HYRUM – Kendall Bird is a real tree hugger.
His business is called The Tree Barber. He has been slicing limbs and trunks of trees around Cache Valley for about a decade. Bird climbs, cuts, prunes, and knocks down trees of all shapes and sizes. To properly climb the tree, he hugs it on the way up and on the way back down for safety.
In a place like Cache Valley there are a lot of trees, so he keeps pretty busy.
While some tree removers use lifts and cranes to cut down timber, Bird boosts himself up to tree limbs by climbing to the top and securing a line and working his way around until the limbs and trunk of a tree disappears.
It’s kind of like watching a telephone pole climber. It’s quite a sight to see.
To climb trees, the Emery County native goes to the top and secures tethers, ropes and harnesses to keep him secure and help hoist up his tools. He has an arsenal of hand saws, chainsaw (both gas and battery operated) and whatever else he might need to make short work of tall trees.
Bird found his profession while going to Utah State University.
“I was a business and history major at the university,” he said. “I was approached by a roommate about starting a tree pruning business. He was from Santaquin and was an experienced tree pruner.”
They started the business together then the roommate returned to the family orchard to work.
“I was like every other kid and liked to climb trees,” he said. “Who would have thought I’d be climbing trees for a living.”
The Nibley resident was cutting down a 60-foot Box Elder tree in the southern end of the valley when Cache valley Daily caught up with him.
When the Tree Barber climbs trees, he hooks a safety rope around the tree trunk and his waist and up he goes. The saw starts humming and the limbs start falling and Bird is in his element right in the middle of it all.
“It’s a service, it’s not like we sell a commodity,” Bird said. “So, we don’t make a lot of money. We can’t pay our help top dollar, but we try to pay them well.”
Bird hired Kasen Lentz after serving a church mission and he turned out to be just what the business needed.
“He turned out to be good help and I couldn’t afford to pay him what he was worth, so I offered him a part of the business,” he said. “He runs a mini track loader. He cleans up all the trunks and limbs. He loads a trailer and hauls away the debris.”
As a business owner, Bird subscribes to the one percent improvement policy to make The Tree Barber a more efficient operation.
“I would like to improve may business practices up to 20 to 30 percent,” he said. “There is not a lot of room to improve things that much, so I follow the British Cycling coach who broke down every aspect of biking to one percent to improve his cycling team chances of winning. I try to keep my saws sharp; my equipment tuned up and do the best I can to be efficient in what I do.”
Bird said the trees in the valley are not as tall as some of the trees he’s cut down even though they may look tall to others.
“Probably the biggest tree I’ve cut is one that had a nine-foot trunk,” he said. “That tree was about the size of the back of a pick-up truck (spun) in a circle.”
Bird said he realizes social media is where a lot of people look for services like his. He understands his social media is lacking but he can either spend time cutting trees because that is where his expertise is or spend time trying to get his online presence known.