Meet Our Team
Ezra Ward
Co-Founder
Ezra grew up in Montague MA, the son of a forester and a naturalist. He attended Green Mountain College in VT where he studied sustainable agriculture and outdoor leadership. He has worked as a carpenter, EMT, outdoor educator, and on a hotshot crew for the Alaska fire service. He started his tree work career working for The Whole Tree in Leverett, and became an ISA Certified Arborist in 2018. Later he became the crew leader for Carr Tree & Timber in Southern VT.
Throughout his professional career he has always been troubled by the large amount of non-natural waste, and pollution produced by industry. Inspired to take action he bought his first sawmill in 2016 with the idea to help people make use of the wood from the trees he was taking down. In his spare time Ezra raises bees and chickens, tinkers on his tiny house, and performs as a clown!
Ezra can be reached directly at ezra@woodsmithforestry.com.
Eric Donnelly
Co-Founder
Eric grew up in and around Amherst and Shutesbury, and has lived most of his life in the Valley. While attending Amherst High School he was influenced by classes in wood technology and an outdoor program called “Survival Living” to choose a career path that involved caring for the trees, forests, and natural resources of New England. After pursuing a bachelors degree in ecological forest management from the University of Vermont he went on to work across Western MA as a Forestry Technician and then Staff Forester for Bay State Forestry Service where he became a MA Licensed Forester.
Eric has also worked on trail crews in Vermont and Montana, as a sea kayak guide in the San Juan Islands of Washington state, a firefighter/first responder, and helped run the outdoor education program at ARHS for many years. More recently having turned his focus towards the running of Woodsmith Forestry and increasing his arboricultural skills, Eric became an ISA Certified Arborist in 2022. You can often find Eric in the office, driving a truck around, or out on a jobsite with a chainsaw in his hands (that’s where he’s happiest). Eric lives with his wife in Leverett where he spends his spare time scheming up canoeing adventures, riding his bike, eating waffles, and chasing his dog around in the woods.
Eric can be reached directly at eric@woodsmithforestry.com.
Eric “Palo” Depalo
Climbing Arborist and Crew Leader
Not to be confused with the other Eric D, “Palo”, as he’s known, is a scoundrel, a n'er-do-well, a Massachusetts native. When not climbing trees he is reviving a dilapidated farm in Greenfield, MA. He holds a BA in History from Yale, a MS in Ecological Design from the Conway school, Permaculture Design Certificates from here and there, and is an ISA Certified Arborist. He is a lover of photosynthesis, building soil, good poetry, bad puns, and saving humanity from near-certain calamity.
Palo can be reached directly at depalo@woodsmithforestry.com.
Andrew Row
Tree Crew
A background in nature-based education at Kroka Expeditions led Andrew to a career in the tree industry. Originally joining Woodsmith after meeting the crew at a tree climbing workshop, Andrew brings a wide range of tree-related experience to the job. In the past he has worked on small scale logging and sawmilling operations as well as running his own one-man tree service. Andrew has a special passion for operating the spider lift, pruning apple trees, climbing, and felling large pines! When he’s not working to improve his arboriculture skills, Andrew occupies himself by dreaming of wilderness adventures in the far north and spending time with his kids.
Casey Howard
Tree Crew
Casey grew up in Washington DC, where her love of the woods and trees began. She has been a bicycle mechanic and a sailer, and studied Urban Forestry at UMass Amherst. She loves trucks, fireworks, whitefish melts, humidity, and her mom’s chicken paprikash. You’ll often find her running in the woods with her dog or blasting pop country radio in the truck. She wants to help create better working environments for everyone in the trades.
Jonathan Kennedy
Office Administrator
Jonathan first moved to the valley in 1994 for university and received a BS in Natural Resources Studies with minors in Forestry and Resource Economics. After working at several positions, he settled into public education and taught Technology/Engineering in Springfield for a few years before moving further north to teach geosciences (Geology, Astronomy, Meteorology, Oceanography) as well as Chemistry and Irish Gaelic in Belchertown until 2023. In addition to his BS, he earned a MA in Education followed by a MA in Irish Gaelic. Jonathan is Woodsmith’s Office Administrator, answering the phone and email, and helping to smoothly operate the company’s administrative operations. When he’s not at Woodsmith, Jonathan enjoys playing traditional Irish music, hiking, learning to cook (he can now boil water!), and teaching Irish. He is based in Montague.
You can reach Jonathan through our main phone line, 413 367 3161, or info@woodsmithforestry.com.
Burdock
HR/Paper Shredding
Burdock is a transplant from Georgia, where he found himself in a shelter at 6 months old. Seeking a better life, he relocated to Western MA to take a position with Woodsmith Forestry. Once an active member of the crew, these days Burdock is more often found snoozing on his couch next to the woodstove or shredding important documents. Burdock lives with his family in Leverett, MA and spends his free time trying (unsuccessfully) to rid the world of squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks. An avid canoeist; he likes to head out on big trips with his family to places such as the Allagash, the Adirondacks, or the rivers of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Among his many claims to fame, he is featured on the front page of the Franklin County Outdoor Recreation Plan!