The Story Behind Mighty Oaks Tree Care
Rooted in Tree Care. Built Around Family.
Mighty Oaks Tree Care is a family-owned tree care company based in Ozark, Missouri. The Mighty Oaks name may be new, but tree work has been part of my life for many years — and the Southwest Missouri communities we serve have been part of our family’s story just as long.
Today, I work alongside my two oldest sons, serving homeowners throughout Ozark, Nixa, Springfield, and surrounding Southwest Missouri communities. Mighty Oaks grew from a simple idea: do good tree work, tell people the truth, treat their property with care, and stay accountable to the communities our own family calls home.
LOCALLY OWNED. FAMILY OPERATED. PROUDLY INDEPENDENT.
Where My Tree Care Story Started
My professional tree-care career started in Springfield, where my family and I were living at the time. I began as a groundsman with Ryan Lawn & Tree, and that’s where my father-in-law, Tim Crews, began teaching me how to climb and work in trees. He was a branch manager then, and much of what shaped me early in the trade came from working alongside him.
Those early years taught me more than how to work a rope or make a pruning cut. I learned to respect the tree, pay attention to everything beneath and around it, protect someone else’s home and property, and understand that good tree work depends just as much on judgment and responsibility as it does on physical skill.
As I learned to climb and took on more responsibility, something clicked. I loved being outside, solving problems, learning how trees worked, and doing a job that required both your head and your hands. Tree care stopped feeling like work I happened to be doing and started becoming a trade I genuinely cared about.
From Missouri to Colorado — and Back Home Again
My family and I eventually moved to Colorado, where I continued working in tree care with larger companies and gained experience in a different part of the industry. I was also part of cleanup work following the Waldo Canyon Fire in the Colorado Springs area.
Working there broadened my experience. Different crews, different trees, different properties, and difficult conditions all forced me to keep learning and adapting. It also reinforced how much I enjoyed the problem-solving side of tree work — looking at a difficult situation, developing a plan with the crew, and seeing that plan through safely.
When my father-in-law, Tim Crews, began building Cherokee Tree Care back home in Southwest Missouri, my family and I made the decision to return. I came back to work alongside him and help build the company, bringing home the experience I had gained while working in Colorado.
I eventually led a crew there for several years. That responsibility taught me another side of the trade: planning jobs, leading people, communicating with homeowners, protecting property, solving problems in the field, and being accountable for how an entire crew represented the company when we pulled into someone’s driveway.
I Tried Leaving Tree Work. I Couldn’t Leave the Trees.
For a while, I stepped away from tree care and worked in the electrical trade. I learned a lot, but being away from tree work made one thing very clear:
“I missed climbing trees.”
I missed being outside. I missed the physical and technical challenge. I missed looking at a tree, figuring out what needed to be done, and then climbing into the canopy to do the work.
Most of all, I realized tree care had never really been just a job to me.
It was work I was passionate about, and it was the work I wanted to be doing.
A Trade That Keeps Me Learning
That connection to the trade has kept pushing me to learn, test myself, and give back. Over the years, I’ve competed alongside other climbers, volunteered my skills, attended industry education, and continued studying the standards and science behind good arboriculture.
CLIMBING & CRAFT
Testing Myself in the Trees
SERVICE
Using the Trade to Give Back
STANDARDS & CONTINUED LEARNING
Standards, Study & What Comes Next
While we were living in Nixa, I competed in the Midwestern Chapter ISA Tree Climbing Championship for a couple of years. Competition was never the point of the work for me. It was a chance to test myself, learn from talented climbers, and keep sharpening the skills I used every day.
While living in Nixa, I also volunteered with Saluting Branches at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Springfield, joining other tree-care professionals in donating our time and skills to care for a place dedicated to the men and women who served our country.
I’ve attended TCI EXPO and taken part in industry education there, and I continue studying arboriculture today. Mighty Oaks follows applicable ANSI tree-care standards and recognized ISA practices in the work we perform, and I’m continuing my ISA studies as I work toward becoming an ISA Certified Arborist.
