Branching Out: OSU alum grows sustainable business in Stillwater

Branching Out: OSU alum grows sustainable business in Stillwater

Friday, December 19, 2025

Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | [email protected]

In the summer of '98, Nate Priest rattled down dusty back roads carrying soil samples in an Oklahoma State University pickup truck with no air conditioning. He followed the horizon of the Oklahoma sunset, one weather station at a time.

Priest came to OSU in 1996 as a biosystems and agricultural engineering student, drawn to the program by his love for nature and interest in environmental protection, he said.

Gary Sands, former professor in the OSU Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, said he realized Priest's passion for helping the environment and steered him toward biosystems engineering.

During his time in the classroom and on campus, Priest said he found several professors and friends whose encouragement helped shape the course of his career.

Today, Priest is the owner of three Stillwater companies: Priest Environmental, Yucca Point and Nate's Tree Service.

"The teachers who treated students with respect and encouraged their development inspired and helped me learn how to treat employees and others in the business world," Priest said.

Sands and later mentors, including Ron Elliott, Emeritus biosystems and agricultural engineering professor, and the late Marvin Stone, also a former biosystems and agricultural engineering professor, were major influences in his life, Priest said.

Priest remembered spending a summer traveling the entire state maintaining and collecting soil samples at Oklahoma Mesonet sites, the premier statewide environmental monitoring network.

Priest said his work with Elliott led to him digging post holes, sometimes in 100-plus degree heat, and putting more than 10,000 miles on the university truck. Priest said he didn't just enjoy the job - he loved it.

"I first met Nate when he came through as a new undergrad," Elliott said. "A couple of summers later, I hired him as a student worker, and he traveled all over the state maintaining sensors, taking soil samples and keeping things running."

Elliott said what he remembers most is not Priest's stamina, but his integrity. Priest could have cut corners, Elliott said, but he did not. Even today, Elliott remembers that he could always rely on Priest, he added.

"That kind of character, that willingness to roll up your sleeves and do the work, you can see it now in the way he runs his business," Elliott said.

His love for the environment and nature pushed Priest to start Nate's Tree Service in Stillwater, Oklahoma, while still a student, he said.

"Starting it was quite by accident," he added.

Priest and a friend had a passion for air plants and had started a business in which they displayed the plants on driftwood and sold them at local nurseries, he added.

However, Priest said, the business was not going well, and the two decided to pivot and focus their efforts on tree trimming when they heard their landlord paid $600 to have the trees on their property trimmed. To them, this was an astronomical amount of money, more than they had ever made on air plants, Priest said.

The duo purchased an ad in the paper and switched their focus from air plants to trees.

After graduation, the two parted ways as they started their careers. However, a crash in the tech industry at the time meant Priest was beginning his career in an unusually tough job market. Priest said he realized he enjoyed the work he was doing, especially the environmental aspect, which led him to establish Nate's Tree Service in Spring 2001.

More than two decades later, Priest and his businesses still chase that passion for the environment, but now on a much larger scale, Elliott said.

Nate's Tree Service continues to make impacts that can be seen every day in Stillwater and across the state, Priest said. The company emphasizes sustainability through tree preservation and mulch recycling.

While Nate's Tree Services focuses on sustainability, Priest's third business, Priest Environmental, that allows him to focus on minimizing environmental impact. Being a long time fan of reptiles, Priest said he is interested in minimizing impact and restoring the natural habitat of the reptiles in the areas where his companies work.

"He always came home with odd animals," said Mickey Clark, Priest's former college roommate and lifelong friend. "We always had snakes and turtles. At any given time, there were eight to 15 terrariums in our condo."

Priest has always been driven to nature, even after some of the crazy animal encounters they had while in college, Clark said.

Today, Priest is still just as big of a fan of the reptiles, but now he extends his passion for reptiles and plants into his professional work.

"We plan trips based on how many and what kind of reptiles we can see," Priest said.

Priest and his family enjoy traveling, including a trip to Panama where they caught and released caimans, and another where they rediscovered the round-tailed horned lizard in Oklahoma, he said.

"It's nice to come back full circle to my original mission of helping the environment," Priest said.

Those who know Priest personally know how passionate he has always been about the environment and sustainability, Clark said. They also describe him as "fun-loving but steady" and known for his sense of dry humor, resilience and his deep care for people, Clark added.

"He might seem standoffish at first, but once he knows you, the amount of care and love that's in his heart is pretty extreme," Clark said.

Priest said he wants to be remembered for treating people fairly and leaving things better than he found them. Even in difficult situations, he strives to maintain values of respect, honesty, safety and communication in his businesses, Priest added.

"He's a feather in the cap for our department," Elliott said. "Most of our graduates go on to work for firms, but he took it a step further. He created something entirely his own."

This kind of initiative - a blend of technical skill and creativity - is rare, Elliott said.

Priest said he has a piece of advice for students who are looking to start their own businesses one day.

"Surround yourself with good people," Priest said. "Don't grow too fast, and most of all, do what you say you're going to do."

Story by: Cody Garcia | Cowboy Journal