Profile: Daniel Wilson, President of Wilson Environmental Landscape Design

Interview by Leslie McGuire

Daniel Wilson, President of Wilson Environmental Landscape Design.

Daniel Wilson, President of Wilson Environmental Landscape Design has followed, in his own words, an unconventional and complicated route to being a landscape contractor. His background is in academia as a professional environmental consultant. Now he owns his own company, is starting another division, and does pro bono work on two committees, four sub committees and teaches.

Wilson Environmental Design does grey water harvesting and rain water capture off roof surfaces, then passively filters and stores it in cisterns or tanks for eventual use as irrigation. “Primarily we dedicate rainwater for edibles, food producing plants, fruit trees etc. Because in ten years when water is so scarce that a head of lettuce will cost $20, people are really going to consider how much lawn they want to irrigate.

Starting as a five year old, his very first chore at home was yard work. In high school, Wilson was introduced to the world of field ecology and biology. His degree was in aquatic biology then he got a Professional Masters degree in Policy and Management of Environmental Sciences with a technical emphasis in bio-geochemistry and was quickly hired as an environmental scientist performing CEQA analyses, (the California Environmental Quality Act), doing environmental regulatory analysis through the lens of development.

“I make beautiful gardens that use little water, no pesticides, no fertilizers, minimal-to-no fossil fuels, create lots of enjoyment, attract insects, butterflies and hummingbirds while bringing a taste of nature into the client’s own yard”.

“I quickly realized that I was a field guy not a cubicle guy. The other thing I realized was that the work I was doing was not that satisfying, and I would do better in a natural environment.” So he left and founded his own company in September of 1999. He started as a consultant and a designer focusing on ecological restoration. The whole essence of this work was reactive—reacting to degradation and environmental impacts.

Wilson Environmental Design is the winner of ten awards: Six CLCA Beautification Awards in 2008; 1st prize for Design/Build Renovation; 1st in Commercial and Industrial Installation; 1st Medium Residential Renovation; 2nd for Xeriscape; 2nd for Large Residential Renovation; 2nd Masonry and Rock Installation; the CLCA 2006 California State Trophy Award “Xeriscape”; the Goleta Valley Beautiful 2006 “Sustainable Award; and two SBCA 2006 Builder of the Year awards.

“I realized there was a lot more out there to making people happy than compensatory mitigation, so Wilson became a licensed contractor so he could work the residential sector. “All my work up until that point was more on institutional and commercial sectors. I wanted to take this knowledge and my passion and bring it into the residential sphere of influence. So far it’s going fantastically.”

Wilson is in a full-on expansion. He’s booked for months and looking to expand his present staff of seven (five full time and two part time) to nine full time and three part time.

Wilson thinks that collectively, people are recognizing that there are reactions to their actions, and that their decisions affect more than just themselves. “We actually do live in a community and, by definition, our shared community has much larger boundaries than we previously have known. People are still focused on their own families, but I’m simply a vehicle to help people span that focus.”

Basically, up until now, he’s had a full time crew of between three and four field guys and himself double time. He also has a part time office assistant. “I’ve been in a transition period in last few weeks because I brought in a part time field supervisor with the intent of hiring a second crew and having the supervisor take more of the lead managing the field operations. I’m also in the process of hiring an office manager to take more of the lead administrative and research tasks.”

“I’ve been in a transition period during the last few weeks because I brought in a part time field supervisor with the intent of hiring a second crew and having the supervisor take more of the lead managing the field operations.”

“There’s also the whole volunteer side of things as well,” says Wilson. “I do a lot of pro bono work, I’m on two city of Santa Barbara advisory committees and four sub committees. All of them are focused on creek restoration and water quality”. In addition he’s also involved in quite a few projects as a technical designer and consultant on various project teams throughout Southern California, Santa Barbara and the Los Angeles basin.

“I quickly realized that I’d much rather be a landscape contractor, be proactive, make people happy and improve the environment. At the same time, I’d make it so my customers were happy to write me a check, I could earn an honest living and sleep well at night.”

“We do everything from start to finish which includes the site plan which I prepare, where people get menu of options.” From a business stand point Wilson tries to steer them to make less choices because it’s less front-end loaded. “Sometimes I have to help them decide what their priorities are. I like to start out with budget and schedule, and then make a master plan. Overhead and administration jumps are then negligible. It’s more profitable and enjoyable,” says Wilson. He then has free range to do what he knows how to do well. The infrastructure goes into the ground first. “We front load for that so that, in the future, things can expand and everything is already in place.”

I say to my clients, ‘Let’s design a master plan, lay everything out, then decide what you can afford and where we should start.’ They then know where the infrastructure will go, so each ongoing segment can go in without having to tear out precious work. A lot of my work has been repeat customers who call me back for the next phases.”

One other really important technology he’s working on is the use of grey water. “An acre of lawn uses four acre-feet of water a year, which is what a family of four would use for a year. We’re not even talking about the petrochemicals used for fertilizers, pesticides, lawn mowers, edgers, grass clipping which have to go somewhere, the trucks for the maintenance crews and the smog from two stroke engines,” says Wilson. “Grey water is washing machines, shower water, sink water. Wilson believes that 30 percent of all the energy budget in California is used for pumping, treating and conveying water.”

"In essence I’m running two companies. One is the residential design build firm and the other is an ecological restoration firm, which is what makes up almost all the work that I have done in the past, but now with a residential addition.”

“If it’s possible to slow the cycle down, reuse the water at least once to take the strain off sewage treatments plants, then water fruit trees after storage in the ground, then we can create more with less. It’s a much more intimate connection with the value of water.”

“For right now, however, I’m focusing on design and installation,” says Wilson. He tries to ladder the benefits. Not just food, but shade, privacy, winter sun and summer shade “I combine as many benefits together as possible—a huge win-win situation for everybody.”

Although Wilson rents a Toro Dingo with attachments, he owns a dump truck, pick-up, utility service van, an employee/parts and pieces vehicle and the usual assortment of jack hammers, laser levels for surveying and building equipment. “What little advertising I’ve done is because I’m interested in expanding to newer and larger markets. I brand my vehicles, shirts, letterhead and irrigation controllers and transformers, which each get a sticker. Site signs go up at the job and stay there for some period of time after that.”

In addition to his other accolades, Wilson has been chosen by the Metropolitan Water District to give a series of seminars on water wise design covering a variety of topics such as native plants, xeriscaping, irrigation, landscape design and technology to landscape designers and landscape architects throughout Southern California.

Wilson feels that the direction his company is headed in is going back to the old world technologies and simplifying systems so they’re more integrated with the natural environment. “That’s a direction that, from a business perspective, is not only profitable for me, but one other contractors should take into consideration. We as contractors can either wait until the handwriting is on the wall—vis-a-vis regulation, the price of oil and diminished availability of food and water—or we can be proactive, make clients happy, earn an excellent living and have our cake and eat it too. My tag line is “Making the world a better place, one landscape at a time.”