The former Warren Area High School wrestling teammates started working summers together for Mike Lindell’s Tree Service, and branched out on their own even before both had graduated college.

“We were already starting to talk about it a while back,” said Smith, 22, who earned a forestry degree in 2021 from Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport. Madigan, who is all of 21 years old, recently graduated from Penn College of Technology with a building construction degree.

But cutting down trees, some 100 feet high?

Let’s rewind; this little business plan we’re talking about probably began one day when Avery and Ryan were cutting firewood along Park Avenue in Warren. A passerby stopped and asked if they could look at a tree-cutting job at his property.

Ryan Madigan in a tree during a tree-cutting job.

“I guess we could take a look,” said Avery. At that time, “we knew how to run a saw,” he said. “It was an adrenaline rush.”

Ever since, the duo has learned more and more, and Avery’s major included a course in arboriculture, which can include cutting trees.

It’s a science, you see, and Smith and Madigan focus on the safest possible way to cut down a tree.

“It’s like a puzzle,” said Smith.

But as great as business is going, according to Madigan, “my mom is not saying no, but she definitely doesn’t want to know about it.”

Smith said, “maybe we sit down for a while and make a plan on more difficult jobs… for the safest, most efficient solution.”

In a little over a year, A&R Woodpecker Service, owned by Smith and Madigan, has now done tree-service jobs for over 100 different people.

“I really love seeing a happy customer at the end of the job,” said Madigan.

“And showing off up in the tree,” added Smith. “It tends to draw a crowd.”

With a background in construction and concrete work, Madigan could go in other directions. Even in forestry, Smith could, too. He could work for the U.S. Forest Service or in parks and recreation. For the time being, even in their youth, they see a future in climbing and cutting trees. That they agree on.

Ryan Madigan during a tree-cutting job.

They don’t always agree at the job site, but the best friends know that any second-guessing is good, necessary to avoid dangerous situations like jobs too close to power lines, cutting yourself, or falling.

“You can replace a house; you can’t replace a life,” said Smith.

They do acknowledge the customer is concerned about their house, however, hence liability insurance.

Their business has grown since they were teenagers, adding “top-of-the-line equipment” along the way, said Madigan. “We just got a new chipper a week ago.”

If the customer doesn’t need to know how A&R Woodpecker Service performs a job, Smith said the pair are known to be pretty good climbers; their wrestling background comes into play. “I think wrestling gives you the strongest work ethic of any sport,” he said.

Ryan Madigan and Avery Smith during a tree-cutting job.

As humbly as possible, he said, “if anybody could do it, we wouldn’t have a job.”

Instead, Smith and Madigan are recent high school and, even more recent, college graduates who own their own company. They own their own business in their own hometown — a hometown with plenty of trees to remove, prune, or trim. They admit they don’t know a younger tree cutting crew. Yet, they’ve been planning this for years.

“I’ve always wanted to be a blue-collar worker and work outdoors with my hands,” said Avery.

“We began to do more and more jobs,” said Madigan. “Business is going great.”