The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast (Eva Monheim)

Anthony Sebastian Buscaino was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is a third-generation Italian American. His ancestral roots are from Sicily and Calabria.

During his summers attending university, he worked with a horticulturist as a gardener in various parks, church grounds, residential properties, and rooftop gardens. During his studies, Anthony became intrigued with horticultural therapy. Through a Directed Studies Program at Temple University he participated in an internship at New York City’s Rikers Island Prison Complex for the Horticultural Society of New York’s GreenHouse Program.  Anthony acted as an instructor working directly with incarcerated individuals.  Shortly after his internship, he graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture.

After graduation, Anthony applied for an internship at New York City Parks. Since that time he has been working as a designer and project manager for the Capital Projects Division. His team works in the Borough of Queens where Anthony has worked on plazas, playgrounds, triangles, ballfields, gardens, pathways, and dog parks.

He continued his education while working for NYC Parks and received a permaculture design certification and took his tests to receive his landscape architecture license.

In addition to Anthony’s full-time position as a landscape architect, Anthony’s zeal for creating art has led him to exhibit his artwork in groups and solo shows throughout New York City.

Joan Maloof is a writer, an ecologist, and a conservationist with a unique voice in today’s times. She has studied and worked with plants her entire life; her formal education includes a Bachelor’s degree in Plant Science, a Master’s degree in Environmental Science, and a Doctorate in Ecology. She is a Professor Emeritus at Salisbury University, where she taught Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies. Maloof has published numerous research articles in publications such as Ecology,  American Journal of Botany, and the International Journal of Environmental Studies. Maloof’s books include Teaching the Trees (2005), Among the Ancients(2011), Nature’s Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests (2016), and The Living Forest: A Visual Journey into the Heart of the Woods(2017).

In addition to her research and writing, Maloof founded an organization with the goal of creating a network of protected forests across the US. That organization, the Old-Growth Forest Network, now has thousands of supporters. Maloof travels widely to educate others regarding the extent and condition of our forests and encourages their preservation.

Pandora Young is a Senior Horticulturist working in Longwood Garden's Outdoor Landscapes since 2005. The areas under her care are Peirce’s Park, a historic arboretum dating back to 1798, and Peirce’s Woods, a 7-acre art-form garden featuring plants native to the eastern United States.  She is also an instructor for Longwood’s continuing education program, teaching courses on native and edible plants.  In her home garden, the rules are: it has to be native or edible, ideally both (with the exception of Lily of the valley). She received a B.A. in Japanese studies, with a minor in Biology from Earlham College in Indiana.

Public horticulture combines her passion for art, science, the great outdoors, and connecting with people from all walks of life.

Our second guest is Scott Wade the Curator of the Peirce Historic Tree Collection at Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Scott is a certified arborist and has work in commercial, private, and public horticulture his entire career. He is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Liberal arts. Scott is the past state coordinator of the Champion Tree Program of Pennsylvania, documenting the largest of each species of tree in the state from 2006-2019.  He started at Longwood Gardens in 2009 performing tree assessments part-time and has been there ever since.

Jamie Biddle is the founding partner and CEO of VerdisInvestment Management, a single-family office. He sets the strategic direction of the firm, and overseas investment activities, operations, and finance. Jamie is behind portfolio construction, manager sourcing and selection, due diligence,and risk management. He is an active member of the Investment Committee.

Jamie brings more than two decades of investing and operating experience, across asset classes and industries. Prior to forming Verdis Investment Management in 2004, Jamie was President and CEO of Orcom Solutions. Orcom was an outsourced customer care and billing service for electric, gas and water utilities across North America. The company was originally purchased by a group of private equity firms (including the Blackstone Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners) led by Jamie and was sold to Alliance Data Systems (NYSE:ADS) in December 2003. Jamie began his career as a VC at EnerTech Capital Partners, funding technologies in energy and power.

He earned his Master’s in Business Administration from theWharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Jamie is the Chairman and President of Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, and Arboretum and Vice-Chair of the Board ofTrustees and Chair of the Museum Committee of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Angelique Robb graduated from Louisiana State University in Petroleum Engineering, working in the oil industry for many years in the USA and the UK.  

In 2008, she qualified as a landscape designer and launched a design and build company, Papillon Designs and Landscaping Ltd in Scotland, UK. Since then she has built up the company into a national award-winning practice. She is passionate about the industry and helping it 'raise the bar.'

In 2021, living in the USA again, she launched a media company to educate and inspire landscape professionals in the design + build + maintain disciplines in the southeast region under the name Pro Landscaper for the publication and FutureScape for the event - these were subsequently re-branded to SYNKD in 2022.  In 2022, SYNKD expanded to 26 states and has grown the in-person event, SYNKD Live, by 100% since its launch in 2023.  By highlighting the companies and leaders in our industry, SYNKD shows the way to those leaders looking to run their business better and increase the quality of their production.

Richard McCoy has over 30-years of experience in the green industry. He is the visionary behind Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services Inc., founded in 1995. Since transitioning from conventional to organic landscape methods in 2005, McCoy Horticultural has been offering environmentally and sustainably responsible, landscape design, installations, maintenance, green infrastructure, and organic lawn care.

His work at Stony Wood Garden, a 3.5-acre private woodland garden in Princeton, New Jersey, has been recognized by The Smithsonian Institute's Archives of American Gardens.

Paul Cox is the Vice President and Principal at Environmental Design, Inc. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and attended the University of Houston to study international business and the Spanish language. Paul is a certified arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture, and he is credentialed as a consulting arborist.

His experience in the tree industry includes contract negotiations, tree preservation, plant health care, project management, and tree relocation to name a few. Paul’s responsibilities have included high-profile sites which include the National September 11th Memorial in Lower Manhattan, the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Governors Island Park installation in New York, and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas.

Paul’s current responsibilities include multiple business units operating in the Eastern United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and Europe.

Jessica Turner-Skoff is Longwood Garden's first Associate Director of Science Communications. She champions Longwood’s leadership in plant science and interprets Longwood’s scientific resources for multiple communication channels and audiences. Jessica is an internationally recognized, award-winning science communicator who is professionally trained as a conservation biologist. She came to Longwood after making significant contributions in science communications at The Morton Arboretum, serving as a Botany in Action Fellow for three years at Phipps Conservatory, and teaching science communication at collegiate and professional levels.

Jessica holds a Ph.D. in Biology from West Virginia University, an MS in Conservation Science and Sustainable Development from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a BS from Muskingum University. She is an Editorial Advisor for the Journal Plants, People, Planet. She was the 2020 Emerging Horticulture Professional from the American Horticultural Society, as well as a Chanticleer Scholar in 2022.

Dr. Christine Carmichael is the award-winning founder and principal of Fair Forests Consulting, LLC, which she began in July 2019. She is also the best-selling author of Racist Roots: How Racism Has Affected Trees and People in Our Cities—and What We Can Do About It.

She holds a Ph.D. in Forestry with a specialization in Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change and holds a Graduate Certificate in Community Engagement from Michigan State University. Dr. Carmichael has published research explaining why 25% of Detroit residents eligible to receive a free street tree between 2011-2014 chose to decline this offer. Since its inception, Fair Forests Consulting, LLC has partnered with several U.S. cities and urban forestry organizations to develop strategies to achieve environmental justice goals through urban tree planting, stewardship, and community engagement. 

Dr. Glynn Percival is the Senior Arboricultural Researcher at the Bartlett Tree Research and Diagnostic Laboratory. Dr. Percival primarily focuses on how environmental stress (drought, heat, and waterlogging) influences tree growth and susceptibility to pest and disease attacks. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, magazine articles, and book chapters, and is an honorary lecturer at the University Reading and the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew in the UK.

Jim Duggan leads the marketing and sales operations for Rootmaker Products Company, Inc. He oversees directing the sales organization and developing digital marketing programs to build the adoption of the Rootmaker growing technology.  Jim Duggan is responsible for the strategic leadership of the sales and marketing department within the business and contributes to the overall growth strategy.

Duggan brings with him nearly 40 years of experience marketing high technology products and services to build companies through targeted growth. He has worked with both large and private companies. As RootMaker develops its next generation of disruptive products, Duggan will be instrumental in creating the company mission of expanding its vision of Landscape Scale Reforestation.

In his role prior to joining RootMaker, Duggan led the growth of an aerospace distributor from $28 million in annual sales to over $95 million. He has consulted with Rootmaker for the last 10 years, and he has been instrumental in building their vision of changing the way trees are grown into a reality.

Annaliese Bischoff is a Western Massachusetts artist and landscape architect. For the past decade, she has been collecting drawings and etchings of trees by Frank A. Waugh, founder of the Landscape Gardening Program at what is today the University of Massachusetts Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.

Annaliese received a bachelor’s degree in art from Brown University and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She began her academic career at Kansas State University, where Waugh had studied a century earlier. She taught for forty years at the University of Massachusetts department that Waugh founded.

