Courtesy photo Josh Weber is among the branches during a ChristTine Creation tree service job.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

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By R. R. Branstrom

rbranstrom@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — ChrisTine Creation is a tree service with goals of growing.

After learning the work from a mentor, friend and employer, Joshua Weber branched out to start his own business in 2022. He named the operation after his mother, Christine Weber, who passed away in 2021.

Josh, who grew up in Escanaba and ended up graduating from Bark River-Harris High School in 2009, learned that he was particularly proficient working with his hands. As a freshman in high school — then still at Escanaba Area Public Schools — he took a welding class. He said he didn’t realize at first the skill he possessed, but he ended up starting a career in the trade.

After taking a semester off after high school, Josh decided to pursue a welding certificate at Bay College. Because he had dyslexia, the state contributed funds towards Josh’s schooling, which made college education more affordable.

He successfully graduated with two welding certificates from Bay and then went on to work for the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad, which he enjoyed for the variety it provided.

He later took a job at Marinette Marine, first in Soc 2, welding panels into modules — which he found repetitive. While those types of jobs are great for some people, Josh said, he wanted more to do and sought a transfer to Soc 5, which came with more dynamic and interesting tasks.

Seeing his success, the company sent Josh for further certification that he now holds. Some of the work he ended up doing included welds from a man lift about 70 feet in the air — which probably helped get him comfortable with the heights he’d be experiencing next.

Josh learned that a colleague worked with Chad Miller, a foreman and engineer at Marinette Marine, doing tree service on the side. Josh tracked down Miller, introduced himself, and offered assistance with the tree service. This was around 2017.

Soon after, Miller took him up on that, and put Josh to work helping out on a job to take out a big tree, which required the use of a crane.

After that first gig, Josh began helping Miller more and more. Because Josh is relatively small and nimble, it’s easier for him to access spaces that other guys have difficulty reaching. Miller found value there.

By accompanying Miller on tree-cutting jobs periodically for about five years, Josh picked up a number of tactics.

“He had shown me a few different things — like when you’re in the tree, how to get to different spots if the branches are too thin — just things of that nature,” Josh said.

Though Miller usually used a lift, Josh wanted to climb, and found he enjoyed using a belt to shimmy up trees. The belt was one of the first investments he made for himself; he’s since bought several saws, too.

Josh considers Miller a mentor and a good friend, and said he’s always looked up to him.

When Josh wanted to go off on his own, he said, “It was funny – (Miller) was like, ‘I swear, every time I find a good employee that knows what they’re doing, they always go out and start their own thing!'”

After Christine died in November 2021, Josh wanted a legacy to honor his mother. In part, he said, it would be a way for his own children, who weren’t old enough to truly know their grandmother, to remember her in some way. He felt that carrying her name along would be inspirational, just as Christine herself, who had worked in rehabilitation at OSF, had inspired others.

“It’s all a big remembrance, truthfully,” Josh said.

He began with the name “Christine Tree Service and Creation.” While the first part speaks for itself, the “creation” is in reference to the artwork he makes from wood cut during tee jobs.

“I’ll build tables or do projects on the side — cut my own lumber out of the material, and use that to do projects,” Josh explained.

Pictures of some of his past works — unique, rustic, thick slab tables with wood legs — are on his website, but there aren’t many for sale at the moment. With material and ideas at hand, Josh hopes to continue to build more projects and accumulate a stock that people can choose from.

The business name evolved — first, Josh made the “t” in the middle of “Christine” large, so that it stood out and looked like a cross, because his mother was a religious woman. Now, it’s written capitalized.

Although tree-cutting is the main part of his business, Josh dropped the words “Tree Service” from its name, because he liked the intrigue incited by the name “ChrisTine Creation.” The thought is that curiosity would encourage people to want to find out more about what the business does.

Safety is an important part of Josh’s work. He learned certain values and precautions from Miller, others from Marinette Marine, where he still works full-time on the weekends.

Josh anticipates hiring help beginning this summer, and says he’ll drive home the importance of safety measures with anyone who joins him.

“Thinking about safety is, you know, always the one thing that you want to be doing,” Josh said. “You always want to be making sure that you’re safe. …You can’t ever assume.”

He said that one accident in which he dropped a saw reinforced the necessity of taking careful measures.

Usually, he keeps his saw attached to one of two carabiners — either close to his waist or dangling from a leash a couple feet long. High up in a birch tree, nearly done with a big job cutting a number of trees, Josh thought his saw was connected. He let it go — and the saw fell 50 feet before crashing to the ground.

No one was hurt, but he thought about what could have happened if someone had been below. As it was, he smashed a brand-new piece of equipment — a powerful but lightweight saw to which he had recently upgraded — and had to make the long climb down and back up to finish the job with an older and inferior tool.

It served as a lesson. Josh learned, the saw was replaced, and ChrisTine Creation carried on.

ChrisTine Creation offers free estimates. Small to large jobs for both tree trimming and tree removal are doable — “It doesn’t really matter what size tree it is,” Josh said.

He said that pretty much the only time he’ll tell someone he can’t do a job is if a tree is too dead, in which case a provider with other equipment, like a crane, is recommended. He and other similar businesses in the U.P. are happy to refer customers to one another.

Removal of the cut material and cleanup of the property is included on jobs done by ChrisTine Creation, unless a client wants to keep the wood. If a job is done in the winter, Josh said, he offers to come back in the spring to pick up.

People interested in hiring ChrisTine Creation for their tree service needs may call Josh at 906-553-1584. He is available for work Monday through Thursday.