Employees

Fred Berkelhammer has been a professional tree climber since 1982 and became a Certified Arborist in 1992.

He served apprenticeships under Robert Wells in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lee Patrick in Denver, Colorado. After a three year stint as a foreman at Boulder Tree and Landscape Co., he founded Berkelhammer Tree Experts in l988. The company incorporated in January, 1996.

Fred has written numerous articles for various publications, and speaks to garden clubs and school groups. He is certified by the ISA as Tree Risk Assessment Qualified.

A graduate of Brown University, Fred is married, has two wonderful children and lives in Louisville, CO. For fun he enjoys skiing, backpacking, choral singing and playing the drums in his neighborhood garage band.

Andy began working at Berkelhammer Tree Experts in 2009. He became a Certified Arborist in 2014, and a Colorado Department of Agriculture Qualified Supervisor in 2015. He received his Treecare Safety Professional Certification in January, 2018.

In addition to leading pruning and removal crews, Andy trains our TreeAzin applicators, and treats Ash and Elm trees every Spring and Summer. He is a top competitive tree climber and does crane removals.

Andy grew up near Minneapolis where he used to build tree houses in his friends’ yards. He managed a landscape supply yard and installed landscapes for 8 years and has about 20 total years of green industry experience. When not swinging from trees, Andy can be found fly fishing, working on his bonsai collection and tending to his young family in Longmont, CO.

Bryan O’Connor, Foreman/Climber, was born and raised in Louisville, CO. and graduated from Monarch High School in 2010.

After graduating, he managed a Boulder restaurant for five years. During this time, he completed EMT and Wildland Firefighter training. He joined Berkelhammer Tree Experts, Inc. in April of 2015 and quickly became a climber and crew leader.

Bryan became both a Certified Arborist and a Certified Tree Safety Professional in 2018, and does many of our crane removals. Bryan wears many other hats in our company: Our in-house MacGyver, he is our mechanic, purchaser, inventory keeper and first aid authority, among many other things. He is currently a Certified EMT. Bryan enjoys heading out into the wilds when he’s not climbing trees.

Ashley is a new Colorado native. She graduated from the University of Southern Miss in 2014 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences and is graduating from Auburn University in 2021 with a Master’s degree in Entomology.

Ashley is coordinating our organic insect-control program and scheduling of TreeAzin (organic Neem seed-derived insecticide) injections, for control of Emerald Ash Borer and other insects. She’ll be field monitoring the condition of trees for presence of various invasive insect pests.

Ashley plays ultimate frisbee any chance she gets! She also ran the 4 X 400 relay in college, Division One level, so we’re pretty sure she’s the fastest entomologist on the Front Range.

Chris Thompson grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His early climbing experience came during his teens, when he began scampering around the trees in a nature preserve near his house. He graduated from Green Mountain College, in Poultney, Vermont in 2016, with a degree in Natural Resource Management. He then moved to Colorado and began climbing the rock walls in and around Boulder.

He joined Berkelhammer Tree Experts, Inc. in September of that year, and quickly progressed from ground worker to climber. He became an ISA Certified Arborist in 2018 and has served as a crew foreman since then. Chris is gifted pruner and climber. He lives in Lyons.

Shane Arnold, Climber Specialist, is a fun-loving guy who was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from Summit High School in Breckenridge, CO, and from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2017 with a degree in Political Science. Shane spent his high school years competing in cross country skiing at a very high level.

Shane climbs trees most every day he works, and is a gifted tree pruner, remover and cabler. He has been certified by the ISA as a Tree Worker Climber Specialist, and should be a Certified Arborist by summer of 2020.

His summation: “I’m just looking for some nice logs to carry out; I also like picking up some brush and chipping too. I’m a happy dog-dad to my puppy Athena and love ocean sailing as well as long walks in the mountains. My zodiac sign is Capricorn, so Aries and Libras beware.”

Okay then.

Evan Jones is a third generation Coloradan, who grew up in Boulder County and graduated from Centaurus High School in Lafayette.

As a kid, he spent a lot of time climbing trees in his neighborhood and hiking in the mountains. Prior to becoming a tree worker, he served as a wild land firefighter and a lifeguard. His previous job was pool manager and head lifeguard at Bob L Burger Recreation Center in Lafayette. He is a certified CPR instructor.

Evan is a climber, and spends most of his time pruning trees. But he is always looking for a way to help out and is not above dragging and chipping a little brush or cutting up logs and loading them into the truck. The crew calls him “Log Cart”. He’s a pretty good natural tree climber and looks forward to the day when we hire a new Log Cart.

Blake Hepburn is one of the employees at Berkelhammer Tree and is incredibly excited to learn in this new environment. Blake graduated from Southern Oregon University in 2019 with a B.S in Outdoor Leadership. Before moving to tree work, he spent his time guiding sea kayak trips in Alaska, instructing snowboarders, and working on a chainsaw crew for the Montana Conservation corps.

