SOLON– It took a while for Ben Harrison to double back to his double major.
Harrison, 44, launched EcoScapes IA this spring, providing tree, landscape and ecological services to the Solon area.
A native of Altoona, he graduated from Southeast Polk High School then undertook a double major in wildlife and fisheries and rangeland sciences at South Dakota State University at Brookings, S.D.
“I took kind of a habitat manager approach rather than a rancher approach,” he explained.
While he didn’t grow up on a farm, he’s always been interested in the outdoors, and had an influential older cousin who followed the same track.
After finishing school in 2000, Harrison went to work for the Davey Tree Company, a national firm, as a climber on power line contracts.
But he also joined the South Dakota Army National Guard as an artillery officer.
“That leads to how I ended up here,” he observed.
He eventually took a job working full time with the National Guard, first in South Dakota and then Iowa. When Harrison returned from Afghanistan in 2011, he was moved to Cedar Rapids to take over as a training officer job.
That’s when he and his wife Kyra fell in love with Solon. They relocated to Solon with their daughter Avery and their son Fischer in 2012.
“I actually lived in a tent at Lake Macbride campground while my family was still in Altoona for about two months,” he said. “I enjoyed every minute of it.”
His 17-year career with the army ended in 2013, and he worked a couple of different jobs before deciding to on a return to the outdoors.
After so many years away from his original, chosen career, Harrison didn’t think he’d be able to land a job with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“And we kind of had our family roots down in Solon,” he noted.
Instead, he expanded on his base of knowledge by studying landscape design and construction at Kirkwood Community College.
“Used my very few remaining GI Bill benefits on that one,” he observed.
Harrison gained practical experience working for local companies in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, from crew leader to project estimation and design.
He struck out on his own in the fall of 2020 after the August derecho, working evenings and weekends while he continued full time through the season with another company.
“Over the winter, I started putting the plans in place to position myself to go out on my own,” he said.
Harrison drew from his education and work background to create the slate of services provided by EcoScapes IA.
“After all those years, I just wanted to get back to what my passions were,” he explained.
That’s why EcoScapes IA offers landscape services like designing and installing patios, retaining walls, fire pits and outdoor kitchens, but stops short of lawn care.
Trees are a different matter.
His first job as EcoScapes IA was to clear a forested acreage to allow for the rebuilding of a perimeter fence after the derecho.
The individual was having trouble getting people to call her back, Harrison recalled, and her mother saw the sign on his truck.
The job evolved into a reforestation project, working with DNR and USDA grant programs to replace invasive species like Mulberry, honeysuckle and Siberian elm with native oaks and conifers.
“I’m still working on it there today,” he added. “It’s a long process.”
In addition to timber stand improvements; Harrison also does sustainable prairie work, rain gardens, bio-retention cells and storm water management.
“I enjoy working outside, I enjoy the conservation and ecological work, love designing,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to be able to organize a company where I’ve been able to do it all.”
EcoScapes IA also partnered with the Green Farmstead Partner Program, a collaborative effort through the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers, Trees Forever and the Iowa Nursery and Landscape Association to provide information and resources to farmers wanting to plant trees and shrubs around new and existing cattle feedlots, hog barns and poultry buildings.
There’s been plenty of business to go around, especially after the derecho took out a huge majority of trees and the COVID-19 pandemic forced many to shelter at home.
A lot of people working in the same field were concerned about job losses or layoffs, but business boomed instead, something Harrison attributes to homeowners looking out their back window and thinking about enjoying outdoor space.
“It really was a busy, busy year for a lot of people in the industry,” he said.
And it hasn’t let up.
For the last few weeks, his phone’s been ringing off the hook, mostly related to retaining walls and patios. He’s been busy laying sod for a project he designed last year, and has been approached by a condo association experiencing drainage problems.
“If I could spend the entire summer working within five miles of Solon, I would be extremely happy,” he observed. “I may be a transplant, but Solon’s home now.”
EcoScapes IA operates out of his home, but Harrison plans for an eventual storefront, and he plans to keep as much of his business local as possible.
“I love the community, I love the people, I love the school district. We’ve been treated very well here as a family and we’ve grown a lot of close relationships with people. Solon’s home now.”
Back outdoors
April 26, 2021
Ben Harrison
