Skip Kincaid

Providing a Wide Variety of Services

Skip Kincaid is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist (MW-0155BM) with over 30 years of urban forestry, arboriculture, and forestry experience. He provides governments, businesses, utilities, attorneys, architects, and engineers with the performance of:

• Tree risk assessments
• Tree appraisals/forensics
• Storm damage assessment projects
• Tree preservation plans on construction sites
• Urban forestry master plans
• Ordinance writing
• Expert witness testimony

Mr. Kincaid is currently the Director of Urban Forestry for Hansen’s Tree Service & Environmental Wood Resources in O’Fallon, Missouri and provides a wide range of consulting services. Prior to that, he spent eight years with Davey Resource Group as their Senior Consulting Urban Forester, and eighteen successful years operating Skip Kincaid & Associates (SKA), an urban forestry consulting firm in St. Louis, MO, which Davey Resource Group acquired.

Mr. Kincaid was also an urban forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Commissioner of Forestry with the City of St. Louis where he had primary responsibility for managing a staff of 200 employees and a budget of approximately $14 million per year.

Decades of Experience

Mr. Kincaid has a wide range of urban forestry experience that includes contributions to urban forest master plans for Boone, NC; University City, MO; Knoxville, TN; and Pittsburgh, PA. He prepared language for numerous municipal and county tree ordinances and regularly designs tree protection plans for high-end residential, commercial, and institutional sites, including large hospital developments and international agricultural research and development firms.

Mr. Kincaid performs tree risk assessments throughout the United States. He served for four years on the International Society of Arboriculture’s (ISA) panel of experts that developed the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) and has taught the 2½ day course over 40 times. His expertise is utilized by attorneys as an expert witness and he has testified at depositions and trials in many states. He performs urban tree and timber appraisals for homeowners, landowners, utilities, and business owners; and performs forensic investigations related to tree loss and tree decline issues.

Mr. Kincaid has assisted numerous communities around the country with the creation and guidance of advisory boards and confidently met regularly with elected officials, municipal staff, and volunteers. He guided the creation of a non-profit nursery and urban forestry advocacy group, and served terms as chairman of the Missouri Community Forestry Council.

Past Projects

Skip was principal project coordinator and provided detailed set-up, field work and final reports for several tree inventories for municipalities, campuses, historic sites, and commercial properties. Projects include inventories for the National Park Service at Gateway National Expansion Memorial (The Arch) in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York. Other notable inventory projects include the 350 acre Washington University campus, and the historic 1370 acre Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri.

Download Skip’s Resume

Education

• S., Forest Economics and Silviculture, 1981, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
• S., Forest Management, 1979, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Certifications/Special Training

• Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ), ISA
• Approved ISA Instructor and Mentor for the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ)
• Board Certified Master Arborist and Municipal Specialist, International Society of Arboriculture (MW0155BM)
• Certified Forester (1516), Society of American Foresters

Professional Affiliations

• International Society of Arboriculture
  • Board of Directors, member (present
  • Instructor and Instructor Mentor for Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ)
  • Board Certified Master Arborist and Municipal Specialist (MW-0155BM)
• National Urban & Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC)
• Society of Municipal Arborists
• Society of American Foresters
• City of Kirkwood Park Board, Member 1995–2003
• President 1999–2003
• Missouri Community Forestry Council, Charter Member 1991–present; President 1994, 1999–2000
• Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, Charter Member, Board Member 1998–2000
• School of Natural Resources at University of Missouri (Columbia), Advisory Council, Member 1998–2012
• US Forest Service Technical Transfer Advisory Board, 1990–2008
• Louis Arborists Association, Secretary/Treasurer 1984–88, Executive Committee 1984–94

Presentation

• Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) workshops presented on behalf of International Society of Arboriculture at over 40 locations since 2014. Recent locations include Tallahassee, FL; San Antonio, TX; Austin, TX; Lynchburg, VA; Toronto, ON; Baltimore, MD; Phoenix, AZ; Irvine, CA; San Jose, CA; Detroit, MI; Gainesville, VA; Baton Rouge, LA; Harvard Forest at Petersham, MA; Portland, ME; Wilton, OH; Minneapolis, MN; Stevens Point, WI; and Long Island, NY.
• Urban Forestry presentations to multiple audiences in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan, Taiwan on behalf of International Society of Arboriculture. Over 1400 arborists and students attended the sessions.
• Davey Tree Institute, Tree Risk Assessment and Protecting Trees During Construction – February 2013.
• New Zealand Chapter ISA Conference, Tree Risk Assessment – New Trends in Qualification – October 2012.