Coming from Oregon, Blake finds it easy to stay happy and positive in a place where it doesn’t rain 8 months out of the year.

A closet intellectual, Blake spends time outside of work reading Bukowski, cooking milk steaks, and convincing his chickens to come down from the Ash tree in his backyard.

“My skills include but are not limited to: Computers, space travel, donating blood, chainsaw use and propane and propane accessories.”

Brandon Johnson was raised in Rifle, Colorado. A thoroughgoing West Sloper, Brandon spent his youth hunting, doing 4-H projects, and raising the Blue Ribbon winning Steer, Theodore. He worked at a state wildlife area while in high school.

Brandon is starting his fourth season as an EAB control technician; he climbs trees to prune and remove them in the other seasons and operates the stump grinders and other equipment. 

In his spare time, Brandon snowboards, climbs rocks and plays guitar. He lives in Superior and dreams of traveling the world.

Matt Arnold came to Boulder from Summit County, Colorado, where he attended High School. He then studied at the University of Colorado, Boulder, from which he graduated, in 2020, with degrees in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Geography.

Matt first joined Berkelhammer Tree in the summer of 2019, as a tree injection technician. After finishing his degrees, he re-joined the company in 2020 for the summer Emerald Ash Borer control season, after which he started working with the pruning and removal crews, first as a ground worker and later as a climber trainee. During work hours, Matt can be found injecting trees, carrying logs and brush, climbing trees or plugging leaks in the office’s roof.

In his own time Matt enjoys gardening, hiking, taking care of his pet snake and snails and spending time with his girlfriend Erin. He enjoys learning about the natural world so you may find him listening to a podcast about plants or crouching over a caterpillar.

Erin Herbert is a Senior at CU, Boulder, studying Political Science and History. She is planning on attending Law School after graduation. She answers phone calls and emails, enters work orders and organizes jobs in the database, along with myriad other tasks.

In her free time, Erin likes hanging out with her cat, Lily (“I think she’s the most beautiful girl on the planet”) and, to a lesser extent, her boyfriend, Matt. She also volunteers for Mesa (Moving to End Sexual Assault) and works part time for the Brazen project, a reproductive rights organization.

Erin grew up in Colorado Springs, and lives in Longmont, CO.

James Baker is a climber for Berkelhammer Tree. He was born in Canada to British parents, so he’s kind of British but kind of Canadian; but then again, he moved to the U.S. in elementary school, so…he’s really all three?

James started working here during his summer vacations from Vanderbilt University, as an Aza injection technician and ground worker. After graduation, he worked for two Conservation Corps locations as a wildland firefighter apprentice, and then as a crew leader for a chainsaw crew doing fuel mitigation in Larimer County.

James went on to learn the basics of arboriculture and tree climbing while working as an arborist trainee for the City of Aurora Forestry Department, then returned to Berkelhammer full time as a climber in the spring of 2021. He fills his free time with hiking, rock climbing and reading. He has travelled many times to the Homeland, to work at his extended family’s sheep farm and, like most good Brits, he is passionate about a tasty pint.

Cal Blubaugh grew up in Cornelius, North Carolina and received his B.S. in Recreation Management from Appalachian State University.

Before moving to Boulder, he worked a variety of jobs including ski instructing in North Carolina and Colorado, guiding backpacking trips in New Mexico, and working on a trail building crew in Montana.

Outside of work, Cal enjoys hiking, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, disc golf, and going on road trips.

Adam Granger is a ground worker, stump grinder, and climber trainee for Berkelhammer Tree. He spends his working days chipping brush and lifting logs, rigging branches from the ground and operating our stump grinders. 

Adam was born in Boulder, and has lived in Longmont his whole life. After graduating from Longmont High School, he went on to receive his Associates degree from Front Range Community College.

Always a lover of the outdoors, he spent his childhood climbing and jumping out of the big Honeylocust in his front yard. He enjoys snowboarding, camping and hiking with his fiance Lois and their puppy Loki. He enjoys learning the ropes of tree work and looks forward to expanding his arboricultural knowledge and skills.

Omar Chaarawi is a climber who spends a good proportion of his time on the ground crew at Berkelhammer Tree. He has been working here since October 2018.

Having grown up all over the United States, Omar has a deep appreciation for nature and trees of all kinds and loves being able to work outdoors. Omar graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in chemistry and is in the process of pursuing another degree in data science and engineering from CU Boulder. Some of his favorite activities include trail running, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and generally enjoying being outside. When he’s not playing outside, Omar dabbles in cooking, petting dogs, drinking tea, painting, and writing love letters to his beautiful girlfriend Anna.