Annaliese has received numerous awards and honors for her design and research work, including a Fulbright senior research award. Before her academic career, she worked propagating trees at a nursery in Rhode Island and for the U.S.D.A. Forest Service in South Carolina. The author of The Man Who Loved Trees (2024), she currently serves on the Frank A. Waugh Arboretum Committee at UMass Amherst, home to 8000 trees on campus, and teaches an honors discovery seminar on trees.

David Barmon is owner of Epilogue LLC, a small-scale sawmill business just South of Portland Oregon. He co-owned Fiddlehead LLC, a Portland, Oregon-based landscape construction company for 15 years. David has milled hundreds of thousands of board feet of lumber and installed countless edible landscapes and rain gardens in the Portland area. In a former career, David spent almost a decade as a Japanese-qualified flight attendant for United Airlines.

David has been a powerful advocate for the urban lumber movement over the last decade. He has successfully leveraged private industry, non-profit organizations, and government to push for transformational changes in the urban forestry system. In addition to his hands-on experience procuring, milling, and creating value-added products from urban lumber, David draws from a broad set of skills, including writing, public speaking, lobbying, small business ownership, non-profit management, and policy work. He is currently working on his first book, Wood From the City, the Urban Lumber Handbook.

David has spoken at several conferences including Wood at Work (McGill University 2017 and University of Toronto 2018), the prestigious International Living Future Conference, TEDx Kelowna, and the Mid Atlantic Urban Wood Forum (Virginia Department of Forestry). David was the 2019 keynote speaker at Australia National University’s first-ever urban lumber conference. David was named Sustainable Business Oregon’s Emerging Leader in 2013. His work and ideas have been featured in many publications such as Oregon Public Broadcasting, Green Builder, Sunset, Dwell, and Residential Architect. In 2015 David helped pass legislation through the State of Oregon to fund the world’s first urban lumber tree planting feasibility study. The study, called the Clackamas County Urban Lumber Pilot focused on how to intentionally plant, maintain and harvest urban trees for lumber.

David is fascinated with the physical world and all of the amazing information our modern society is about to forget. He believes our religion, culture, cities, food, clothing, smartphones—basically everything—comes down to understanding plants and rocks.

Josh Behounek is the Business Development Manager with Davey Resource Group. Josh started his career as an inventory arborist working on many large-scale street tree inventories across the country. He then transferred to a Davey Residential and Commercial office in northwest Chicago, where he spent four years performing plant health care and climbing trees. In 2006, Josh transferred back to DRG, where he now leads business development activities across the country for the Environmental Consulting team. He is most passionate about helping clients proactively and sustainably manage their environmental ecosystems.

As a presenter, he has done over 100 presentations at international, national, and regional conferences and workshops. Josh is an ISA Certified Arborist ® Municipal Specialist, and is Tree Risk Assessment Qualified (TRAQ), Josh graduated with a bachelor’s degree in forestry resource management from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. As a frequent business and pleasure traveler Josh has hugged over a dozen national champion trees and is always on the lookout for another one.

Bill Logan (William Bryant Logan) has spent the last five decades living with trees, as a writer, arborist, and teacher, first in coastal California and the Sierra Nevada, then for the last thirty years in the regenerating forests of New York. Logan is founder and president of the Brooklyn-based tree company Urban Arborists. His firm trains and cares for the pollards and aerial hedges in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has planned, planted, and currently cares for numerous landscapes and gardens at historic properties and urban parks in the Tri-State area. Logan lectures widely, from the Arnold Arboretum in Cambridge to the Huntington Library in Los Angeles and internationally, about the relationship between people and trees.  He has won the True Professional of Arboriculture award from the International Society of Arboriculture and the Senior Scholar award from New York State Arborists.

His most recent book, Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees, has been awarded the 2021 John Burroughs Medal for distinguished nature writing. His essay “The Things Trees Know” was excerpted from Sprout Lands before the book’s publication and published in Orion. It won the 2020 John Burroughs Nature Essay Award. Logan’s earlier books are Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Oak: The Frame of Civilization, and Air: The Restless Shaper of the World.  Dirt inspired an award-winning documentary that was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Oak was featured in a story on CBS Sunday Morning. Logan has written for the New York Times, Orion, Emergence, Natural History, House Beautiful, House & Garden, and many other publications, winning numerous Quill and Trowel Awards from the Garden Writers of America. He is on the faculty at the New York Botanical Garden and has taught poetry in the New York City schools and nature writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

Steve Blaes holds degrees in sustainable horticulture and environmental science and has over 20 years of experience in the green industry. He has earned multiple green industry credentials, including the Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional certification, the Landscape Contractors Association CLT in Ornamental Maintenance, and is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) certified arborist with their Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) among others. Steve has worked on a plethora of projects ranging from residential to institutional campuses in both rural and urban communities across the country. His scientific area of inquiry primarily focuses on supporting professional landscape best management practices that positively impact riparian ecologies endemic to the piedmont and coastal plain regions. He is currently working as a design and sales consultant in Maryland's Baltimore Metro area while supporting his passion projects in the Chesapeake Bay Bioregion.

Andy Schenck, a self-professed plant nerd, is the owner of Sam Brown’s Wholesale Nursery in Malvern, PA where he has worked for 22 years. Andy received a B.S. in Ornamental horticulture from the University of Delaware and is a member of the Plant Selection Committee for the Rare Plant Auction at Longwood Gardens (Delaware Center for Horticulture). Andy’s long-lived passion for the outdoors, nature and gardening inspired his desire for life-long learning and his successful career in horticulture.

Bob Gutowski Director of Education, Visitor Experience, and Outreach at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania shares his many years of tree planting as a child and right through his professional career at Morris Arboretum. He retires in September. 

Joe Lamb, founder of the Borneo Project, is a writer, activist, and arborist living in Berkeley, California. His poetry and essays have appeared in Earth Island Journal, The Sun, Caliban, Wind, Orion, and other magazines. His work is also included in the anthologies The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology, Robert Bly et al editors, and Veterans of War/Veterans of Peace, Maxine Hong Kingston editor. 

Joe has degrees in biology, ecology, and film. He has taught biology and ecology in the United States and in Mexico. He worked as a field organizer on the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, and as a film distributor for The Video Project. For over forty years he has tended trees in the urban forest as co-owner of Brende and Lamb Tree and Shrub care. 

In 1991, under the auspices of Earth Island Institute, Joe founded the Borneo Project, an NGO that helps the indigenous peoples of Borneo secure land rights and protect their forest.

Honored by the Goldman Foundation as an “environmental hero,” Joe was featured in the San Francisco public television program, “Green Means.”

 For over 30 years the Borneo Project has helped indigenous peoples map their lands, bring their case to the court of public opinion, and press for the preservation of their forests through legal action. Learn more about the Borneo Project – see the link below.   Joe is firmly committed to trees as an essential part of any realistic strategy to help the world limit and mitigate the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change.

John Perlin is a Professor and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of the newly released edition of A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization.

Perlin says, “It is my hope that the new edition of A Forest Journey will make clear the imperative humanity faces because losing our forests would not merely be the end of nature, it could mean the end of us.”

Originally published in 1989, the book’s comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life …….earned its recognition as a Harvard “Classic in Science and World History” and as one of Harvard’s “One Hundred Great Books.”

In the new edition, Perlin cites data on how humanity has cut down half the trees on the planet in the last 12,000 years, and that deforestation continues at an alarming pace with 15 billion trees removed per year. That’s 500,000 square miles of forested land lost since the first edition of A Forest Journey was released.

Perlin is also the author of three other books: A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology; From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity; and Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy.

Perlin lives in Santa Barbara, California.

John Perlin is a Professor and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Physics at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization.

 Perlin says, “It is my hope that this edition of A Forest Journey will make clear the imperative humanity faces because losing our forests would not merely be the end of nature, it could mean the end of us.”

Originally published in 1989, the book’s comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life …….earned its recognition as a Harvard “Classic in Science and World History” and as one of Harvard’s “One Hundred Great Books.”

In this latest edition, Perlin cites data on how humanity has cut down half the trees on the planet in the last 12,000 years and that deforestation continues at an alarming pace with 15 billion trees removed per year. That’s 500,000 square miles of forested land lost since the first edition of A Forest Journey was released.

Perlin is also the author of three other books: A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology; From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity; and Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy.

Perlin lives in Santa Barbara, California.

John Berryhill is the Landscape Curator for the Botanic Garden of Smith College where he has worked for just over 23 years. In that time, he has served several roles, including wildflower gardener and arborist. He served as the Chief Arborist there for 15 years and has transformed the care of Smith’s arboretum from an external, contracted operation to an internal one with a team of three certified arborists.

This week, John talks about risk assessment on Smith College's campus. 

