Family-Owned in Aurora · Since 2003
Derek Stroden started Ironwood Earthcare in Aurora in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Colorado State University and an ISA Certified Arborist credential. More than 25,000 properties later, he is still the one who walks the yard and writes the number.
Free assessment, a written quote, and an honest “leave it alone” when that is what the tree actually needs.
Free on-site assessment · Written quote · No obligation
Ironwood Earthcare is a family-owned, arborist-led tree care company based in Aurora, Colorado, serving the Denver metro since 2003. Owner Derek Stroden holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Colorado State University, an ISA Certified Arborist credential, and a Colorado Department of Agriculture Certified Spray Supervisor license. An ISA Certified Arborist diagnoses every property before any work is quoted.
Derek Stroden finished a Bachelor of Science in Forestry at Colorado State, looked at how tree care actually worked in the Denver metro, and concluded the gap was not equipment. It was diagnosis. Homeowners were being sold a cut by whoever knocked on the door first, and nobody was asking what the tree needed.
So Ironwood got built backwards from the way most tree companies start. The arborist came first and the trucks came after — and that order has never changed. An ISA Certified Arborist still walks the property, still writes the scope, and no crew rolls until a homeowner has approved a number on paper.
More than 25,000 residential properties and over a thousand commercial and HOA accounts later, the company is still family-owned, still independent, and still running out of the same Aurora shop on Norfolk Street.
Anyone can print “certified” on a truck door. These are the specific credentials Ironwood holds, what each one takes to earn, and how you can verify them yourself before you hire anybody — us included.
Issued by the International Society of Arboriculture. It takes documented full-time arboriculture experience, a proctored exam covering tree biology, soil, diagnosis, pruning, safety and risk assessment, and continuing education to keep. It can also be revoked. ISA publishes a public verification tool — look us up.
Four years of tree physiology, soil science, pathology and forest management before a single job was ever quoted. It is not a weekend certificate and it is not a requirement to run a tree company, which is exactly why it is worth asking about.
Required by state law to apply any pesticide or fertilizer commercially in Colorado. Derek holds the Certified Spray Supervisor license. If a company offers you treatments, ask to see their CDA license number before you let them spray anything on your property.
A separate credential for the person in the tree rather than the person writing the quote. It covers climbing systems, rigging, chainsaw work at height and aerial rescue — the skills that decide whether a limb lands where it was planned to land.
The national consensus standard for pruning. It is the reason we will not top a tree, even when a customer asks for it, and the reason our cuts are made at the branch collar rather than wherever the saw reached.
General liability and workers’ compensation. Ask for the certificate before work starts, from every company you get a quote from. A company that will not hand it over has told you everything you need to know.
Nearly every complaint people have about tree companies comes down to the same thing: something happened that the homeowner never agreed to. These five exist so that cannot happen here.
Issued by the International Society of Arboriculture. Every one of them is verifiable, and every one of them can be taken away.
Also held: a Colorado Department of Agriculture Certified Spray Supervisor license, general liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage. Certificates available on request, before work starts.
This is the part of an About page that is usually a stock photo and a sentence about our dedicated team. Here is a better proof, and you can check it in about ninety seconds: open the Google reviews and count how many of them name the person who did the work.
Robert, Jesse, Jack, Jonathan, Richard, Jeff, Ben, Elijah, Eli, Rob, Chewy, Patrick. Every one of those names came out of a customer’s own review, not off a marketing page. People do not learn the name of a crew that rushed through the yard and left.
That is what low turnover looks like from the outside: the same names coming up in reviews written months apart, on different properties, for different work.
Go count them yourself →2003
Caring for Denver metro trees since
25,000+
Residential clients served
1,000+
Commercial and HOA properties
4.8
Stars from 191 Google reviews
★★★★★
“Derek… refused to try to upsell me on treatments I didn’t need but had been quoted as necessary by two other companies. He also was not afraid to let me know I could check with an independent source as to whether his assessment was correct compared to the others.”
— Michael H. · Verified Google Review
★★★★★
“Ben, Richard, Jeff and Elijah were great. They all displayed professionalism and genuine care for protecting our plants. Work was high quality and clean up was fantastic.”
— Bernadette P. · Verified Google Review
★★★★★
“They did a great job for us on pruning and removal of fallen branches after a storm. Derek, Jonathan and whole crew were a pleasure to work with. Came out quickly for the quote and got the work done less than a week later.”
— Louis B. · Verified Google Review
Derek Stroden owns Ironwood Earthcare and has run it since he founded the company in Aurora in 2003. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Colorado State University, an ISA Certified Arborist credential and a Colorado Department of Agriculture Certified Spray Supervisor license — and he still performs assessments himself.
No. Ironwood is family-owned and independent — not a franchise, and not backed by private equity. What your tree needs is decided by the arborist standing in front of it, not by a corporate pricing sheet or a sales quota set somewhere else.
Since 2003, out of the same Aurora shop. In that time the company has worked on more than 25,000 residential properties and over 1,000 commercial and HOA accounts across the Denver metro.
Yes — general liability, workers’ compensation, and a Colorado Department of Agriculture license for the treatment work. We hand you the certificate before a crew starts, and you should ask every company you get a quote from to do the same.
An ISA Certified Arborist performs the assessment, and on a great many jobs that is Derek himself. Nothing gets diagnosed over the phone and nothing gets priced from a photograph — somebody stands under the tree first.
Aurora, Denver, Centennial, Parker, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Englewood, Littleton and Greenwood Village, plus the communities between them. The shop is at 312 Norfolk St, Unit A, in Aurora, and crews run out of it Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Yes, and it happens often enough that it is the thing customers write reviews about. Plenty of the trees we are called out to remove do not need to come down. If the right answer is pruning, or treatment, or water and patience, that is the answer you get — and the assessment still costs nothing.
Crews run out of the Aurora shop Monday to Friday. These are the cities we work in most:
Aurora · Denver · Centennial · Parker · Castle Rock · Highlands Ranch · Englewood · Littleton · Greenwood Village
The assessment is free, there is no deposit, and there is nothing to sign on the spot. Get a written number from us, get one from somebody else, and hire whoever explained your tree better.
312 Norfolk St, Unit A, Aurora, CO 80011 · Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM · Serving the Denver metro since 2003