I met arborist Alec Baxt three years ago at the base of an old camellia—he, hanging on a rope, hand-pruning high within the tree; me, frantically passing by. That rushed summer exchange began both one of my most cherished camaraderies and the beginning of my arboricultural tomfoolery.
A Brooklyn native and the owner of Lively Oak Conservation Tree Care & Consulting, Baxt skips back and forth between the big city and Southern Louisiana, working on trees in both worlds for months at a time. There is an air about Baxt that suggests he is not one of us, exactly. Perhaps it’s that his main form of transportation is a bicycle with a small trailer of arborist tools in tow. Or maybe it’s the way, at the end of each day, he lines tiny bundles of plant debris neatly by the roadside. (Assuredly, this is how one must act when hauling said debris through narrow brownstone homes out to the Brooklyn streets?) Or perhaps it’s the inherent curiosity, and often bemused confusion, in his eyes and words when intermingling with us Southern Louisianans. Regardless, he and his modes of operation stand out on the streets of Baton Rouge.
I have been fortunate to work alongside Baxt most weeks of this past year. Different from any arborist I have interacted with, Baxt really does not want to cut your trees down. Though I have indeed seen him fell a tree, his passion lies in fine pruning, tree health assessment, community education, and good conversations held about and beneath trees…