Dana Brelowski is a tree climber and professional arborist with Davey Tree based in Naperville, Illinois. In May, she visited the Davey Seed campus in Kent for the first time.
"So far I've only done aerial rescue, but I feel pretty good about it," she said.
But on this day, she was not there to work. She was there to compete.
"My plan of attack [is to] basically make it so that I'm doing the least amount of climbing up and the most efficient climbing down," she said.
Brelwoski was at Davey for three days in mid-May with more than 70 other professional climbers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico for the North American Tree Climbing Championship.
It was three days of competitive tree climbing with six events modeled after different scenarios arborists like Brelowski might face in the field, like climbing and pruning a tree or rescuing an injured colleague.
Of the 50 men and 22 women who competed, only one of each advanced to the international championship this fall.
But 25 years ago, women wouldn’t have been eligible to participate in the annual competition organized by the International Society of Arboriculture. So, these women would’ve missed out on what CEO Caitlyn Pollihan calls key benefits of the competition.
"It makes them better at their job that they go back to do," she said. "They are taking things that they learned here, some of those tips from their peers, to go back and to be able to tell all of their coworkers and other people about what they learned."
So the ISA and Davey alike have pushed to increase representation for women in the field.
"It's a very male-dominated industry," said Davey’s Vice President of Health and Safety Don Roppolo. "So to me, it's really important and we're all better the more diverse that we are."
By hosting the championship for the first time, Roppolo said he hoped to spread awareness about arboriculture to everyone – women included.
And once they get to the championship, Pollihan said they see the fruits of their labor.
"It's a really exciting opportunity for us to celebrate the fact that we do have a really active group of women who have been climbing and competing within not only the chapter and associate organization events," Pollihan said, "but then also our ISA regional and international tree climbing competitions."
17-year-old climber Alexis McLeod from Raynham, Massachusetts symbolizes the value of representation in the industry.
Though she’s still in high school, and not yet a certified arborist, it was her second time at the North American championship. At this level, she said she’s able to learn directly from climbers who look like her.
"My group has five girls and two guys like that wouldn't be a thing at my regional competition" McLeod said. "Now it's like wow! I'm in a group with mostly girls so I get to see them compete and I get, like, to compare myself against that instead of, like, only seeing men compete and having that be my benchmarker."
Often times, McLeod said other climbers push past their drive for victory to give her a few pointers.
"Every single time I go to one of these competitions, whether I'm volunteering or competing, I always learn something new … that will help me be a better employee once I go out into the field and start working," McLeod said.
It's that cooperative spirit of the competition that keeps McLeod coming back for more.
"Everybody here is just trying to help everybody else be a better climber whether it's, like, cheering from the ground or, like, giving advice, sharing gear," she said. "It's just one big family."
For Pollihan, that's the spirit of the competition: climbers supporting climbers to be better and safer on the job. And, if they’re able to inspire new arborists along the way, that’s even better.
