About Us.

Dan Knapp started landscaping as a young teenager in his native Vermont. He has since spent decades in the industry in various places including New England, Colorado, California and Montana.  Over the years, he has worked for nurseries, golf courses, landscape maintenance and installation companies, including a previous installation company that he owned and operated. Dan found ski patrolling to be a perfect complement to his summer employment and spent five years as a patroller at Sugarbush Resort in the Mad River Valley of Vermont.  Dan has a degree in Environmental Policy from the University of Colorado at Boulder and spent time collaborating with the Nature Conservancy in their environmental restoration effort on Santa Cruz Island off the California coast. During this time, he also worked in alternative energy, providing solar electric power systems to businesses and residences, before moving to Montana and returning to landscaping.  He feels lucky to call Montana home. Dan currently sits on the boards of Great Beginnings Montessori School and The Bridger Canyon Fire Department. On the weekends he can be found skiing, biking, tinkering on motors, spending time with his wife and three young kids, and playing his guitar.

Chris Kautz is motivated by making things.  He grew up in Maine and has a B.Sc. in Geology from Middlebury College.  After Middlebury, he went to New Zealand on a Fulbright Scholarship where he studied global river geochemistry and native Maori bone carving.  Taking a right turn out of academics upon return to the states, he apprenticed with a timber framer in the San Juan islands, started building boats, and eventually taught traditional wooden boatbuilding at Rocking the Boat in the Bronx, NY.  Skiing and mountain biking eventually led him to Bozeman, where he realized he’d like to be able to build anything, and toward that end, has worked as a landscaper and custom furniture maker while also building skis, houses, and drift boats on the side.  He serves on his local school board and lives on the south side of the Gallatin Valley with his wife, two kids, two dogs, and a hampster named Marty.

Nick Stillman grew up Michigan and began landscaping in a High School agro-science course in 2001. Cutting his teeth on Pennsylvania Bluestone to create patios and flatwork, he is a skilled hardscaper, both by hand and machine.  With 20 years experience, he is highly capable in all aspects of landscaping and machinery operation and often can be found training our younger foremen and women.  As one of the few people in the world who genuinely loves moving snow, in the winter he runs our snow removal operations and grows an epic beard.  He lives in Manhattan with his wife, three kids, dog, two cats, and two 24 year old turtles.

Kristina Kline was born in Alaska and raised in Wyoming, but the Gallatin Valley is where she found home! Her love of plants has all but consumed her, and she has been professionally involved in plant health care for over 9 years, having loved and cared for plants since she was young. Kristina completed a bachelors of science in Agroecology with minors in Horticulture and Soil Science and became an ISA Certified Arborist in 2019. Her experience is vast and includes landscape maintenance, maintaining vineyards, growing vegetables, managing greenhouse operations, forest fire restoration, and much more! Her favorite landscape activities are pruning, planting, and diagnosing disease and pest problems, but you will find her hiking, skiing, tree climbing, and fly fishing in her spare time.

Keegan Halsey hails from Syracuse, New York and graduated from the University of Buffalo with degrees in Environmental Design and International Business.  After realizing that he preferred work clothes over a suit and tie, he worked for several years as a landscape designer and installation coordinator for a large commercial nursery in New York.  Moving to Bozeman in 2016, he worked for the Gallatin Valley Land Trust as a Conservation Intern before joining North Creek in 2019.  With a diverse background of garden design and maintenance, nursery work, and mowing (and even plowing snow) he’s a real jack-of-all-trades.    He also has a pretty cool dog named Moose.  In his free time you’ll find him either on the river or on the ridge at Bridger Bowl.