MEET THE TEAM

More About Karl...

Karl began his tree care career in 1978, at only 14 years old, by working on Saturdays and during the Summers for his father’s tree care company in Indiana. The only time that Karl has not been involved with the tree care industry since then was the four years that he served in the United States Marine Corps. 

After leaving the Marines in 1987, Karl realized that he wanted to work in the tree care industry again, so he began buying and reading every book he could find on the topic of tree care. He still loves reading books on tree care, and as a result, Karl now has a collection of over 500 books on the subject. Early in his career, Karl made hundreds of 3x5 flash cards covering key concepts from the books he was reading and would review the cards until he mastered the concept.   

Karl became an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), Certified Arborist (MA-0323) in 1993 and began going to college at night at the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). While at NOVA, Karl became very involved with the faculty and staff and at their request, he wrote a tree management plan to help improve tree care on the NOVA campuses. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from NOVA and then transferred to Clemson University to earn a degree in Forestry. 

As an undergrad student at Clemson, Karl wrote grants to help restore the University’s Roland Schoenike Arboretum and to train other students in Arboriculture. After just one semester at Clemson University, the Vice President for Public Service and Agriculture invited Karl to attend his weekly meetings with the South Carolina Botanical Garden’s management team. He continued to meet with this team throughout his time at Clemson University. 

In addition to his grant writing and training activities at Clemson, Karl helped organize three Arborist Service Days at the Schoenike Arboretum. He used these events to improve the level of care at the Arboretum and introduce fellow forestry students that volunteered with him to potential employers from around the Southeast. During his three years at Clemson University, Karl also solicited over $100,000 in donations for the Arboretum from tree care companies and related industries.  Karl graduated Magnum Cum Laude from Clemson in December of 1999. 

In the past 30 years, Karl has attended hundreds of tree-care related conferences and workshops. After these sessions, he would frequently introduce himself to the speakers/trainers to discuss topics even more in depth. As a result, he became well known to many industry leaders and was first recruited as a board member of the ISA Mid-Atlantic Chapter at only 28 years old. He served on both the Mid-Atlantic and the Southern Chapter Board of Directors, where he eventually became President.   

Karl also became a speaker at many industry events and helped organize five International Society of Arboriculture (Southern Chapter) annual conferences and dozens of smaller conferences.  In addition to his presentations at professional conferences, Karl also enjoys speaking at presentations on tree care topics at garden club meetings. 

One of Karl’s three part-time jobs while attending Clemson University was working as a climber for Williams Tree Care in Seneca, SC.  When Mr. Williams retired in 2014, Karl and his wife, Rebecca, purchased the company and changed the name to TreeSouth, LLC.  

Karl and Rebecca live in Pendleton, SC with their two canine children, Buster and Stella. In their free time, they enjoy volunteering in the Pendleton community and especially for the Pendleton Historic Foundation. They are currently restoring their own historic home in Pendleton, known as Lowther Hall, built in 1793.