Ty moved to Ely in 2009 to attend Vermilion Community College. After graduating, Ty stayed in Ely working for the Ely Area Ambulance Service before pursuing a career as a wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service. Ty’s first season fighting fire on the Superior National Forest inspired him to move to Montana to gain deeper experience in the fire environment.

Ty spent four years on Hotshot fire crews as a sawyer/faller, cutting fireline and falling hazard trees on large wildfires all over the western U.S. This experience prepared Ty to take on the challenge of smokejumping for the Bureau of Land Management where he spent three years parachuting to remote wildfires. 

During Ty’s fire career, he would periodically return in the off-season to northern Minnesota to work for fuels mitigation contractors, helping protect properties from wildland fire. When Ty and his wife Lauren moved back to Ely in 2022, they were struck by how overgrown and decadent the balsam fir had become. Drawing on years of wildland fire and chainsaw experience, Ty formed Two Pines Forestry to help owners prepare their property for wildfire and address the forest crisis.

Ty is passionate about forest health, the role of fire in ecosystems, and implementing sustainable, low-impact forest management.