Did It Rain at Your Place?
A new tree wants an inch of water a week — but the forecast can't tell you what fell on your parcel. Observed rainfall at the address, dry-week flags for homeowner and arborist, and the treatment windows the week opens and closes.
Your Software Grew Rings
Every copy of ArbKeep grows its own tree — rings, lean, drought years — from the account that opened it. Why the rest of the category looks like a dispatch center, and why design is the argument, not the decoration.
A Day in the Life of an Arborist Founder
Emerald ash borer on my childhood street, a first investor conversation, Zimmerman pine moth in a mature white pine, and a Tree of Heaven stand that went from 50 stems to 200 — plus the PSA on why you should never cut one. One day, one book of trees.
The Future of Plant Health Care Is Presence and Property Data
One season, one book: 20 properties, 196 trees, 3,000+ dated data points anchored to the property. Why presence generates the data, why property data compounds — and why spreadsheets, ChatGPT, iMessage, and the camera roll aren't going to cut it.
The Urban Forest Is Infrastructure
A BlackRock memo on infrastructure and the skilled-trades shortage describes my industry exactly — and never mentions a tree. Two things it gets right, two things this trade still needs, and why care, not removal, is the infrastructure play.
Plant Health Care Was Always the Real Job
PHC is the differential, not the chainsaw. What plant health care looks like when the AI has read the whole tree's record — and reasons the case alongside you.
Use your great-grandfather's pole saw. Not his software.
The craft's tools are timeless. The software handed to arborists is not. Why we're building a medical record for trees — and assembling a small founding heartwood to build it right.
Spotted Lanternflies on the Dog Walk — and a Call from The Guardian
An educational dog-walk video, a sweetgum full of nymphs, and a call from a Guardian reporter. The longer conversation about urban canopy, the lanternfly calendar, and the gap in arborist tooling for tracking pest pressure.
Studying for the ISA Cert — From the Field
The Study Guide on the desk. The work in the app. How the book and the field teach the same chapters — and why the credential isn't a prerequisite for either.
Stop Losing Clients to the Lab You Don't Have
University soil diagnostics for $20 a sample. Disease testing by photo. And the first electronic health record for trees — from your shirt pocket.
On Arbor Day, I'm going back to the arboretum. Here's why.
A week at the Ohio Chapter ISA Field Day with Dr. Laura Deeter taught me where AI tree ID breaks — and where CanopyKeep is getting sharp.