Throw a couple logs on the fire, smell the burning wood, and relax during the cold winter nights. Did you think much about the trees from which those logs came? Institute of Applied Agriculture student Joe Shaffer has. In fact he spent over 300 hours this summer taking down, trimming, and caring for trees.
The smell of two-stroke engines and the sounds of wood chippers filled Shaffer’s days this past summer as he interned with Carroll Tree Service in Baltimore County, MD. A second-year Agricultural Business Management major, Shaffer has had a growing interest in arboriculture ever since he took a basic tree identification class two years ago.
His internship with Carroll Tree Service gave him field experience in the field as well as experience managing a small crew. As a grounds man for the company, Shaffer did tree take downs, cleaned up after climbers, and operated various types of machinery including skid steers, chippers, chipper trucks, and stump grinders. He believes that his increased tree knowledge, identification, and safety skills will help him in the future. He says that making critical decisions for the company when he was on his own for the day, definitely helped prepare him for running his own business someday. As did assisting in the billing and pricing of jobs.
Given his diverse interests in agriculture and entrepreneurship, Shaffer is leaving his options open. He is considering starting a beef operation. But whatever he decides, he is grateful for the opportunity to learn a bit of the higher management skills that he will need in the future when he chooses to start his own company or work up the ladder with a large company in the area or even nationwide.
