service, may allude to the years he spent as a public school teacher in Minnesota, but it still applies to his and his employees’ current arboricultural work. Teacher’s is a 17-year TCIA member company based in South Burlington, Vermont, and…
Derrick Bailey bucking logs. Photo by Robert Nickelsberg.
Greg Ranallo’s company name, Teacher’s Tree Service, may allude to the years he spent as a public school teacher in Minnesota, but it still applies to his and his employees’ current arboricultural work. Teacher’s is a 17-year TCIA member company based in South Burlington, Vermont, and its crew members take the “teacher” part seriously.
“I’d like to see the industry as a whole move in the direction of educating each other, our clients and the broader community,” says Teacher’s operations manager and consulting arborist, Sarah Pears. “There’s a lot of good science out there now as to how trees react to everything from abiotic stress, like flooding or drought, to biotic stress from pests and pathogens.
“Our method for working with clients has always been about education. Arboriculture is not something normally discussed by the general public, but it’s important and it’s changing all the time,” she continues.
A “teacher” from the beginning
Greg Ranallo began climbing in 1980, worked a stint as a logger in Alaska then started his first company in 1988 in Minnesota. He worked summers as an arborist to supplement his teacher’s salary before moving to Vermont to raise his family and enjoy the outdoor lifestyle. He started Teacher’s Tree Service in Vermont in 1994.
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Greg Ranallo
From the classroom to the trees
Greg Ranallo has been working with trees since he was 19 years old — a passion that began long before it became a profession. After earning a master's degree in education and teaching high school social studies in his native Minnesota, Greg ultimately followed the calling he'd had since boyhood and built Teacher's Tree Service into one of the Champlain Valley's most trusted arboriculture companies. As he puts it, "I was always more a tree guy who was teaching than a teacher who did tree work."
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