20 Year Anniversary
September 2006 - September 2026
As we reach the milestone of 20 years in operation, we’re sharing the story of how it all began, where we are today, and our vision forward.
Read the full story below.
Our foundation for tree work began when our dad, Rick Athens, decided to leave his corporate job and launch a small family landscape company. Our teen years were spent helping with landscape projects and processing and selling firewood. We learned felling techniques and chainsaw operations as we spent many hours in the forest and on the farm, cutting down trees and processing the wood. As the landscape company grew, we began incorporating small tree jobs into our services. We would rent 6 – 12” chippers and tow-behind lifts to do the work – far from ideal but we managed. In 2004/2005, our dad decided that tree work was the direction to go. He sold the landscape side and began the process of buying the tree equipment from a retiring tree service owner. The new company became Athens and Sons Tree Service. After about a year, our dad decided the rigor of tree work was not the direction he wanted to go at his stage in life and in September 2006 we purchased the operation and renamed it Athens Tree Service.
At 19 and 21 years old, we had a lot to learn. Our equipment consisted of a bucket truck, a chip truck, and a 12” chipper – all of which were far from being in prime condition and sometimes it seemed we had to fix it as often as we were using it.
The first years of Athens Tree Service were challenging – learning proper and efficient tree care practices, slowly upgrading equipment, the two of us working long hours while hiring a friend to help, and finally adding a loader to our fleet. We kept at; learning about arboriculture, adding equipment little by little, hiring a couple of employees, and becoming incorporated and added Inc to the end of our name. In 2014, Jonathan successfully passed the arborist test and became our first certified arborist in the company. The years have flown by with challenges and opportunities, and today we are a company of 14 that operates 3 crews and serves the upstate of South Carolina. We are blessed to have a great team and an extensive fleet of equipment to help with our arborist projects. We have an office team of 2 and multiple climbers, arborists, and operators in the field to handle the workload. We are thankful first to God for His blessings and helping us get to where we are today and to each one that trusted us with their tree projects. It is a blessing to be able to serve the community with any of their arborist needs. As we enter our 20th year, we want to continue to provide that to each one – whether it’s pruning a tree, removing a tree, or a tree emergency we want to serve with integrity and do the job right. Finally, thank you to our community for giving us the opportunity to serve you. God bless!
— Scott Athens
Featured below: photos from back then