Building Toward What Comes Next
I’m also studying toward Missouri pesticide applicator licensing so that, once the proper licensing, knowledge, and systems are in place, Mighty Oaks can responsibly expand into plant health care. That is a future goal — not a service or credential we claim to have today.
Experience matters. So does staying willing to learn.
Why I Started Mighty Oaks Tree Care
As ownership in the tree-care industry around me kept changing — including the company I had helped build — I started thinking seriously about what kind of future I wanted for my family, and what kind of company I wanted homeowners to deal with.
I wanted to build something different.
I wanted the decisions affecting the work and our customers to stay here in Southwest Missouri — not with an outside investor or a distant office.
I wanted to be able to stand in a homeowner’s yard, look at the tree in front of me, consider the property around it, listen to what they were concerned about, and recommend what I genuinely believed made sense.
I wanted to build a company where customers know who they’re dealing with, the people doing the work are accountable for it, and our reputation lives in the same communities we serve.
That became Mighty Oaks Tree Care.
THE RIGHT WORK FOR THE TREE
Honest tree care does not mean recommending the most work. It means recommending the work that makes sense.
Sometimes that means pruning.
Sometimes a tree really does need to come down.
Sometimes the right answer is to leave it alone.
That became
And if a job isn’t a good fit for us, I’d rather be honest about that than pretend it is.
Mighty Oaks Tree Care
Maybe Mighty Oaks becomes something one of our children wants to carry forward someday. Maybe their paths take them somewhere completely different. Either way, I want them to be able to look back and know they helped their mom and dad build something honestly from the ground up.
A Family Building Something Together
Mighty Oaks started with our family, and family is still at the center of it. Janelle and I have four kids, and today I have the privilege of working alongside our two oldest boys while she keeps things moving behind the scenes and continues homeschooling our children.
Our two oldest boys started their first school years in Nixa. Now I get to watch them put on work boots, grab ropes and equipment, and come to work beside me. That’s something I don’t take for granted.
They’re learning tree work, but I hope they’re learning a lot more than that. I want them to understand why you show up when you say you will, why someone’s property deserves respect, why you clean up after yourself, why you tell a customer the truth, and why your name should mean something when you put it on the side of a truck.
“Preserving Today’s Trees for the Generations That Follow” means more to us than a tagline.
It’s about caring for the trees we’re entrusted with today, but it’s also about the kind of work ethic, reputation, and community we want to leave behind for the next generation.
OUR ROOTS
Rooted Across Southwest Missouri
When we say Mighty Oaks is local, we don’t just mean our business address is in Ozark. Our family’s story runs through many of the same Southwest Missouri communities we now serve.
I went to school in Marshfield. It’s one of the communities that shaped my life long before tree care ever became a career.
MARSHFIELD
Janelle grew up in Strafford. Our story started with two people from neighboring Southwest Missouri communities who eventually built a life and family together.
STRAFFORD
SPRINGFIELD
We were living in Springfield when I first began professional tree work. That’s where this career started for me and where some of my earliest years in the trade took shape.
Later, Nixa became home. I lived and worked there, our two oldest boys started their first years of school there, and it became another important chapter in our family’s life.
NIXA
Today, Ozark is home. Our children attended school here before Janelle began homeschooling them, this is where we’re raising our family, and this is where we decided to put the Mighty Oaks name on a truck and build something of our own.
OZARK
Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, Strafford, and Marshfield aren’t simply names on a service-area list to us. They’re places tied to our marriage, our children, our work, our memories, and different chapters of our life. When we say these are our communities, we mean it.
The details matter. Tree structure and condition, where a pruning cut is made, how much living canopy is removed, roots and soil, previous damage, nearby homes and property, and the homeowner’s goals can all affect the right approach.
HOW WE THINK ABOUT TREE CARE
Caring for Trees. Caring for the People Who Live Beneath Them.
Every tree, property, and situation is different. Good tree care starts by understanding what is actually happening before deciding what work — if any — makes sense.
FOR THE TREE
Thoughtful Work Starts With the Tree in Front of Us
At Mighty Oaks, we believe in thoughtful pruning, preserving trees when it is reasonable to do so, and giving homeowners straightforward information about their options. Removal has an important place in tree care, but it should not automatically be the answer to every concern.
