Firm has strong roots in Indianapolis
By Katie Culbertson
Indianapolis Business Journal
September 3-9, 2001
As Judson Scott points out in his company newsletter, "bulldozers and trees don't mix."
The founder and owner of Vine & Branch Inc. has built a livelihood teaching others to respect that simple maxim. The wheels of progress turn, but trees don't always have to get out of their way, he contends.
During a recent visit to the Indianapolis Museum of Art grounds, Scott waxed poetic about his favorite tree, the Ginkgo biloba--a tall, narrow variety hailing from Japan--then sadly admitted several of them won't survive a planned expansion of the museum building.
Such is the life of an arboricultural consultant. Scott is brought in to protect as many trees and plants as possible near a construction project, move others that are in the way, and bid a fond farewell to those that simply can't be saved.
The perils posed to a tree at a construction site are many, but root disturbance and soil compaction are the most common.
"Those are two of the biggest things, but they can also impact them by gouging trunks and breaking limbs," Scott said.
He has been hired by IMA to write a tree preservation plan that will go along with the museum's $160 million expansion, scheduled to take place over the next several years.
Scott, 44, is one of only two Hoosiers registered as a Consulting Arborist with the American Society of Consulting Arborists. As such, he is qualified to provide a range of services, including expert witness testimony in cases involving damage to trees, tree appraisals for insurance companies in property claims, and evaluation of the long-term environmental impact of development.
Nationwide, there are 151 registered Consulting Arborists, ASCA Executive Director Beth W. Palys said, making it an elite group.
"Their services are certainly in demand, but it's not an easy credential to achieve. So while the numbers [of registered Consulting Arborists] are growing, they're not growing quickly," she said.
In 1980, fresh off graduation from Wabash College, Scott went out on a limb and incorporated Vine & Branch. He could have gone to graduate school to study business or law, but, as Scott put it, he decided to "get dirty" instead.
An Indianapolis native, Scott planted the seeds of his company in 1976, the year he went away to school. Summers were spent performing tree care jobs, primarily in the budding Williams Creek neighborhood on the city's far-north side.
His training was strictly on the job, fed by a desire to educate himself.
"I was a liberal arts major at Wabash, but that's where I learned to learn," Scott recalled.
His head for business grew along with his love of trees, but Scott concedes that the financial aspects of running a company didn't come as easily as his outdoorsy nature. Still, his business acumen and that of his employees is enough to keep the bottom line healthy.
Qualified arborists don't always have business savvy, according to Scott. "I've seen a lot of competitors come and go. The biggest problem we all have is probably the financial management."
Last year, Vine & Branch grossed $1.4 million, not just from Scott's arboricultural consulting, but from a full line of other tree care services and landscape design.
In fact, the bulk of his business comes from general tree care provided by a staff of seven arborists, who prune and trim trees, assess lightning risks and perform other maintenance tasks.
"Arborists take care of trees and, in our sense, it's urban trees, while a forester takes care of forests," Scott said.
For the past decade, Crown Hill Cemetery groundskeepers have looked to Vine & Branch for tree removal and pruning.
"We have thousands upon thousands of trees. Unfortunately, it's a small part of our budget, so we want the most bang for our buck, which is one of the big reasons we use Vine & Branch," Crown Hill Superintendent Mike Dooley said.
Scott's other clients include Woodstock and Meridian Hills country clubs and several golf courses, as well as homeowners. Within the tree care division, the business is split fairly evenly between residential and commercial customers.
Vine & Branch's other services include residential landscape design and what Scott calls "plant health care."
"We advise people as to the health of their trees. If you have a sick tree, we let you know if it's salvageable and try to care for it until it's healthy," he said.
Being intimately familiar with thousands of trees has produced more than a few amusing anecdotes in Scott's 25-year career. His employees once found an Easter egg that a squirrel had apparently carted off high into a tree. The unfortunate part of that story is that it was July and the egg had not aged well.
But Scott's favorite stories are the ones that have a happy ending for his beloved trees.
Vine & Branch Inc.
Location: 4721 E. 146th St.
Telephone: 846-1424
E-mail: treeconsultant@aol.com
Founded: 1980
Founder: Judson R. Scott
Service: tree care, landscape design and arboricultural consulting
Employees: 25 full time
Revenue (2000): $1.4 million
One-year goal: upgrade employees' expertise and education in tree preservation
Industry outlook: Trees have been living and dying for millennia, but today, more environmentally conscious homeowners are hiring arborists to take care of their trees. Commercial entities turn to tree consultants to protect trees during construction projects.