Jennifer Walker is the Head Gardener at the Barnes Foundation at Saint Joseph’s University. She enjoys the challenge of managing and growing the tree canopy and other flora of this historic arboretum, as well as being engaged in the life of the university through student engagement and collaboration with faculty and staff. Her other professional areas of expertise include environmental management and civic engagement with specific attention to the effects and presence of structural inequality, community conflict, and stakeholder development. Jennifer has authored numerous publications including a manual for the EPA on vacant lot re-greening in the Rust Belt and completed landscape design and management plans in communities ranging from Akim Oda, Ghana to a coastal marine lab in rural Georgia. Ms. Walker holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Horticulture from North Carolina State University, and a master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia.

Andrea Whitely is a garden consultant, designing and implementing new gardens, garden renovations, and garden maintenance in Perth, Australia.

Andrea is probably best known publicly for her work on 720 ABC radio with Sabrina Hahn as The Soil Sisters. Sabrina and Andrea hosted the very popular call-in program answering gardening questions for four years. They traveled together around Western Australia appearing live and were particularly popular in Western Australia sharing witty repartee as well as their love of all things garden related.

Andrea is a Regional Director with GardenComm International based in New York, USA. Since 2015 and prior to Covid-19 she traveled through the United States extensively attending the annual conferences and extending her trips to take in more gardens with friends.

Andrea has spoken publicly at Women of the Wheatbelt in Meriden, Gidgegannup Field Day, Kalamunda Community Garden, Australian Garden History events, Nannup Flower and Garden Festival, and at a variety of corporate events in Perth. For many years, as a member of the Horticulture Media Association, Andrea appeared as a speaker at The Perth Flower and Garden Festival.

Andrea has contributed to various gardening magazines including regular articles appearing in Hort Journal. The Australian Garden History Journal and HMA News as well as Our Gardens, Your Garden, Gardening Australia, and The Garden Guru papers. Her images have been published in The West Australian, and Australia’s Open Garden Scheme Guidebook, and many local newspapers around the state.

Andrea has traveled and visited gardens through Europe, Asia, the UK, The Pacific, The USA, and of course every state and territory in her homeland, Australia. She has even been to visit, Highgrove, the home of HRH Prince Charles.

Andrea is an award-winning blogger and is active on Social Media sites Facebook, Instagram Twitter, and Pinterest.

Linda Langelo is a Colorado State University Extension Horticulture Specialist and host of the Relentless Gardener Podcast. The five counties under her care are in Northeast Colorado, where she assists homeowners and professionals with horticultural issues. She created a Facebook page titled, Garden the Plains to reach a broader audience with the help of Master Gardeners. The Master Gardener Program in the Golden Plains Area covers demonstration gardens, school and library programs, community gardens, and more.

During her 40 years in horticulture, she has worked in both private and public horticultural institutions. As Assistant Director of Horticulture at Salisbury State University, she helped implement an arboretum campus-wide that is still going strong today. Linda went on to be the Director at Adkins Arboretum early in its development, increasing its exposure to the local and surrounding communities. The arboretum also became a member of the American Public Garden Association under her tenure.

In July 2021, she was awarded the Lois Woodward Paul Memorial Award for her career achievements from Longwood Gardens Alumni Association as a fellow alumnus of the Longwood's Horticulture Program.

Linda is a member of Garden Communicators International,the American Public Gardens Association, a regular contributor to MarthaStewart.com, and Canada's Local Gardener. She has worked on diverse landscapes from public to private gardens including resorts and arboreta for 40years. Linda worked from New York to New Mexico, before arriving in the Golden Plains area of Colorado where she has spent the last 19 years of her career.

Her Relentless Gardener column has received a Laurel Award from Garden Communicators International.

Jill Rose is the State Forest Pathologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Bureau of Forestry since September 2019. Previously she was the Forest Health Programs Manager and State Forest Pathologist for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, Plant Industries Division for 17 years.

Jill’s studies included an Associate Degree in Wildlife Technology from Penn State University from the DuBois campus and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Sciences from the University of Idaho. Jill also holds a Master of Science degree in Plant Pathology from Washington State University.

Jason Lubar has been employed at Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania as the Associate Director of Urban Forestry for over twenty years. His career has focused on educating a wide audience about trees and natural resources. He teaches professional-level arboricultural courses, presents at international conferences, and supports Morris Arboretum’s educational mission by providing a wide-range of tree-related consulting services to a diversity of clients including design firms, arborists, townships and municipalities, schools, and corporations.

We have invited Jason back today in light of the recent tornados that have ravaged our Mid-Atlantic Region. This podcast is dedicated to the aftercare of trees from tornado and derecho damage.

Douglas Meney is the Director of Horticulture with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), a position he has held since 2014. Mr. Meney serves as the principal Horticultural advisor to the Deputy Secretary for Overseas Operations and to the Superintendents of 26 permanent American military cemeteries and 32 federal memorials, monuments, and markers, located within 17 foreign countries.

These military cemeteries and memorials, most of which commemorate the service and sacrifice of Americans who served in World War I and World War II, are among the most beautiful and meticulously maintained shrines in the world.

Mr. Meney, who was born and raised in Scotland is a trained and qualified horticulturalist who has worked within the Horticultural industry for 40 years, 33 of which have been dedicated to military cemetery maintenance in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and France. He holds a Foundation Degree in Horticulture from West of Scotland Agricultural College and a BA (Hons) in Leadership and Management from Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Corey Bassett is a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where she is researching urban forest management and ecosystem services. She has worked and lived across the United States, where she has managed statewide urban and community forestry programs and performed arboricultural consulting and municipal tree care. Beyond her current research area, she is very active around issues such as establishing career and mentorship pipelines for early career professionals, setting standards for tree care for wildlife, and connecting urban forestry with related disciplines.

Corey currently serves as the first Student Representative to the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Board of Directors, Public Outreach Director for the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the ISA’s Board of Directors, core member and co-author for the Tree Care for Wildlife program of the Western Chapter ISA, and co-author for the upcoming edition of the ISA Certified Arborist Study Guide. Corey is an ISA Certified Arborist and holds the ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification. She completed a Master’s in Environmental Studies, concentration in Environmental Biology, and B.A. in Earth Science, concentration in Environmental Science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nancy Buley is Director of Communications for J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co., wholesale tree growers of Boring, Oregon, where she has been “talking trees” for 26 years. A former newspaper reporter and food editor, she graduated in Technical Journalism and Horticulture from Oregon State University.  A Lifetime Honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Nancy has earned national recognition for her tree advocacy and stewardship efforts including a decade-plus service on the board of directors of Friends of Trees. A GardenComm (member) and a graduate of the Society of Municipal Arborists’ Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI), Nancy lives and gardens in Boring, beneath an ever-widening canopy of trees.

Carol Wagner is a long-time horticulturist at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania a suburb of Philadelphia. A life-long resident of Southeast Pennsylvania, she graduated from the Professional Gardener Program at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. She takes great pride in the history and plantings at Haverford, especially the College's great-grandchild of the Penn Treaty Elm. She recently became a founding member of the Newtown Township Shade Tree Commission.

Neelam Patil, M.Ed., MFA, is a Climate Literacy and Science Teacher in the Berkeley public school system.  She was awarded TIME Innovative Teacher of the Year 2022 by TIME Magazine based on her work teaching children they can do something about climate change. Ms. Patil spearheaded the planting of the first Miyawaki schoolyard forests in North America in Berkeley, California.  While teaching her students about deforestation, they wanted to do something immediate and impactful. They demanded, ‘Let’s plant trees!’, and the rest is history. 

Ms. Patil has been an educator since 2000. Her work specializes in empowering children to face the most pressing challenges of our time through climate resilience, mindfulness, plant based culinary education, and youth urban forestry. She is a certified SKY Breath instructor and recently founded a non-profit, Green Pocket Forests, whose mission is to green urban spaces using the Miyawaki method.

Dr. Ed Gilman is a professor emeritus from the University of Florida and is a principal at Wood Architecture, Inc.

His 35 years in academia and the green industry have led him to write the Illustrated Guide to Pruning, which is now in its third edition. Ed has a long list of achievements and awards including honorary membership in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 2016, an author’s citation award in 1999, and an educators award in 2003. He has also received a research award in 2007, and an award of merit in 2016 from the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA’s highest award). Ed’s published works over his 35 years in academia include more than 120 scientific peer-reviewed journal articles on roots, tree planting, and tree pruning. In addition to all of his academic achievements, Ed has delivered over 800 presentations to professional groups throughout the world. He now conducts training, writes specifications, and consults for companies on arboriculture-related issues.

https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/instructional-videos.shtml

https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/contact-us.shtml

https://www.educatedclimber.com/dr-ed-gilman-teaching-series/

https://tcia.org/TCIA/News/Business/_UF_IFAS_Professor_Ed_Gilman__A_legacy_of_tree_growth.aspx

https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Guide-Pruning-Edward-Gilman/dp/111130730X

https://www.urban-forestry.com/assets/documents/gilman.pdf

Jason Ross is the Managing Publisher of Wood Central - the world's largest news platform for forest-based news!  Wood Central has more than 170,000 users, with over 75% of users under 45, and 47% under 35! We cover all the news on the Wood Central website, across all media channels that interest our users, with fresh content from across the world updated all day, every day.

