"Everyone deserves beautiful trees"

“Everyone deserves beautiful trees”

A pruner’s journey through our workforce training program and beyond

What does a chef have in common with an arborist? For Joseph Nontanovan, both roles embody the intersection of creativity and technical skill. Before the pandemic, Joseph was working as a catering chef. After the world shut down, he found himself spending more and more time in his garden in Oakland.

“I got really into plants,” he says. “It was a fun hobby, and it made sense to go from working with vegetables in a kitchen setting to working with plants in the garden.”

Joseph’s creative nature led him to a keen interest in landscape design. After moving to Portland, he enrolled in Portland Community College’s Landscape Technology program.

“When I took my first class on trees, I just started nerding out. It was amazing to go from not being able to distinguish between species to little by little knowing more and more.”

While working at the PCC Learning Garden, Joseph encountered folks from the Portland Fruit Tree Project who told him about Connecting Canopies. Connecting Canopies offers a 9-month training in urban forestry and restoration to BIPOC adults. Part of the curriculum includes 10 weeks with Friends of Trees’ Adult Urban Forestry & Restoration Training Program, focusing on a community approach to planting trees.

Learning about Connecting Canopies helped Joseph decide to pivot from studying landscape tech to arboriculture. His time in the program was especially valuable for the sense of community.

“It’s rare to find a program where you get to build such a sense of camaraderie,” Joseph says. “Working with other folks from marginalized communities, it was a uniquely safer space.”

After completing his internship at Honl Tree Care and getting exposure working at a large form arborist company, Joseph decided to find his own niche and start his own company, Thomas & Sons Tree Care, which focuses on fine pruning ornamental and fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. He’s completed his arboriculture certificate from PCC, is an associate member of the Aesthetic Pruner’s Association, and is completing his hours to become an ISA certified arborist.

“Aesthetic pruning satisfies the artistic and technical aspects of myself,” he says. “And there are a lot of shaggy Japanese maples out there!”

Joseph has been building his business locally by describing himself as an artist-technician and posting before and after videos on Instagram and Nextdoor. He’s been flooded with responses. Working in his own neighborhood gives him more time and capacity to offer services on a sliding scale.