Get To Know Honl Tree Care
A tree care company from a former Friends of Trees staff member!
Why is Honl Tree Care one of our favorite arborist partners? We go way back! Its founder, Chad Honl, was a Friends of Trees volunteer, then a Friends of Trees staff member managing our Neighborhood Trees program from 2000-2005. In fact, Chad was the very first ISA Certified Arborist on staff (now we have seven!).
“Friends of Trees really set me up,” Chad says. “I received so much guidance, and I’m thankful for all the volunteers that educated me.”
Chad’s contributions at Friends of Trees certainly helped us reach our 1,000,000 tree and native shrub milestone. The team was planting over 2000 trees each season while he was there. But his legacy goes beyond numbers. He also helped increase survival rates and worked with Portland Urban Forestry to expand the approved street tree list.
Chad left Friends of Trees to pursue a teaching career, but he found his way back to trees. What started as Chad doing tree care work with his wife’s pickup truck turned into Honl Tree Care in 2009. Now, Chad has a staff of nine certified arborists specializing in care and pruning. Quality tree care is so important for the health of our community forest, especially with environmental challenges like climate change and ice storms.
“Friends of Trees has created so many connections that have helped me grow my business,” Chad says. “And I could have grown more, but decided to focus on quality over quantity.”
“Chad has such an incredible legacy at Friends of Trees, and he continues to be an important part of the tree care community in Portland,” says Friends of Trees Executive Director Yashar Vasef. “We’re so grateful for his support and to call him a friend.”
Chad remains connected to Friends of Trees, and supported our Millionth Tree campaign as one of our partners. He loves trees, and he loves the connections people make while planting them.
“Friends of trees had made such a great impact,” Chad says. “You’ll find such good people and so much inspiration.”