So whether it's the next generation of mass timber buildings, the carbon power in our lithium batteries, or even the use of Cold War technology in monitoring carbon stock across the world's forests - scroll over to Wood Central to stay informed about all the news that matters!

Jason has a passion for green buildings - probably why Wood Central is the only platform dedicated to writing up a new and unique project case study every day! As a former Green Star Accredited Professional (GSAP), he has been an active member in driving the adoption of Green Star projects in Australia - and is pushing for greener, cleaner, and more sustainable building materials ahead of the Brisbane Olympic Games.  He has advised the Queensland State Government on environmental protection, heritage, housing, and public works.

From 2018 until 2022, Jason managed the PEFC brands in the Australian and New Zealand markets and is passionate about growing the certification awareness and compliance across the Asia-Pacific region. Still, trying to figure out what forest certification is and why it matters?

An experienced spokesperson, Jason has presented to a variety of forums, including the United Nations (Australia and New Zealand), the Property Council (Australia), Master Builder (Australia), the Building Designer Association of Australia (BDAA), the Australian Institute of Building, the National Retailers Association, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and New Zealand (NZGBC), the PEFC Council (Geneva, Switzerland), the Wood Processors Manufacturing Association (New Zealand) and the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP).

Anthony (Tony) Aiello is Associate Director of Conservation, Plant Breeding, and Collections at Longwood Gardens, where he participates in tree conservation, plant exploration and evaluation, and collections development.  Previously he served for 22 years as the Gayle E. Maloney Director of Horticulture and Curator at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where he managed the Morris Arboretum’s historic gardens and living collections. These positions have allowed him to travel throughout the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan to find novel plants suitable for growing in the Delaware Valley.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in Botany from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Horticulture from Purdue University. For many years Tony chaired the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) and participated in the American Public Gardens Association taxonomy and plant collections committees.

Tony’s interests include temperate trees and shrubs – in particular oaks, maples, hollies, witch-hazels, and flowering cherries, as well as economic botany and the history of horticulture. He has written extensively about his travels, as well as his historic and plant interests.

Leslie Berckes is the Executive Director of the Society of Municipal Arborists (SMA). She brings over a decade of experience in urban forestry to the organization, having served as the Executive Vice President and Des Moines Program Director for Trees Forever, a Midwest-based non-profit. Leslie is an ISA Certified Arborist and holds a master’s degree in Public Policy with an Environmental Policy emphasis from the University of Northern Iowa in addition to a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

Robin Rick has been a Woodlands Grave Gardener since 2016 and The
Woodlands' Facility and Landscape Manager since 2018. It is with great
pleasure and purpose that Robin works to care for the locally and
nationally significant treasure that is The Woodlands. She brings to
the  position professional experience in architecture and
horticulture. After a career in architecture, she worked as a
residential gardener and attended the Barnes Foundation Arboretum
School where she earned a Certificate of Horticulture.  At The
Woodlands Robin's responsibilities bridge the two disciplines -
helping maintain the site's historically significant features  -
buildings and trees - while welcoming daily use by the West Philly
community and other visitors.

Rebecca Johnson is an ISA Certified Arborist and a true arborholic. She is addicted to helping trees and the people who care for them. Rebecca regularly provides education to fellow arborists and the general public. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas Chapter of ISA as its president and is a private consulting arborist, teaching homeowners about proper tree care. Rebecca has been involved with the Certified Arborist prep courses since 2011 and was part of the cadre responsible for bringing the Certified Arborist prep class to Austin, Texas in 2015. She currently coordinates the Austin class.

Rebecca was recognized with the 2020 ISA President's Award for her work with Women in Arboriculture. She is a TCIA Certified Treecare Safety Professional, Tree Risk Assessment Qualified, and holds the Texas ISA Oak Wilt and Wildfire Risk Reduction qualifications, and has a degree in Forestry from Oklahoma State University. She spends her free time looking at and admiring trees and spends quality time with her family and pets.

Lori Hayes is the Director of Urban Forestry, and District Tree Crew, Districts 5, 6, 7, & 8, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and is a certified arborist through ISA (International Society of Arboriculture). She oversees many projects including the TreePhilly Program, street tree planting, and maintenance. Lori graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Science in horticulture, she is a Penn State Master Gardener, and a lifelong learner. Lori's passion for trees and the urban forest has given her the nickname The Lorax. 

Tom Kimmerer is a scientist, author, and photographer.  He is a consulting forest scientist, working with landowners and with other scientists and natural resource management professionals to ensure a future for the woodland pastures of Kentucky and Tennessee. He consults on sustainability issues related to forest management and wood utilization, including carbon sequestration in forests and wood products.

Tom is the author of Venerable Trees – History, Biology and Conservation, and writes for American Forests, Planet Experts, and other publications.

He teaches field courses on forestry, woodland pastures, and sustainability and is a conservation photographer specializing in tree and forest photography.

Tom has a B.S. in Forest Biology (Botany) from SUNY ESF and a Ph.D. in both forestry and botany, with a specialization in tree physiology and biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has done research and has taught tree physiology, forest biology, and urban forestry in the United States, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and was a faculty member at the University of Kentucky. Tom was also a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and an advisor and consultant on environmental and forestry issues for the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia, the American-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, the Electric Power Research Institute, and LG&E-Kentucky Utilities.

Ian Hanou is a trees and technology-loving entrepreneur with 20 years of private sector experience. He earned a B.S. in Forest Management and GIS from Colorado State University and founded PlanIT Geo in 2012. Ian is a thought leader in software design and geospatial analysis for urban forestry, green infrastructure, parks, and ecosystem services. He has led hundreds of projects with clients in government, nonprofits, and the private sector. At PlanIT Geo, Ian directs overall operations, management, strategic partnerships, and vision. He plays a hands-on role in the roadmap for the TreePlotter suite of software and related technology innovation. In 2011, the Society of Municipal Arborists honored Ian with an award for innovation in tree planting prioritization using GIS. 

He lives in Colorado with his wife and two children, where he has summited all 54 mountains over 14,000 feet.

Jake Handley was born in San Luis Obispo, California, and grew up in Eustis Florida where he received a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Central Florida.  After graduating from college he worked in the zip line industry for 5 years as a guide, trainer, and course builder.  He started his transition into the tree world in 2017 working for Asheville Arborists where he is currently employed. He became a certified arborist in 2019 and has written “The Times They Are a-Changin” for the Arborist magazine an article on climate change. Jake currently resides in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Christy Rollinson is the Forest Ecologist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. As a research scientist, much of her work looks at how individual trees, forest communities, and ecosystems respond to changing weather and climate. Christy’s work involves a variety of approaches, including tree rings, phenology and citizen science, and computer modeling. Christy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Environmental Studies from Oberlin College and a Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Ecology from Penn State University. At The Morton Arboretum, Christy has been highly involved with science and climate change communication to a variety of professional and non-professional audiences.

Today’s Show is a special edition highlighting the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s (PHS) Philadelphia Flower Show. We have two special guests Sam Lemheney and Tim Iffel.

Sam Lemheney is the Chief of Shows and Events at PHS and directs the strategy, planning, and execution of all events including the annual Philadelphia Flower Show where over 250,000 visitors from around the world experience the work completed by him, his team, and PHS every year. Sam is a judge for flower shows in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, and has judged the floats at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. He is also an active member of the International Festivals and Events Association.
Sam received his B.S. in Plant Science from the University of Delaware and has had a lifelong passion for horticulture. He began his career at The Walt Disney Company in the Land Horticulture Science Program and eventually rose to the position of Area Manager of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival.

Our second guest is Tim Ifill who is the Associate Director of Trees at PHS, supporting communities around the region that are working together to share the incredible benefits of trees. He leads a team that works with an incredible group of volunteers, community organizations, and government agencies to establish and maintain healthy tree canopies in Philadelphia-area neighborhoods.

Tim received a B.A. in linguistics from Haverford College. Prior to joining PHS, Tim served as Executive Director of Philly Fellows, a program he co-founded that built capacity for Philadelphia anti-poverty organizations and started young people on careers in public service. He started his career with the U.S. Forest Service, where he was lucky enough to serve in the National Forest, which is home to the world’s oldest living tree.

Ron Kinney is the production manager at Monrovia’s Oregon nursery. Ron has a degree in Ornamental Horticulture from California State Polytechnic University and has been in the industry for more than 30 years. Part of his role as production manager includes responsibility for tree production, both in containers and in-ground field production, at Monrovia’s California and Oregon nursery facilities. 

Ron and his wife also manage and operate a 20-acre Hazelnut orchard in Oregon.

