JONATHAN SIMMONS ’00
Simmons’ career has branched out to aerial adventure and a unique outdoor destination in Upstate South Carolina
As a teenager, Jonathan Simmons told his father that he would never work in a cubicle at a traditional office job.
Instead, he built a career spent outdoors. Simmons is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, specializing in the cultivation, health and maintenance of trees.
“I didn’t get an office — a real office that wasn’t a kitchen table — until about four years ago,” Simmons says.
His early interest in forestry began on camping trips with Boy Scouts. A Clemson native born into a family of Tigers — his grandfather and parents are alumni — attending Clemson University was the obvious choice, as was majoring in forest resource management. His former scoutmaster, Vic Shelburne Ph.D. ’88, was a professor of forestry who would later teach Simmons dendrology.
While a student, Simmons volunteered on a rehabilitation project at the South Carolina Botanical Garden’s Roland Schoenike Arboretum, an effort spearheaded by forestry alumnus Karl Pokorny ’99. He learned to climb trees and performed tree restoration, removal and pruning. Working for a tree care company during his final two years at Clemson provided additional field experience.
Early in his career, Simmons worked for a Washington, D.C.-area company that handled tree preservation on construction sites at well-known locations, including Walter Reed Medical Center and the World War II Memorial. Simmons returned to Upstate South Carolina and, in 2005, founded ArborSource, which provides tree consultation and preservation services for residential and commercial properties.
As development continues to grow rapidly across the Upstate, Simmons is committed to sustainability and conservation.
“My job is to get between the developers and the regulators and city rules and try to keep as many trees as I can, helping to maintain our tree cover,” he says.
Simmons has also found a niche in the aerial adventure industry, applying his expertise to ensure that trees used for zip lines, high-ropes courses and canopy tours are biologically and structurally sound. What is now a central part of Simmons’ work started with an unexpected phone call from a rafting company he worked for as a student. They wanted to build a zip line and needed an arborist to advise on construction.
From there, Simmons steadily gained more work in the market. To date, he’s consulted on over 30 aerial adventure projects across the country. In 2021, he opened his own: Flying Rabbit Adventures at Holland Park in Greenville, South Carolina, along the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
“A big thing for me was to have something that somebody could ride a bike or walk to,” Simmons says.
Flying Rabbit includes five zip lines, a high-ropes course and a kids course. Offering a unique family-friendly activity has been personally and professionally rewarding for Simmons, especially when he sees kids who were initially hesitant build confidence.
“You just see that joy and excitement that you know we helped to deliver,” he says. “It warms my heart.”
Simmons hopes that the enjoyment Flying Rabbit brings will build greater appreciation for our natural resources and their long-term protection.
“They see the trees, they touch the trees, they see the plants,” he says. “And they understand how peaceful it makes them to be in nature.”
Fun Fact: Flying Rabbit Adventures was ranked the No. 4 Best Aerial Adventure Park in USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2026.
