A Brief History...
College students Chris Roof and Brad Brooks lived in neighboring towns in Northwestern Ohio. Both were enrolled at Hocking Technical College and started carpooling back and forth to Nelsonville, Ohio. A friendship was formed and when the duo graduated in 1985 they each took jobs at a tree service in Toledo. The one hour and ten-minute commute was exhausting and inspired them to consider starting their own business. In 1987, they went to separate banks and borrowed $8,000 each, invested in a tree service truck and a new chipper, and after a few short years were busy enough to hire help.
In 1992 the EPA was starting to implement new rules for green waste going into landfills. After visiting several municipalities, there seemed to be enough interest for them to hire a company to help transform their brush piles into mulch material that was passed on for public use. They received their first municipal contract, which prompted them to purchase their first self-loading chipper. Unfortunately, they quickly realized that there was a lot of concrete, steel, and other debris that made the task unproductive. It was time to find better uses for their machine.
This led to the start of Tawa Tree’s Land Clearing Division and contracts with several high-profile projects including Fernald Nature Preserve, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and many large corporations and contractors in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. In mid-2009, Tawa Tree decided to phase out of the clearing business and focus more on its roots (pun intended!). In 2010 they started a Plant Heath Care division which opened up a whole host of new opportunities.