Kim Shearer is the Curator of Living Collections and Manager of the Haerther Charitable Trust New Plant Development Program at The Morton Arboretum. In her role as curator, Kim focuses on the development and maintenance of resilient living collections that provide a germplasm resource for researchers and plant breeders seeking to address the issues of climate change; while also working with the conservation community to identify priorities that can be addressed through collections curation and research. As Manager of New Plant Development Kim works with plant breeders and the nursery industry to select, evaluate, and develop new plants for the urban and suburban built landscapes. Kim completed her Bachelor of Science degrees in Horticulture Science and Plant Biology at North Carolina State University and her Master of Science degree in Horticulture Science with a focus in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Oregon State University.

Tom Knezick is the General Manager of Pinelands Nursery & Supply.  He became interested in the agricultural and the nursery industry as a child when he planted his first pussy willow at age 2. As 2nd generation nurseryman, his parents Don & Suzanne Knezick started the nursery in 1984. Tom’s primary focus is bringing a business-minded approach to growing, selling, and marketing native plants.

Pinelands Nursery is proud to supply local ecotype trees, shrubs, grasses, forbs & seeds to the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast grown from wild-collected seed.  Most of the plants they grow are planted in ecological restoration projects from Virginia to Massachusetts, creating landscapes that attract pollinators, curb climate change, prevent flooding, and create wildlife habitat.

Tom is a member of the New Jersey Nursery & Landscape Association Board of Directors, Atlantic Seed Association Executive Committee, and is Secretary of NJ Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Agriculture Professionals.  He also operates an e-commerce garden center with his wife Melissa, and recently had his first child. Tom also hosts the Native Plants Healthy Planet Podcast.

Mindy Maslin founded Tree Tenders while working for PHS (Pennsylvania Horticulture Society) 30 years ago. The program has been adopted by many cities throughout the country. Mindy's unique perspective on trees comes from her early years as a social worker. Trees live in communities too!

Jan Johnsen is a principal of the award-winning Johnsen Landscapes & Pools in New York, and an admired garden designer and author. She was the 2019 recipient of the prestigious ‘Award of Distinction' from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. Her firm’s website is www.johnsenlandscapes.com

Trained in landscape architecture and professional horticulture, Jan has worked in Japan, Hawaii, and Kenya, among other places. She is an inspiring and popular speaker and loves to show how you can “co-create with nature” in your backyard.

She taught at Columbia University for many years and still teaches at the New York Botanical Garden where she was named “Instructor of the Year”. Jan wrote ‘All About Trees’ and has followed that up with several other books. Her 2021 book, Floratopia – 110 Flower Garden Ideas for Your Yard, Patio or Balcony, (Countryman Press, an imprint of W.W. Norton) joins Gardentopia, Heaven is a Garden and The Spirit of Stone.

Nan Sterman is a California native, garden expert, garden designer, author, botanist, and award-winning communicator. Nan has long been dedicated to the transformation of planted landscapes from overly thirsty and resource-intensive to climate appropriate and sustainable.

In addition to designing gardens, Nan works hard to connect plants to people and the planet. Some examples of that work include:

· Her award-winning public TV show, A Growing Passion which Nan hosts, produces, and writes. Forty-eight episodes air on KPBS TV in San Diego, on CREATE TV, and are available online at www.AGrowingPassion.com.

· Nan’s most recent book, Hot Color, Dry Garden, is a guide for creating color-filled, waterwise gardens. She’s written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines, too.

· In 2014, Nan founded the San Diego Gardener Facebook group, where more than 16,000 people discuss plants and gardening in Southern California.

· At the beginning of the COVID quarantine, Nan co-founded Grab & Grow Gardens to support food-insecure communities during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. To date, Grab & Grow Gardens has supplied more than 26,000 starter vegetable gardens for families and seniors in need across the region.

· Nan leads tours to garden adventures around the world, including Europe, South Africa, Costa Rica, and the US.

· In 2022, Nan kicked off the online Garden School, targeted at passionate home gardeners. In addition to a monthly garden membership, Nan teaches online and in-person seed-starting workshops every spring.

Nan’s approach to gardening dates back to the 1970s when she was involved in the first wave of the sustainability movement. She trained at the Integral Urban House in Berkeley, California, earned a botany degree from Duke University, a master’s in biology from UC Santa Barbara, and a master’s in instructional design from San Diego State University.

Prior to delving into the gardening world, Nan created curricula, training programs, and educational materials for Fortune 500 companies, zoos, aquaria, and not-for-profit organizations. Her ability to take complex information and create effective educational programs is one of her greatest strengths, and a major source of her successes.

Robert Lundgren has a Bachelor of Plant Science and Fine Arts minor from the University of Delaware, and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at landscape architecture firms, Olin and Andropogon and is now at Penn working as the University Landscape Architect within the Facilities & Real Estate Services Division, shepherding a variety of landscape projects on the 300-acre campus arboretum. He is an artist, an award-winning designer, and an avid naturalist. His responsibilities at Penn include research, campus planning, tree care and management, garden design, ecological and environmental initiatives, and maintenance protocols.

Glenn Eck has been in the horticulture and landscape industry since 1985. He was fortunate to receive a foundation of education and training through the Longwood Gardens Professional Horticulture Program, and a student year with England’s Royal Horticultural Society. Since 1997, Glenn has been managing the grounds and urban horticulture at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is a volunteer with the PA Big Trees program, documenting Pennsylvania’s largest trees, and holds the dubious distinction of discovering Pennsylvania’s largest known Ailanthus altissima (Tree of Heaven). When not in the garden, he prefers exploring wild places, sometimes by bicycle.

Seth Lieberman co-founded Quiet Clean Philly; an all-volunteer organization dedicated to phasing out gas leaf blowers in the City of Philadelphia.  Seth’s activism and articles on the harms of gas leaf blowers have been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY’s Studio 2 and Radio Times, Channel 6 ABC Action News, The Chestnut Hill Local, The Weavers Way Shuttle, Planet Philadelphia, and The Jewish Exponent.  Seth is also active as part of a national network of municipalities seeking healthier and more sustainable communities through changing how we think about lawncare.    When not volunteering, Seth runs Leadership Breakthroughs, a leadership and strategy development business focused on academic medical centers. 

Dr. Bonnie Sager is a Consulting Clinical Physician to the New York State hospital system. She has lectured internationally on eyecare and has served as Vice President and advisor to several Visioncare companies.

As a clinician, she is concerned with the many detrimental health impacts that gas powered lawn equipment have on landscape workers and the general public.  She is actively working with communities, medical professionals, environmental groups, and legislators to change policy and promote more sustainable landscaping practices.

Dr. Sager and Dr. Lucy Weinstein are co-founders of Huntington CALM, (Clean Alternative Landscaping Methods) a Long Island-based citizens’ advocacy organization. 

Dr. Sager is also a co-founder of QCA  (Quiet Clean Alliance) a national organization dedicated to educating and changing public policy on gas lawn equipment.  Dr. Sager served on the advisory board of Noise Free America and has been featured in print, on television and radio addressing the topic Landscaping and Your Health.

Katie Dubow is president at Garden Media Group, a women-owned and run public relations firm specializing in the home and garden industry. Author of the annual Garden Trends Report, Dubow travels the world scouting and presenting garden trends to audiences from Italy to Chicago.

Dubow is a guest host on QVC for Cottage Farms, judge at the Philadelphia Flower Show, the inaugural recipient of the Emergent Communicator Award from the Association of Garden Writers, vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association, and an awarded member of the 2018 Forty Under 40 from Greenhouse Product News.

Previously, she worked at CBS Studios in New York City and was a public relations & marketing manager at Monet Jewelry. Katie received a degree in communications from Northeastern University where she was also a Division I rower on the crew team.

Dubow lives and gardens in West Chester, PA with her husband, two daughters, one dog, and six chickens. Find her in the garden with her children, practicing yoga or dancing to Zumba. Her goal is to convince people that brown thumbs can, in fact, be turned green.

Follow along @KatieGMG and on Facebook at KatieGardenGirl

Jason Lubar has been employed at Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania as the Associate Director of Urban Forestry for over twenty years. His career has focused on educating a wide audience about trees and natural resources. He teaches professional-level arboricultural courses, presents at international conferences, and supports Morris Arboretum’s educational mission by providing a wide range of tree-related consulting services to a diversity of clients including design firms, arborists, townships and municipalities, schools, and corporations.

Jason is the President of the ISA PennDel Chapter and is a Board-Certified Master Arborist, Tree Risk Assessment Qualified, and a member of the American Society of Consulting Arborists and holds the ASCA Tree and Plant Appraisal Qualification. He also is on the Executive Board and is treasurer of Pennsylvania’s Urban and Community Forestry Council.

