HOPKINSVILLE, KY (CHRISTIAN COUNTY NOW) – Since September, Beaver Tree Arborist Supply has been discretely operating off of East Ninth Street in Hopkinsville. Since it opened, the storefront has become a hub for niche groups of tree cutters and climbers in the region, highlighting the hard work and often generational arborist craft.
“Climbers and anyone who operates a bucket, they are a Type A fearless kind of person. At the end of the day, you’re asking someone to trust a limb and a rope for their life,” owner Kyle Lyon told Christian County Now. “It’s definitely an adrenaline driven job.”
According to Lyon, there are only around a dozen dedicated arborists supply stores in the entire United States, with people traveling over an hour to visit their Hopkinsville shop. Determining the right ropes, pullies, ring slings, ascenders and descenders that climbers can use includes factoring in a surprising amount of math and practical physics as they utilize friction and weight distribution in order to keep them safe.
“It’s not physics in the way of writing it down on paper, it’s more like the physics of how to throw a baseball,” he said. “That’s why people stay in this industry, because they get good at doing it and they don’t want to leave because they can do something the average person can’t.”
Goal of the shop, the physics of arborists
While Lyon is not usually the one going out on a limb when it comes to climbing, he enjoys tackling the occasional challenge alongside his team. As a retired Army veteran, this is his first shot at retail. Also the owner of Beaver Tree Service with his wife, the couple initially bought the Hopkinsville building to house and repair their work equipment. This inspired them to open up an attached retail location to cater to other arborists in the region.
“We sell ropes, climbing equipment, basically anything you need to take down a tree or trim a tree, minus the chainsaw,” he said. “If you’re 75 feet up in a tree, you don’t something you bought off of Amazon, you want something you know and trust, so that’s why we opened up.”
For arborists who work with Lyon, their work of cutting limbs or chopping down trees extends beyond aesthetics. Their partnership with local electric companies gives them the responsibility to ensure there are no overhangs on electrical lines, which proved crucial during the recent winter storm. Lyon said his crews and other arborists are often doing their hardest jobs during extreme conditions to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the community.
“Most of these guys really love trees and when they start studying how a tree grows, how cuts effect tree, they get really impassioned about it,” he said. “You’ll find a lot of generational climbers and cutters…once they do it once, they don’t want to go back inside.”
Lyon tries to accommodate all techniques when stocking the store, ranging from “old school” products to more modern items. He said they rely on their customers to determine what they should provide, with some products also used by fire departments and rescue teams as well as a variety of other functions.
Find Beaver Tree Arborist Supply on Facebook to find out more about their store, or visit them at 1107 East Ninth Street in Hopkinsville.
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