Rock Climbing Hobby Leads To Establishment Of

Ken Koster moved to Hawaii right out of high school. While there, he took up the hobby of rock climbing and was hooked. When he moved back to Santa Barbara in 1985, he began working in the nursery industry, getting his fix for climbing by climbing and trimming trees instead. As he worked, he began to become convinced of the importance of trees in taking care of the environment and started learning more about them, joining the International Society of Horticulture.

Since that time, he purchased a nursery and began doing landscape installation, including planting trees. Additionally, his company trims and removes trees. Today he employs 15 people and his business has grown by word of mouth. Ken says the variety of work “keeps me from getting bored.”

The biggest tree Ken ever moved was a 65,000-pound double-trunk Canary Island Date Palm that was in the way on a construction site. Ken and his crew contracted with a full-size crane operator to move the palm tree to another place on the property.

His four-acre nursery is located in Santa Barbara and specializes in growing palm trees, with 62 varieties available, along with 20 kinds of tropical trees, for a total of 180,000 trees on-site. Many of the palms are germinated and started in Hawaii where they grow more quickly, only to be shipped later on to Quality Nursery.

(Top) Q.T.C. using their BC1800 chipper with boom crane to lift a large branch.
(Above Left) Ken removing a tree for new house site.
(Above Right) Trees boxed on-site for further planting.

Quality Nursery & Tree Care performs jobs for commercial, residential and government customers. They do work for school districts, shopping centers, parks, clients who have them sign confidentiality clauses, and every day homeowners. Most of Ken’s work is done in the Santa Barbara area, although he also has worked in Lake Tahoe, Hawaii and Florida, often being flown in by the customer to trim their trees.

Of his reputation in the business, Ken says, “I try to be honest, do good work and be fair. I have a creative side and I think tree installation is my form of artwork.”

(Above) Q.T.C. crew feeding the Vermeer BC1800 chipper.
(Right Photos) Views of the Q.T.C. nursery.
(Bottom Right) An African tulip tree.

Ken, who is still actively involved in his jobs, and his crew recently dug and boxed 27 palm trees on a residential lot where a house is being built. The trees will be replanted at a later date. Additionally, they removed a large tree. Ken and his crew, use both a Vermeer RT100 Walk Behind Trencher and a Vermeer BC1800XL brush chipper on their projects. He says using the trencher saves them up to two-thirds the time it would take to remove a tree by hand. They can cut the roots on all four sides of the tree with the trencher and then more easily take the tree down.

The chipper, which he owns three, can process all the wood to chips, instead of having it cut for firewood. Ken says the chips can be placed on top of soil, which cools the soil and then as the chips decompose, they release nutrients into the soil.

“I started my business with a pick-up truck and a chainsaw,” Ken explains. “I have these wonderful chippers now that are a far cry from what I grew up with.

“I used to have to cut every piece of a tree to a haulable length and throw it in the bed of the truck,” he continues. “The equipment streamlines my business and makes it much more efficient.”

There is a lot of variety to the work Quality Nursery & Tree Care performs, and often times it is tied to natural events. When there is flooding, Ken and his men are called in to remove trees blocking creeks and roads. When there are storms, they have removed fallen trees from where they fell on homes. When there are fires in the area, they cut down fire-damaged trees.

Ken likes the idea of diversifying to grow instead of growing the current business bigger. “I’m as big as I want to be right now,” he explains. “I’ve been bigger before, but I think you start to sacrifice quality the bigger you get. I’m working with crews that are the cream of the crop now and am able to deliver a much better product.

“Until my daughters Amanda (age 20) and Zoey (age 14) and son Ethan (age 9) are in a position to, or want to, help out with the business, I don’t plan on getting bigger,” Ken continues. “I want to be good at what I do—be a good arborist. I’d rather do less work, but better work.”

(Above) Preparing trees for transplanting.