Kristen Pullen completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Rider University. After university, she took an internship position at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The internship focused on all research aspects of the public garden from tissue culture to new plant evaluation and selection. Kristen has been with the new product department at Star® Roses and Plants since 2011. She previously managed domestic and international trialing of woody plants before accepting her current role as Woody Ornamental Portfolio Manager where she coordinates the development, launch, and market evaluation of all new trees, shrubs, and edible plants. Kristen also manages the Bushel and Berry® Brand for Star® Roses and Plants, a premium branded program of plants that provide both edible and ornamental uses for the home garden.

Tim Johnson is the Chief Executive Officer at the Native Plant Trust in Framingham, Massachusetts. He leads the organization’s 45-acre Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts; the Nasami Farm, a native plant nursery in Whately, Massachusetts; and the expanded seed-processing and storage facilities to support the new Northeast Seed Network. The Network is a regional initiative led by the Native Plant Trust to create a sustainable source of seed to meet the increased demand for native plants.

Johnson has an extensive background in environmental horticulture and biological science from his long-standing career in conservation and botanic garden administration and leadership at Smith College.

Johnson’s affection for native plants was born from a childhood spent exploring the great outdoors in Wisconsin. His appreciation for the importance of protecting the rarest of plants is from his graduate studies working with threatened orchids on the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

Kathy Jentz is Editor, Publisher, and Founder of Washington Gardener Magazine which is published specifically for the local metro area of Washington D.C. and its suburbs. The premier issue of the magazine was released in March/April 2005 and this year, celebrating its 15th year in publication.

The content of the magazine gives real examples that you can use directly in your garden while showing how to stretch garden resources. The articles are peppered with whimsy, with a good sense of humor and wonderment.

In this segment, Kathy will be talking about some of her favorite small trees for urban areas. 

Ari Miller is the director of design at Hinge Collective in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a public interest design firm that puts community engagement and public participation at the forefront of their practice.

As both a landscape architect and arborist, Ari has always advocated for the integration and restoration of natural systems in urban design. Over the course of his 17-year career, Ari has worked as an arborist at Morris Arboretum, as a green roof design specialist at Roofmeadow, and has also led large-scale civic design projects at OLIN Partners. At Hinge, he uses this experience to help communities find design solutions that best support human and ecological health in their own neighborhoods through the enhancement of public space and community-led planning. Some notable projects include the Philly Tree Plan, Resilient Communities Stormwater Initiative, Unity Park, and Frankford Pause Park.

Ari has also been adjunct faculty at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson University. 

Dan Herms is Vice President of Research and Development for The Davey Tree Expert Company.  Prior to joining Davey, Herms served on the faculty in the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University from 1997 to 2017, serving as Department Chair from 2012 to 2016.  His research and outreach programs focus on the ecology and management of trees in forests, urban forests, and ornamental landscapes, including interactions with insects, soils, and climate.

He received his B.S. in Landscape Horticulture from Ohio State University in 1982, his M.S. in Horticulture and Entomology from Ohio State University in 1984, and his Ph.D. in 1991 from Michigan State University in Entomology with a specialization in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  Major recognition for this work includes the L.C. Chadwick Award for Arboriculture Research and the Richard W. Harris Author’s Citation Award from the International Society of Arboriculture, and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Entomological Society of America.

William Fuchs is the Head Gardener at Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, and Arboretum. William has worked in several positions at Andalusia over the last 22 years including 14 years as the Head Gardener. William came to Andalusia as an intern in 1998 while finishing his Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture at Temple University, Ambler campus. Before attending Temple, William received his Associate Applied Science degree in Ornamental Horticulture from Cumberland Community College. William’s interest in horticulture and gardening has been lifelong, working in various positions in the industry for over 30 years including the 7 years William managed his own design, install, and maintenance landscape company. William grew up on a small farm where a variety of crops were raised for farmer’s market stands as a side business. William is glad to be a part of this incredible community that helps promote a better place to live by planting beautiful trees and gardens.

Ashley Miles is the Administrative Production Assistant at Ruppert Nurseries and has held other positions such as In-House Salesperson and Inventory Manager. Ashley has been with Ruppert since 2013. She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Ashley is also a Certified Professional Horticulturalist. Ashley is an enthusiast of the natural world. Trees have inspired her both personally and professionally and she is grateful that trees have been the focus of her career.

and 

Kelly Lewis is the General Manager of Ruppert Nurseries. Kelly was raised in the nursery business working at a family Garden Center from the time he was old enough to be of any help. After a two-year vocational horticulture program in high school, he started working full-time for the family business in a variety of roles and learned the business side of the horticulture industry. After years of traveling the country as a purchaser for the garden center, he decided being a grower was a better fit for the agricultural lifestyle he desired. Starting in 1994 for Ruppert Nurseries, Kelly first worked sales but quickly transitioned to managing the then relatively small tree-growing farm. Since that time, the farm has grown to over 900 acres and planted more than 250,000 trees. Kelly has always been fortunate to be able to attend countless trade shows, seminars, and educational events during his career. Including the first two-year EAGL class (Executive Academy for Growth and Leadership) where he earned a certificate in Applied Horticulture Business from Texas A&M with Dr. Charlie Hall. Kelly has served on the Northern Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, The Maryland Nursery, Landscape, and Greenhouse Association, Montgomery County Horticultural Advisory Board, and on the Board for Trees for The Future.

Doug Oster is Pittsburgh’s GardenGuru and is host of the popular radio show The Organic Gardener on KDKA radio every Sunday morning. He writes a gardening column for The Green Voice, the newsletter for Pittsburgh Earth Day.

Oster appears on KDKA-TV’s Pittsburgh Today Live as a contributor. He’s also the host of the Talking Trees podcast for the Davey Tree Expert Company along with starring and producing In Doug’s Garden, a weekly television show for CBS/KDKA Streaming.

Oster is proud to work as a consultant for Farm to Table of Western Pennsylvania/Buy Fresh Buy Local. In that capacity he teaches organic gardening classes, helps in the creation and maintenance of local gardens, and works with the team to help underserved communities.

In addition, Doug hosted, produced, and wrote the one-hour special “The Gardens of Pennsylvania” for PBS which won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.

His fifth book, “The Steel City Garden; Creating a One of a Kind Garden in Black and Gold” demonstrates how to create a garden using Pittsburgh’s favorite colors.

The garden personality has a strong following on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Oster’s most satisfying accomplishment was founding Cultivating Success, a garden program for foster and adoptive children.

David Teuschler is the Chief Horticulturist for Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery. He established the nursery’s propagation program and currently directs the propagation and inventory teams for the company’s sixteen locations across California. David has worked in the nursery industry for three decades, including many years at Valley Crest Tree Company. While there, he served as Plant Health Care Manager for the Specimen Tree Division, Account Manager in the Estate Gardens Division, and, most notably, Chief Arborist for the Apple contract grow, responsible for growing over 7,000 trees – half from seed – for installation at the Apple campus in Cupertino, CA. David is a Certified Arborist and a member of the Western Chapter of the I.S.A. and the I.P.P.S. He is a 3rd generation Californian and has a BS in Ornamental Horticulture from California State University, Fresno.

As the founder, principal, and guiding influence of Viridian Landscape Studio, Tavis Dockwiller leads a team that works every day to make sure they leave more than they take – and have fun while they're doing it. Her belief in the essential and healing power of landscapes drives all of the firm's design projects and ecological master plans. A natural storyteller and gifted communicator, Tavis knows how to build consensus between diverse stakeholders and counsels clients on balancing long-term ecological resilience with memorable placemaking. Her work and ideas have helped reshape cities, transform college campuses, and improve lives for communities all over the country.

Following several years working in heavy industry, Steve Ebner’s love affair with wood began in 1981 when he started working as a carpenter in Philadelphia. After twelve years of carpentry experience, he started his own furniture shop which would lead to the creation of Manayunk Timber, Inc., the premier urban sawmill in Philadelphia.

 Manayunk Timber processes lumber reclaimed from Philadelphia industrial-era factories built from the 1880s through the 1920s and local trees that are no longer viable, due to disease, storms, or construction. Beginning in 1985, Steve began purchasing 300- to 500-year-old timbers from the demolition sites of the old factories. In the 1990s, Manayunk Timber became the only Philadelphia sawmill to capture local trees instead of sending them to landfills.

 With a decreasing supply of reclaimed timber from old factories, Steve believes the future lies in the inexhaustible supply of local trees. To be processed into lumber and wood products, the local trees are sawed, stacked, and then dried (a year for every one-inch thickness). Customers can choose between a huge inventory of seasoned (by air-drying) walnut, cherry, oak, cedar, locust, osage orange, and sassafras, or reclaimed beams and joists with aged, deep patinas.

Steve’s commitment to educating Philadelphia about the beauty and utility of wood goes beyond sawing lumber. Recently, he and his team planted a 3,000-square-foot forest of native trees and bushes, designed to mirror a Pennsylvania forest, in what was previously a parking lot on the lumber yard’s premises. Steve hopes that visitors to Manayunk Timber will make connections between the importance of preserving native trees and the furniture and building materials that enrich our everyday life.

