A few years, a few chainsaws, and a whole lot of life later, I found myself back in northern Idaho working alongside my very first Forest Service saw partner, Julian Gluck. From learning to fell trees together on the Boise National Forest to running our own forestry businesses, this USACE hazard tree removal project at Albeni Falls Dam was a pretty cool opportunity to reconnect, catch up, and put some trees on the ground together again.

“Something else that’s surprised me is hearing people’s experiences with contractors. Deposits taken and jobs abandoned, promises broken, unnecessary work sold to unsuspecting homeowners. Some stories are difficult to believe.

And I realize that when I pull into somebody’s driveway, I’m a brown guy with a pickup truck and a chainsaw. I don’t have a fleet of equipment or decades of company history behind me. I’m just somebody trying to build something worthwhile.”

“I recently visited a homeowner who had been told she might have mountain pine beetles on her property. We walked her acreage together, looking at trees and examining signs of previous attacks. A few had clearly been hit years earlier, but I couldn’t find evidence of current activity elsewhere on the property. That doesn’t guarantee beetles weren’t present, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell her she had an active infestation without evidence to support it.”

…These days my favorite part is often the first few minutes of the morning. Truck parked. Cold air. Saws laid out,

chains checked, tools where I can find them. Aspen leaves falling through the trees like harpstrings. Then I fire

up a saw…

I’ve never had much interest in sitting behind a desk. I’ve always preferred work where I can use my hands, solve problems, push myself, and look back at the end of the day knowing I actually accomplished something.

Starting White Elk Forestry was, in a lot of ways, the culmination of those experiences.