Lydia Bruning
Arborist
Where are you from? Stoughton, Wi
What did you do before? I taught special education.
How did you come to the work you are doing now?
When COVID hit, I decided I didn't want to teach online. I resigned from my job and got a seasonal job at a greenhouse. I love the outdoors, I love working outside and I love the physical aspect of it. When researching jobs, I came across arboriculture which was both outdoors and physical. I found a company that was willing to train me and a few years later here we are.
What do you like about the work? I like most things about it. I love climbing trees. I like working outside (even on bad weather days). I like how physically active it is, there's something about sitting down at the end of the day completely exhausted. I like learning about trees, they are so much more complicated and amazing than I ever knew before I started this job. I really enjoy running chainsaws, fixing chainsaws and I've recently started restoring some older chainsaws. Most days I can't believe I get paid to climb trees, it's a lot of fun.
Every once in a while I get to climb and prune a 100 foot-plus tree and those are my favorite days. I can tell you about every single one of them. A lot of people tell me that they are scared of heights, but I've learned that I actually prefer them.
What do you like to do, off the clock? I'm your typical outdoors woman. I love hiking, backpacking, kayaking, fishing, camping, and am always game to try something new. I find a lot of enjoyment in rec climbing trees (you know you enjoy your job when you do it for fun on the weekends). I also spend a lot of my evenings woodworking and wood burning. I also volunteer as a firefighter.
Do you have any advice for someone considering a non-traditional career? Making the decision to quit education and start arboriculture was pretty tough for me. I wasn't sure how I felt about not using the degree I had worked so hard to get. I was going from a female-dominated career to a male-dominated field that I had absolutely no experience in, and a million other things but something inside me said to do it and it's one of the best choices I've ever made. If you're thinking about it, if there's something inside you telling you it's the right move, I encourage you to do it. Make the jump, try it out. I got really caught up on what other people would think, but I think the important consideration is doing something you enjoy. Life is too short to be miserable in the place you spend half your time.
Your hope for the future? I would love to see more climbers that are women. I'm currently one of the only tree climbers (that I know of) in this area. It can be intimidating, but if you're interested or thinking about climbing, I encourage you to do it. It's a much more supportive and encouraging community than one might think.
What prompted you to open your own business? I enjoy being able to spend time with clients talking about their trees, I can take the time to share information that maybe they didn't know about and suggest what I think would be best for the tree. I can make it about doing what's best for the tree and the person whose property it's on, it's not just about cutting things down.
Check out empowHER South Central Wisconsin. Meetings are fourth Mondays, after work, TradeswomenSCW@gmail.com The empowHER Mother Ship is in Milwaukee. And the newest branch (see what we did there?) is NEW empowHER, in north east Wisconsin. We are all in this together, supporting one another, and helping others get into the trades.
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