Steve is legendary in the wood business for his vast knowledge of reclaimed and native timbers. In the last six years, he has been joined by his daughter, Rebecca, in operating Manayunk Timber. Together, they have gained national attention with a video on urban sawmilling.

Now, Rebecca is putting her own stamp on Manayunk Timber’s future vision in support of sustainability.

Rebecca Ebner is the manager of Manayunk Timber. Bringing several years of experience working in organic vegetable and animal farms and organizations focused on expanding access to healthy foods in Philadelphia, she joined Manayunk Timber in 2015. Over the past six years, Rebecca has learned every aspect of the business, from milling and sawing lumber to furniture construction. In her current role as manager, she is responsible for activities such as coordinating customer service, generating social media content, managing the showroom, and assisting in overseeing the yard and with material acquisitions.

Rebecca graduated from Barnard College in 2012 with a BA in Urban Studies and Environmental Science. She brings a passion for urban sustainability and community engagement, a commitment to Philadelphia, and involvement in creative and artistic projects to her work with Manayunk Timber. Moving forward, Rebecca’s focus is the future of the company; she hopes to continue Steve’s dreams and make Manayunk Timber a sustainable part of Philadelphia’s small-business community for years to come. 

Kathy Jentz is the editor and publisher of the award-winning Washington Gardener Magazine, based in Washington, DC. She is also the editor of three plant society journals: the Water Garden Journal (IWGS), The Azalean (ASA), and Fanfare (Daylily Society Region 3). Jentz hosts the popular GardenDC Podcast, which was recently named Best DC Podcast. She is also co-author of The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City and her latest book is Groundcover Revolution. Her mission is to turn your thumb green.

A life-long gardener, Kathy believes that growing plants should be stress-free and enjoyable. Her philosophy is inspiration over perspiration.

Phil Forsyth currently serves as Co-Executive Director of the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP), a non-profit that plants and supports community orchards in the City of Philadelphia.  Phil has led POP’s orchard design and development since its first plantings in 2007.  In his role, he works with POP’s board and staff to design and plant orchards, coordinate volunteers, and lead educational programs. Phil has eighteen years of experience in urban farming, gardening, and landscaping and holds a BS in Horticulture and Landscape Design from Colorado State University. In 2017, Phil received the first-ever Mary Seton Corboy Award for Public Horticulture from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Patrick Joyce is the Nursery Manager at Longwood Gardens.  He oversees the woody plant production and procurement for the Gardens.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from West Virginia University and has been working in the Nursery Industry for over 11 years.  When he isn’t working with plants he enjoys traveling, the outdoors, and being with his family.

Steven Kiiskila is the Crop and Growing Team Manager at Arbutus Grove Nursery, located at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Each year his team grows 15 million container seedlings composed of 18 or more species, primarily for reforestation throughout Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. He has been involved in reforestation his entire career; from collecting seeds to organizing and monitoring tree planting programs, although his primary focus has been growing seedlings at various nurseries throughout British Columbia. While employed as a Seedling Reforestation Specialist, he advised nurseries and tree seed orchards on growing practices. In this role, he also guided foresters and others planting trees on seedling stocktype selection and planting practices and established numerous outplanting trials to search for answers in overcoming reforestation challenges.

Steven loves the combination of art and science used to grow forest seedlings, and the fact that as a grower he is always learning something new.

One of his favorite tree growing sayings is: “Growing trees is not rocket science, it’s much harder.”

He has a Master of Science degree in Forest Biology from the University of Victoria, a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, horticulture major from the University of Guelph, and a Horticulture Diploma from Olds, College.

Sara Street is the green guru of First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania. As the manager of Williamsport’s local nature preserve, Rider Park, she fills the roles of forest ecologist, wildlife biologist, environmental educator, working maintenance foreman, volunteer coordinator and more.

With degrees in landscape architecture, ecological restoration, park management, and landscape technology, Sara brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her role. As the steward of nearly 900 acres, she is responsible for encouraging forest health and longevity, managing invasive plants and pests (like spongey moth and hemlock elongate scale), and planting native plants to enhance the park’s biodiversity. She encourages wildlife habitat by encouraging landscape types that aren’t present at Rider Park (like a shrub-dominated savanna on the edges of the forest and meadows). Sara also maintains trails, coordinates volunteers, and shares her passion for nature and wildlife with visitors.

Even when she’s not on the job, Sara spends a lot of time outside—hiking, gardening, swimming in the West Branch of the Susquehanna and Loyalsock creeks and attending soccer events with her son.

“I lived and worked in northwest Washington state, and the trees there are very impressive in stature, height, and density. But the range of species pales in comparison to the richness of North Central Pennsylvania. I adore walking through the forest, looking at patterns, and identifying trees!”

Jay Worth started working in the Green Industry in college to earn money between semesters. He started mowing lawns for a landscaping company and then moved to a full-service landscaper. While attending University in Florida, he alsoworked on a palm tree farm and fell in love with the trees.

 During the Great Recession in 2009, he was recruited to sell lawn care door-to-door. Having no other job options, he took the offer. This was the beginning of his full-time career in the Green Industry.

After several years he took a break to work in media sales before returning to the Green Industry. Eventually, he landed at a full-service landscaping company doing Inside Sales for their lawn care and pest control programs. Jay gotpromoted to run all the marketing and grew his single Inside Sales position into an entire team of people.
While working there, he spent every chance he got outside with the Tree Care team. He met them on job sites, talked to them at the shop, and even spent time in the field during ISA Arbor Day of Service events.

He eventually connected with SingleOps, a software he’d used while working at one of the landscaping companies. He found it to be the best option for Tree Care and full-service Landscaping companies. So, when they wanted someone to create resources for business owners, he found it was an easy product to get behind.
Jay is passionate about best practices for healthy plants, sustainability, and being thoughtful stewards of the environment. He is also especially keen to help business owners and managers become more effective and efficient in their business practices. Jay sees no reason those two cannot coexist.

Julie Snell is co-founder and principal at TEND landscape inc, a woman-owned landscape architecture firm in Philadelphia, and co-owner of Redbud Native Plant Nursery in Media, PA.  Julie is also an adjunct instructor in the Department of Architecture and Environmental Design, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. In these different roles, she positively impacts the environment either by bridging the gap between landscape design, installation, and maintenance at TEND or performing design consultations and informal educational sessions with homeowners at Redbud, or raising awareness of urban ecology in the classroom.

Bestselling author Randi Minetor writes for the Birdfinding and Best Easy Bird Guides series for Falcon Guides/Globe Pequot Press and is the author of Backyard Birding and Butterfly Gardening for Lyons Press.

Her most recent book, The Complete Language of Birds, is an encyclopedia that unites classic illustrations, science, folklore, and mythology about more than 400 bird species around the world.

Randi writes for Birding Magazine, is a regional report editor for North American Birds, and has served for three years as president of the Rochester Birding Association in New York State.

Carlos Alvarez has been a part of the PowerCorpsPHL (Power Corps Philadelphia) team since March 2015 when he started as a crew leader supporting a group of young people completing various environmental sustainability projects in the City of Philadelphia. Since then, he has held many roles mainly focusing on developing the programs technical skills training. He enjoys working with program members onsite and taking advantage of every learning opportunity that presents itself during the various projects they are assigned.

Currently, Carlos is the Director of Social Enterprise Operations overseeing the installment and operation of the Philadelphia Reforestation Hub-Urban Wood Sawmill, a private and non-profit partnership with PPR (Philadelphia Parks and Recreation)  and Cambium Carbon designed to support the city’s goal to lower wood waste, improve its tree canopy cover, and meet their workforce development goals. The Reforestation Hub provides advanced training for PowerCorpsPHL members in Sawmill Operation and related fields in tree care. Carlos is working towards becoming a certified arborist and remaining an active member of the arboriculture community. 

Diane Ehrich owns Collins Nursery, a small retail nursery in Glenside, Pennsylvania which specializes in container-grown native plants from the Mid-Atlantic region. The nursery was founded by John Collins, a Philadelphia landscape architect, and educator.  Diane has continued to fulfill and expand John’s mission of propagating and providing native plants to homeowners, non-profits, and local townships. Diane studied art at Rhode Island School of Design and Boston University and has an MA in art education from New York University. She draws on her experience as a teacher to help educate customers about the benefits of native plants. An enthusiastic gardener, Diane went back to school at Temple University/Ambler to study horticulture in 2004 and soon after, went to work helping John in his backyard nursery. She has worked as a gardener, at a local garden center, and has done ongoing volunteer work with the Friends of High School Park, a native plant restoration project in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. In addition, Diane is a botanical artist and a member of the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators and the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Roby Babcock is the Marketing Director at Iseli Nursery, a wholesale dwarf conifer and maple grower located in Boring, Oregon. Roby has a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Oregon and a Master of Science in landscape architecture from the University of Arizona. After graduating from the University of Arizona, Roby managed an 11-acre cactus and tree nursery and did freelance design. When he returned to his home state of Oregon a decade later, he took a position at Portland Nursery and served in a variety of roles, including coordinating the displays and managing their e-commerce website. Gardening has been a passion since his childhood and he has created an expansive garden at his home that blends zone-defying cacti, agave, and succulents with specialty conifer specimens, manzanita, and plants native to the Pacific Northwest.   

