Gloria Chacón didn’t plan to become a tree doctor, dealing with all things related to shrubs and woody plant life.
“My parents wanted me to be a lawyer,” she said.
Life, as usual, had other plans.
Today, as a licensed arborist, Chacón owns Green View Tree Service LLC, a Cranston company specializing in removing and trimming trees, responding to 24-hour-a-day emergencies and hydroseeding pesky lawns that refuse to grow.
Clients range from homeowners to the cities of Warwick, Pawtucket and Providence. A TikTok video shows a Green View employee rocking out to Brooks and Dunn’s “Hard Workin’ Man” as he mows the huge lawn of a corporate client.
“To me, climbing trees was fun, but my company job is more about leadership,” Chacón said.
As a Guatemalan immigrant, Chacón joined her family in Providence’s Olneyville section in 2005, when she was 15. Guatemala is a beautiful country, she says, but it was wracked with gang violence. In a failed extortion attempt, the family house had been burned down not long before they emigrated to the U.S.
Chacón went to Hope High School, then the Community College of Rhode Island for an associate degree in paralegal studies. She transferred to Berkeley University in New Jersey for a Bachelor of Science degree in legal studies while working as a paralegal. At Berkeley, she met her husband, Ronald Chacón, and the couple moved back to Rhode Island to be closer to family. A risky pregnancy then forced her to stop working.
“I wanted to open a business where I could manage my time and take care of my kids,” she said. “I was looking for something with an easy entry that didn’t need a lot of money, that aligned with our values. My husband is Costa Rican and we’re very environmentally conscious.”
She launched Green View Tree, a landscaping service, in 2017; the first piece of equipment was a $30 lawn mower bought at a yard sale. To find clients, Chacón printed and distributed flyers to her neighbors. That brought the couple their first job, followed by another. After three months, as the business was booming, Ronald Chacón quit his full-time job as a diesel mechanic. Three months after that, they hired their first employee.
“I put all my love and effort into it and decided we could make a living at this,” she said.
At the same time, Chacón went back to school for an MBA concentrating in human resources management at Johnson & Wales University. Having a graduate degree made a huge difference, she says, giving her the knowledge to take the business to the next level.
“I saw an opportunity in tree service. There’s a bigger profit margin than landscaping, but it’s also a big investment,” she said.
At 28, she got her arborist license. In Guatemala, it’s normal to find women working on trees, she says. Here, even the exam was a challenge, she says.
“I was the only woman taking the arborist certification with nine men,” Chacón said. “They asked if I was a secretary. I didn’t know what I was getting into, being a woman in this field.”
Today, at 34, she’s one of just 52 female licensed arborists in a field that numbers more than 800, according to the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
Having her arborist license allowed her to expand the business in 2018. Not surprisingly, financing equipment was challenging.
“We didn’t have money to buy chainsaws and wood chippers, so we rented from Home Depot,” she said. “We then reinvested the money we made. We bought broken trucks and equipment, which my husband fixed, and with my knowledge from going to Johnson & Wales, I followed my business plan.”
Six years later, her staff of eight handles everything from landscaping to climbing trees to operating the buckets. Ninety percent of the company’s business is with municipalities, she says, tree trimming or mowing or prepping sites for planting, which requires an arborist on-site. Her husband is a supervisor with the business and goes to job locations.
“He empowers and supports me,” she said.
Chacón’s day starts early, getting her two kids, ages 7 and 4, to school. Then she’s off to job sites. If her staff is cutting down trees, for example, she checks that they’re following safety procedures. Then it’s back to the office for lots of paperwork and picking up the kids, then spending the evening working on job bids.
“My kids already have the hang of the business. They know ‘Mommy’s on the phone,’ ” she said.
With her focus on the environment, Chacón says she’s committed to giving back to the community, donating materials to school gardens, particularly in Olneyville, where she grew up. Last year, her hard work was recognized with a regional award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“I’ve been surrounded by hardworking women in my family,” she said.
She nods to an aunt who had a successful business in Guatemala but was killed during the violence in 2020. Chacón says she can’t go back to her home country; it would be too dangerous, but she’s had family support throughout.
“I have an army behind me,” she said.
