Trees Inc.

About Trees Inc.

In December the bluff at Frances Park is all bare limbs and river below, the oaks holding their gray shapes against a low sky. Trees Inc. spends that half of the year on the ground: plowing driveways and lots, clearing walks and steps, putting down salt before the meltwater off a sunny afternoon turns into a hazard by dusk. Lansing snow tends to come modest and often rather than all at once, which means the real skill is returning — again the next morning, again after the wind fills a drive back in. There is a plain pleasure in a driveway opened before anyone needs it. Winter is long here, and a cleared path makes it shorter.