#SoCaltech: Bryan Vejar

Day to day, I'm performing maintenance on around 3,400 trees in and around campus and faculty housing. That includes new plantings, old plantings, over-mature trees, trees that are potentially hazardous, trees that are just starting to take root, and trees that are struggling because of drought stress or other environmental stress. I am personally responsible for our living collection; my small team and I go around and try to tackle a mountain of work.

There are many constraints to working on campus. It's a technical institution; there is always a lot of delicate research going on, as well as meetings and classes, so we have to work around those. We can't necessarily quarantine off large parts of the campus to perform tree work, so we have to work amid constant foot traffic, and it's really challenging. Probably the only silver lining of the pandemic was that we were able to get some major projects and huge reductions done that would've been extremely disruptive on campus. All in all, it's super rewarding because I get to have a collection of my own to work on. 

Bryan Vejar has been Caltech’s arborist for three years, having previously run a private tree service and worked as a tree climber at Disneyland. He recently started the Caltech Tree Corps, a campus organization dedicated to planting and protecting trees on campus and in the surrounding communities.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.