About Hayes Tree, LLC

Ed is a Plant Pathologist and Entomologist by education and training with more than 40 years of experience. Serious interest began in 1975, while working on a master's degree at Virginia Tech; additional time involved traveling throughout western Virginia diagnosing insect and disease problems on Christmas tree farms. What fun, a serious passion began! Graduation was 1976, with a Bachelors degree in Forest Management and a Master's in Plant Protection from Virginia Tech.

Experience includes; assignments with Virginia Extension Service (Chesapeake and Luray, Virginia), and the Virginia Division of Forestry (Henrico Country, Sandstone, Virginia, 1977-78), then 31 years as one of the 4-5 Regional Forest Health Specialists for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, Rochester, MN. During those years the working group over saw the protection 16 million acres of public land, trained staff in multiple agencies, and authored hundreds of publications and newsletters recognized throughout the Lake Sates and nationally. Once retired I began two private companies, as a commercial arborist (2010), Hayes Tree, LLC and Safetrees, LLC, as sole Owner/Operator/President and Chief Cook. As a private commercial arborist I specialize in diagnostics and treatments.

In the field of Tree Risk Assessment, I authored and published a popular field guide for Arborists, "Evaluating Tree Defects". There are currently over 11,000 copies in circulation worldwide. The current main vendor is the International Society of Arboriculture, but also available from various Arborist supply companies, Amazon, and from us at www.safetrees.com. The field guide is now in its revised second edition (2014)!

Training: since 1988, have conducted well over a 100, one day, Tree Risk Assessment Workshops for arborists and other tree care professionals across the US, Canada, Australia, and the England.

Recognition: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry Award of Excellence June 1998. Membership: ISA Certified Arborist (International Society of Arboriculture), since 2000.

Current Clients: include multiple private homeowners in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and now Virginia. Tree Consultant, for Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota, with an inventory of 2800 trees and landscape value of 5.2 million, the work involves multiple treatment and tree protection programs.

Ancient trees: the photograph above is a native bur oak Qurcus macrocarpa, the largest and oldest of its species currently known to be alive in Minnesota. In roughly 2008 the oak was aged using data from Europe to 530 years based on it's hollow stem of 8 feet in diameter. This oak is an "Early Ancient" tree by European definitions and has a very unique story.