A Conversation with Phil Graf, Founder of Graf Tree Care, About the Urban Forest, Fishing From the Air, and Why Taking Trees for Granted is a Big Mistake

You’ve grown your company from two to more than a dozen people (including Ringo, the shop dog). What’s your secret to business growth?
I have no formal business education or training, so I have sort of learned along the way, and continue to do so with each passing day. Our business growth has been completely organic. We seem to accumulate good clients and work hard to retain them. We have built our company from within.

What’s an “urban forest” and why are you so passionate about it?
Even though we do not live in a traditional forest, there are trees all around us, whether we live rurally, in a suburban area, or in an extreme urban downtown setting. In addition to trees, there are other organisms (wildlife, plant life, etc.) which together make up the urban forest. I grew up enjoying the outdoors, trees, nature, and wildlife. That has made forestry the perfect career for me.

What are you doing to spread the word?
Both myself and several staff members do a lot of educating and public speaking to promote our industry. We present educational sessions at industry conferences, such as the Illinois Arborist Association, the Illinois Park and Recreation Association, the Midwest Institute of Park Executives, among many others. Over the past year we are also getting involved at other state level arborist associations in Indiana and Michigan. One of our employees has even presented on the global stage at the International Society of Arboriculture Annual Conference.

What would you like people to know about trees?
Trees have so many benefits that people either do not know or take for granted. Trees clean our air and water by filtering out urban and suburban pollutants. They help conserve valuable natural resources while reducing energy costs by providing shade in the summer and windbreaks in the winter. They also increase property values, and make our communities more pleasant to live in.

How are you making a difference in the Fox Valley?
Over the past 10 years, we have helped many communities manage the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) infestation, which has been a natural disaster. Some of the most impactful things we have done are performing large scale GIS tree inventories, mapping out tree populations, and creating reforestation plans for communities that suffered greatly from canopy loss. We really feel we are making a difference by using the EAB disaster to make our urban forest better for the long term.

What’s your favorite tree in the Fox Valley?
Choosing a favorite tree is really hard, almost impossible – for me it would be like trying to name the favorite child in your family. There are great places to observe trees all over the Fox Valley; trees are all around us. Many of the parks in the St. Charles Park District have great mixed stands of trees, and Fox Valley Park District in Aurora also has a great tree population. We know because we inventoried them and mapped them all out.

How many trees do you think you’ve planted in your career?
Even though we do not currently plant trees as part of our business, I have probably planted thousands. These days we are more involved on the planning or consulting end of tree plantings. We create large scale reforestation plans for entire municipalities, and even small tree planting plans for smaller parks or homeowners association properties.

Did you have a treehouse or did you love nature while growing up?
Yes, absolutely, we had an unbelievable tree house. It was on part of a Silver Maple tree that hung out over a lake. We used to fish out of it.

How do you like working with Apex?
Working with Apex has been a great experience. Their staff is made up of top-notch professionals who know the field of accounting very well, and have never let me down in the 15 years I have worked with them. From a consulting side, Jim has been a business mentor for me. He has worked with me since we had less than five employees, and has made me a better business owner, teaching me how to work “on the business” as opposed to working “in the business.” I’ve learned that both are valuable, but you must be able to achieve the balance, and know how and when to do both. To circle back to your first question, business growth would not have happened to the degree which it has, without Apex CPAs and Consultants.