Award-winning young entrepreneur George Trott on pioneering digital tools and his advice for launching a successful startup in Pro Arb's December 2025/January 2026 issue.
In the world of arboriculture, where techniques that have stood the test of time and the whir of the latest machinery intersect, George Trott has forged a distinctly modern career. From a 2020 Pro Landscaper 30 Under 30 award to founding his own firm and winning a 2025 Prestige Business Award for Best Arboricultural Consultancy, his trajectory defines what a rising star looks like in the industry.
Sitting down with Pro Arb Magazine, he reflects on his non-linear career journey, rapidly evolving from hands-on landscaping and tree surgery to analytical consultancy, and details his recent efforts in digital application development.
From woods to wood turning: The seeds of a career
Trott’s initial attraction to the industry was, by his own admission, not born of a lifelong obsession with trees, but rather a gradual awareness. He recalls playing in the woods as a child and his grandfather’s skill in wood turning, but the conscious spark ignited later. “It wasn't till later on, I remember sheltering under a redwood, and thinking for the first time, ‘this is a cool living thing.’ I don't remember ever paying much attention before that,” he says.
A chance encounter at a holiday park began Trott’s real journey into arboriculture. “One day, a group of tree surgeons arrived on site and, as I’m sure many 20-year-olds do, I saw them swinging around in trees with chainsaws and thought, I need to be doing that!” This inspiration led him to Tony Benger Landscaping, where he formally learned the landscaping and tree surgery trades, building the foundation that would ultimately steer him into arb consultancy. The pivot to consultancy stemmed from intellectual curiosity. While working on grounds maintenance, he found himself following instructions from arboricultural reports without understanding the reasoning behind them. “I never understood why we were doing things,” he remembers. “The consultant would just send the report, and we'd get given part of the report on site to work from. I wanted to understand why we're doing the job in this way.” He likens the relationship between an arborist and a consultant to that between a surgeon and a diagnostician. The desire to diagnose, to understand the ‘why,’ propelled him into the world of consultancy, where he has now firmly established his own firm.
Nevertheless, his foundation in practical arboriculture directly informs a vital part of his consultancy work: balancing preservation with modern arboricultural needs. A prime example was a recent site featuring an avenue of ageing lime trees rumoured to have sheltered King Charles II during the English Civil War. "It's a property with incredible history," Trott explains. "This massive avenue was the original entrance, but the trees are now in decline. The challenge is determining their future." This situation highlights the long-term perspective inherent to the profession. When considering the lifespan of such historic trees, Trott notes, "Lime trees can live, if it's just a single tree, for probably many hundreds of years – maybe even a thousand years at a real push. But if you manage them as a coppice, then you're talking thousands of years."
This intersection of history, biology and practical management is where Trott has built his career. Reflecting on his journey, he considers himself “very lucky” to have found an industry he is passionate about. However, he is quick to correct any impression that his success was mere chance. “Luck is often a bit of a downplayed word,” he asserts. “When people say, ‘Oh, I feel really lucky to be where I am,’ I think, ‘Well, no, you've worked extremely hard to get there,’ it didn't happen by chance. It has been a plan you have had to work hard towards.”
The digital arborist: Building tools for a greener future
What truly distinguishes Trott’s recent trajectory is his foray into digital tool development, a natural extension of his problem-solving mindset. He has independently created two web-based applications designed to democratise tree knowledge and foster a deeper public connection with the natural world.
First is a free tool named ‘Right Tree, Right Place,’ which addresses a fundamental issue in urban forestry. “A lot of issues with managing mature or older trees, especially in the urban environment, seem to come about because they're the wrong tree in the wrong location,” Trott expounds. Addressing the problem of determining the right tree for a local area, the app allows users to input site-specific data – available space, soil type, drainage and planting objectives – and uses artificial intelligence to generate a list of suitable tree species, complete with links to nurseries. “It's a tool I've put out into the world,” he says, “because I think it could probably solve 90% of people's inquiries about tree planting.” The reception from fellow consultants has been positive, with many suggesting future features, a list Trott is already compiling.
