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Tyler Balderson, Tree Hugger and Arboriculturist at Bartlett Tree Experts, on the importance of knowing your trees~\n\n"Being a board certified master arborist, the most important part is to be able to identify the tree. Each tree has either its mechanism of growth, or its concerns that I need to identify for the client, but there's also bad trees, there are trees we don't want on your property, and we call those invasive species. . . they can impact the health and growth of a tree that we do want."\n\nTyler Balderson - Tree Hugger and Arboriculturist, Bartlett Tree Experts and host Andy Ockershausen in-studio interview\n\nAndy Ockershausen: This is Our Town, and this Andy Ockershausen. And I'm just so excited to welcome a very special guest, my favorite tree hugger. And I use that term in all affection. This man is a very, very famous forester. He's famous because I think he's famous. We found him as the local manager at Bartlett Tree Experts about probably 15 to 20 years ago, Tyler. It's been a great relationship. Tyler Balderson, welcome to Our Town.\nTyler Balderson: Thanks for having me.\nAndy Ockershausen: Isn't this a great town to have Our Town?\nTyler Balderson: It's a great town.\nAndy Ockershausen: Even though we're familiar with you with Anne Arundel County, that's part of Our Town. We've always considered it that. Odenton where you had some ... that's where your office is, in Odenton.\nTyler Balderson: That is correct.\nAndy Ockershausen: But you're a local yokel.\nTyler Balderson is Homegrown, A Local Yokel\nTyler Balderson: I'm a local yokel. Born and raised.\nAndy Ockershausen: In Bethesda.\nTyler Balderson: In Bethesda, yep.\nAndy Ockershausen: Went to the school in Bethesda, and your family ... and your father, Andy, is a business man in Bethesda, he had your company before you were born, I would imagine.\nTyler Balderson: He did. He's a landscape architect. He's been practicing it for over 40 years now.\nAndy Ockershausen: And he decided that you'd be a tree person, but you're not an architect, you're a forester.\nBalderson is a Natural Born Tree Hugger\nTyler Balderson: That is correct. Yeah, I was born and raised in a nursery, where he founded our house, and so born and raised around trees. Naturally, I'm going to take care of them.\nAndy Ockershausen: Did you cut down trees to build your house?\nTyler Balderson: No. I'm a tree hugger. I don't cut trees.\nAndy Ockershausen: You did just the opposite. You would've loved George Washington, right, he cut down a tree and his parents put him in trouble.\nTyler Balderson: That is correct.\nAndy Ockershausen: That's part of Our Town, too, Mount Vernon, you know.\nFirst Professional Gig - Elm Trees at Mount Vernon\nTyler Balderson: Mount Vernon, we take care of the trees at Mount Vernon.\nAndy Ockershausen: Is that right?\nTyler Balderson: Absolutely.\nAndy Ockershausen: Your company does?\nTyler Balderson: Yep, I personally have been injecting those elm trees for years before, when I got started in tree care, so I personally had taken care of those trees for Mount Vernon.\nAndy Ockershausen: When you were in Bethesda?\nTyler Balderson: Mm-hmm (affirmative), Bethesda, yep, when I first started out.\nAndy Ockershausen: Well, you've always lived in Bethesda before you went to college, correct?\nTyler Balderson: Correct.\nOur Town Legacy - Three Generations\nAndy Ockershausen: And the family is back, and your grandfather was born in the city, correct?\nTyler Balderson: Correct, yeah.\nAndy Ockershausen: Within the city limits.