Get To Know Leaf & Limb: Meet Anna

In this installment of Get to Know Leaf & Limb, Nora sits down with Anna, Leaf & Limb’s chief organizer, planner, and installer in the Prairie Department. They discuss Anna’s journey from business major to ecological restoration specialist, her love for problem-solving in the field, and why she believes prairies are just as beautiful and complex as towering trees.

Nora: Hi Anna. Let’s just barge right in. Introduce yourself and tell us what you do here at Leaf & Limb!

Anna: I’m the chief organizer, planner, and installer here in the Prairie Department. This is one of the newer services that we've started providing in what is evolving into Ecological Restoration.

How long have you been at Leaf & Limb?

I believe it’s three and a half years at this point. I got out of regular tree operations about 6 months ago to work in this new area.

Why Leaf & Limb?

Interesting path. I was a business major at NC State, and I joined a program called the “B Corp Clinic”, which helps local companies get B Corp certified. After college, I was working a job that I didn't really like and one day I was looking at the B Corp website because I knew I wanted to work for a B Corp.

Leaf & Limb ended up coming up on that search, and they required no specific experience. I was clicking through the Leaf & Limb website, did a lot of research, and I wanted to learn what a climbing arborist was. It looked like an awesome company, and so I went in for an interview.

And it's just been a blast ever since.

Do you have a favorite thing that we do, and why?

I love our problem-solving culture. Every day, no matter what we're doing, there are a lot of problems that can and do arise. In our field operations, we ask “This is what needs to get done. How are we going to do that?” I feel like it's a part of my brain that I didn’t ever really get to flex in college. It's super fun to be out in the field and be creative in that way.

Tell me some things about yourself that you'd like people to know.

I find it kind of funny that I'm working in prairies now. I never imagined that I would be working in an outdoor field. I was very much a girly girl. But I absolutely love nature. Bison have, funnily enough, always been my favorite animal, and so I think that it's a very full circle adventure that now I'm working with prairies.

Another fun fact is that I absolutely despise being afraid of things. I am petrified of heights to the point that when I was little, if my parents drove the car over a bridge, I would have a full breakdown. And so, I always try to face my fears head on. That's one of the reasons that I wanted to climb trees when I started here. Facing my fears is of one of my driving forces in life.

What's the funniest thing that's ever happened on a job site?

We stole your truck! It was pretty fun for us, maybe less fun for you. I don't think many people get to have fun like this at other companies, so that was pretty memorable.

Do you have anything else you'd like to mention?

I would like to say I think grasses and prairies get overlooked in terms of their beauty. People look at a tree and think, wow, look at that big, beautiful thing. It's absolutely amazing, but I think it's just as amazing to use the knowledge that I've applied to those big, beautiful trees and apply it to a very small grass or flower, and be able to look at this tinier world and be certain this is just as beautiful and complex, even if it isn't the big grand thing.