His second project, ‘My Tree Diary,’ is more personal and community-focused. It aims to highlight the value of everyday trees that might otherwise be overlooked. “People seem to value the biggest trees or the oldest trees,” Trott observes. “But I don't think a lot of people quite realise the value of the everyday tree on your street, particularly people that live in areas of low canopy cover; they might only see one tree on their journey to and from school, but those trees might mean a lot to them.” The app allows users to map and record trees that are special to them, uploading photos and notes to create a public journal. On one hand, a free account allows users to log three trees, and on the other, a low-cost subscription account enables users to generate PDF journals tracking a tree’s changes over time. “I’m hoping it leads to a bit of a movement,” Trott says of his ambition for the app, which is in its final testing phases. “So, eventually users can create walks to go see all these special trees that you may not ordinarily think of as important.”
A philosophy of curiosity and humility
Trott’s drive to continuously learn and build has not gone unnoticed. This year and the early years of his career have seen him recognised with multiple awards, a success he attributes to a competitive spirit and a relentless desire for improvement. “I just like entering things because I like the competition,” he admits. “My thought process is if it's a way to improve, even if there's a massive challenge to do that improvement, rather than me seeing it as an issue, my mindset is, ‘Yeah, let's do this.’”
This drive has carried him through the daunting leap from employee to business owner. While he acknowledges the fear, he believes that constant contemplation of the move is a sign of readiness. “When you're in that frame of mind, where you're constantly thinking about the next stage, even if you don't feel ready, that's a sign that you are ready. Because if you're driven, you're motivated, you can do it.”
His advice to other young professionals considering a similar path is to gain thorough experience first, particularly in management roles, to make the transition feel like “business as usual, but with a different name.” He also stresses the importance of recognising one's limitations, especially in areas like accounting. “The important skill is to learn that you don't need to do everything,” he remarks. “Even if you have to pay someone to do something, that could work out cheaper than trying to do it yourself. Also, you could have been doing something more worthwhile, such as a higher-value work elsewhere.”
Underpinning all of Trott’s work is a profound sense of humility in the face of nature’s complexity. He offers a poignant piece of wisdom for anyone in the field: “Trees will always make a liar out of you.” He elaborates: “You could be in the industry for sixty years and look at a tree and go, ‘Yeah, I see nothing wrong with that.’ And then it falls over the moment you leave. We don't know everything about trees. But the more I've learned, the more I think – I have so much more I want to learn. It's really humbling.”
An industry at a crossroads
Looking at the arboricultural industry as a whole, Trott sees a sector in a state of paradoxical health. On one hand, there is an abundance of work, driven by crises like ash dieback and government housing targets. On the other hand, this boom may be creating unsustainable competition. “There should be work everywhere,” he states. But he has noticed a surge in new businesses, particularly in tree surgery, leading to undercutting. “There's always someone who's significantly cheaper, who seems to just sort of go around picking all the stuff up.” He expresses a similar concern in consultancy, where he has occasionally been outbid by significantly cheaper operators, prompting questions about their qualifications and insurance. He notes that while training is now very accessible, “it doesn't make them a good arborist. Just means they've done the course.” Despite these market pressures, Trott remains overwhelmingly positive about the industry’s culture. He describes it as exceptionally welcoming and open, a stark contrast to the sometimes-fractious debates seen on social media. “If you go to in-person arb events, it's really open. Everyone wants to talk, because you're all professionals,” he notes. “There aren’t really any gatekeepers. Everyone feels like they want to say, ‘yeah, just come in. We'll help you'.”
For George Trott, the future is a map of unexplored branches. He has no fixed destination, only a drive to keep building, learning and overcoming the next challenge. Whether diagnosing an ancient lime, coding a new AI tool, or mapping someone’s favourite street tree, his career is a testament to an evolving profession where chainsaws and algorithms can coexist, all in the drive to understand and preserve nature.