Our work follows applicable ANSI A300 Tree Care Standards and recognized ISA Best Management Practices. I continue studying arboriculture because experience matters, but so does understanding the science behind how trees grow, respond to pruning, recover from stress, and change over time.
FOR THE PEOPLE BENEATH IT
The Work Doesn’t Stop at the Bark
But good tree care is not only about the tree. It is also about everything beneath and around it.
When someone trusts us with a tree beside their home, above the yard where their kids play, near a fence or structure they worked hard to pay for, or with an old tree that has been part of their property for decades, we understand the responsibility that comes with that trust.
Take care of the tree.
Respect the property.
Give the homeowner a straight answer.
Good tree work should leave more than a finished job behind. It should leave the homeowner feeling like their tree, their property, and their concerns were taken seriously.
LOCAL MEANS SOMETHING
What Local Accountability Looks Like
Ozark, Missouri is home. This is where we’re raising our family, building our business, and putting our name behind the work we do throughout Southwest Missouri.
To me, being local should mean more than being nearby. It should mean you know who you’re dealing with, you understand what is being recommended, and the people putting their name on the work are accountable for what happens next.
01 — LOOK FIRST
Start With What Is Actually There
Whenever practical, I prefer to look at the tree and property in person before pricing the work. Access, what is beneath and around the tree, its condition, cleanup, and the actual scope can all change what a job requires. I’d rather take the time to see it than throw out a number that doesn’t match the work.
02 — EXPLAIN THE RECOMMENDATION
You Should Understand What We’re Recommending
We want homeowners to feel comfortable asking questions. If we recommend work, you should understand what we’re recommending, why we think it makes sense, and what the work will involve. A clear estimate should help you make a decision — not leave you guessing.
03 — RESPECT THE PROPERTY
The Property Matters Too
Tree work happens around homes, fences, driveways, landscaping, play areas, and the places families use every day. Protecting the property, keeping the work site orderly, and cleaning up after the work are part of doing the job properly.
04 — PUT OUR NAME BEHIND IT
Our Reputation Lives Here Too
We’re building Mighty Oaks one customer, one property, and one relationship at a time. When my sons and I pull into a driveway, our name is on the truck and our family’s reputation is attached to the work. That matters to me because these are the same communities where we live, work, and raise our family.
FULLY LICENSED & INSURED
Being accountable also means operating as a legitimate, insured business when someone trusts us to work on their property.
We want homeowners to feel comfortable asking questions, understand what we’re recommending and why, and know who is responsible for the work when the truck pulls away.
Local should mean accountable.
INDEPENDENT BY CHOICE
Proudly Independent. Family Owned. Locally Accountable.
Mighty Oaks Tree Care is independently owned and operated right here in Ozark, Missouri. There isn’t an investment group behind our name or a distant corporate office deciding how we do business.
When you call Mighty Oaks, you’re dealing with the family whose livelihood and reputation are tied directly to the work we do.
That independence gives us the freedom to build the kind of company we want our children to see us build — one centered on good work, honest communication, respect for trees and property, and long-term relationships with the people we serve.
It means the decisions that shape Mighty Oaks can stay connected to the people, properties, and communities those decisions affect.
We want to earn your business the old-fashioned way: do good work, be honest with people, respect their property, take responsibility for the work we do, and give them a reason to call us again.
As Mighty Oaks grows, we want those principles to stay at the center of everything we do.
“That’s the kind of company I wanted to work for.
So that’s the company my family and I decided to build.”
— Levi McCoy
Owner, Mighty Oaks Tree Care
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Need Help With a Tree? Let’s Take a Look.
Whether you’re dealing with overgrown branches, a tree you’re worried about, or simply aren’t sure what the right next step is, we’d be glad to take a look, listen to your concerns, and talk through the options with you.
Family owned in Ozark. Fully licensed & insured. Proudly independent.
No pressure — just an honest look at the tree, the property, and what makes sense.
Preserving Today’s Trees for the Generations That Follow.