Roby is a photographer, and his passion has led to many opportunities, including his position at Iseli Nursery, in Boring Oregon.  Roby is responsible for photographing new plants, updating the photo library, and documenting the garden. Developing social media content in combination with the Iseli website. He helps to communicate information about Iseli’s plants and goals as a company. Currently, he is working with a team to produce the new catalog. He has also redesigned sections of the Jean Iseli Memorial Garden. This position has enabled him to learn about the hundreds of unique cultivars Iseli grows and the many steps in the process of bringing them to market.  

Tahia Devissher is a Banting Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Forestry. She studies how to manage forests and other greenspaces in and around cities to support human well-being and build social-ecological resilience to climate change. She is also interested in developing practical strategies to strengthen the relationship between urbanites and nature. In past work with the Stockholm Environment Institute, Tahia led research to support climate change adaptation working with local communities, NGOs, and governments in more than 20 countries across the Global South. In most of her projects, she applies interdisciplinary approaches by integrating methods from quantitative modelling to participatory mapping, and qualitative assessment. Tahia has a Ph.D. in ecosystems science from the University of Oxford.

For over two decades, Charles King Sadler has immersed himself in the design and care of landscapes throughout North American, this has resulted in his being sought after to work on prestigious public and private properties across North America and being consulted by top landscape practices domestically and from abroad.

Charles began his career as a visual storyteller, in the field of illustration, with a degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, he applied his artistic vision and talent public and private commissions including contributing newspaper illustrations for publications such as the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. After working in the landscape profession for a period Charles returned to school, SUNY-ESF on the campus of Syracuse University, to pursue master’s studies in Landscape Architecture, and he started his own design firm in order to apply his philosophy of design and horticultural care within the design aesthetic. Charles is an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist.

For more information on King Garden, visit kinggardeninc.com

Max Blaustein is an Environmental Scientist with the Philadelphia Department of Parks & Recreation's Natural Lands Management team. His work has focused on the restoration and operation of a historic nursery facility in West Fairmount Park, where he propagates native plants for conservation projects that support the ecosystem function and habitat value of the 5,600 acres of natural areas within the City of Philadelphia.

Anelle Ammons is an ISA Certified Arborist® and ISA Certified Arborist Utility Specialist®. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and a Master of Horticulture Science from North Carolina State University. Anelle works as a contract Utility Arborist and spends her free time gardening, hiking, and writing children's adventure books.

Richard McCoy is a 30-plus-year green industry professional, American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA) Northeast Regional Representative and owner of Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services Inc. established in 1995 and incorporated in 1998 as a conventional landscape company.

McCoy’s company began a transition to become one of New Jersey's first completely organic, ecological, and low-impact land care companies in 2005. Currently, McCoy Horticultural offers organic lawn and land care solutions, native plants, and green infrastructure design and installations. McCoy’s off-the-grid battery electric landscape maintenance is powered by a prototype self-designed solar trailer, and he uses autonomous robotic lawn mowing. 

Richard is a NOFA Accredited Land Care Professional, holds a Rutgers Organic Land Care Certificate and is an AGZA Certified Service Pro. McCoy is also an active New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association member.

In addition, Richard is an advisor to many professional groups as well as being an organic, ecological, and low-impact land care educator to contractors, municipal and institutional workers on how to transition to alternative land care methods.

Max Paschall is the Native Plants Coordinator at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, managing the nursery and native plant sales. He is an ISA certified arborist, fourth-generation horticulturist, and founder of Shelterwood Forest Farm - an experimental land stewardship project exploring the intersection of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and climate resiliency. His work focuses on climate change adaptation, particularly through the practice of assisted migration.

Ari Miller is the director of design at Hinge Collective, a public interest design firm that puts community engagement and public participation at the forefront of their practice. As both a landscape architect and arborist, Ari has always advocated for the integration and restoration of natural systems in urban design. Over the course of his 17-year career, Ari has worked as an arborist at Morris Arboretum, as a green roof design specialist at Roofmeadow, and has also led large-scale civic design projects at OLIN Partners. At Hinge, he uses this experience to help communities find design solutions that best support human and ecological health in their own neighborhoods through the enhancement of public space and community-led planning. Ari has also been adjunct faculty at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson University.

Michael Dunn is an innovative Urban Forest Manager and Consulting Arborist with a passion for progressive problem-solving of environmental issues and a vision for a sustainable future in the designed urban environment. He is eager to collaborate with community and borough planners and stakeholders to manage and optimize the urban forest infrastructure as a shared and valuable asset. Michael is able to quantify and incorporate the current and future tree canopy into long-term strategic decision-making. He is an experienced leader posed to drive positive and productive community outreach and communications.

Michael Joshin Thiele’s pioneering approach to apiculture and honeybee conservation has appeared in national and international magazines, books, and films. He has presented his work at Harvard University and New York University, consulted for the USDA, and in 2006 developed the organization Gaia Bees to advance biodynamic practices in apiculture.

In 2017 he founded Apis Arborea to preserve the life and resiliency of honeybees through Wilding, that is, the restoration of natural nesting habitat, and the use of a holistic ecological and science-based framework in working with bees. He offers workshops and training in the U.S. and internationally.

Michael was born and educated in Germany. He lives with his family, and an infinity of bees, in the oak woodlands of Northern California.

Nate Shampine, CERP, is Mt. Cuba Center’s Natural Lands Manager responsible for implementing land conservation practices and developing healthy and functional ecosystems. He is a graduate of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner through the Society for Ecological Restoration. He is an adjunct professor at Temple University where he teaches Landscape Restoration to undergraduate and graduate students. He is also a certified wildland firefighter and recently traveled to Arizona and California to assist with wildfire efforts.

Dana Dentice is a Trees Program Manager and an ISA-certified arborist at PHS. She leads the Tree Tenders program (with now nearly 6000 graduates) to empower citizens to protect and expand tree canopy in communities across the Philadelphia region.  Dana collaborates with organizations and volunteers on planting 1500-2000 trees annually and engages them in follow-up stewardship programs, such as pruning clubs and the PHS Tree Checkers tree monitoring program. She enjoys sharing her expertise in arboriculture and community organizing at Tree Tenders trainings.   Dana previously served as a forestry assistant for the cities of Fitchburg and Madison, Wisconsin where she conducted public tree inventories and led open space planning. She holds a B.S. in Natural Resources and an M.S. in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michael Taylor is an experienced Nursery Manager and Grower passionate about helping nurseries improve plant quality and workflows. He is currently working on projects across North America that increase tree production capacity for reforestation, urban forestry, plantation forestry, and wildfire restoration.

Michael does consulting work with the Blackmore Company which comes up with “solutions designed for the advancement of agribusiness.” The company’s automated machinery addresses tree seedling root issues while improving the overall quality of the seedlings.

A self-proclaimed tree nerd, Michael enjoys diving deep into the physiology and morphology of plants to understand their needs. He is a stickler for root architecture and believes we shouldn’t have to trade quality for production.

When he’s not helping people grow trees, he lives in Florida where he helps grow high-end tropical foliage at his family’s nursery. Prior to moving to Florida, Michael spent 15 years in the forestry profession in the Pacific Northwest managing large-scale bareroot tree farms, greenhouses, and seed processing plants. Michael earned a Master of Science in Forest Science in Nursery Management and Reforestation and a Bachelor of Science in Forest Management from Oregon State University.

Carey Russell is a naturalist, photographer, and founder of The Dendro Lab. He founded The Dendro Lab, a platform to foster a broader public awareness of dendrology, and is the author of the soon-to-be-published Tree Identification for Everyone (And Why It Matters).  As a photographer, he is the author of The New Arcadians: Photographs from Scout Camp and the upcoming photobook The Winter Forest.  While as a filmmaker, he has worked with director, Terrence Malick, as an associate producer and editor of The New World;  assisted cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on The Tree of Life;  and directed and photographed the 10-part documentary series Tibetan Stories.  Carey holds a master’s degree in forestry and is a member of the International Dendrology Society. He’s a certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association for Interpretation and a certified Master Naturalist in New York State where he is also a licensed trail guide. 

Brian “BK” Koehler has been the director of the Park Maintenance Institute since early 2020. BK holds degrees in Business Administration (BS), Parks and Recreation Administration (BS), and Experiential Education (MS). He is an experienced facilitator and event professional with an extensive background in teambuilding, ropes course / climbing tower construction, and outdoor adventure leadership.

Before joining the Park Maintenance Institute, BK was based in Hong Kong through 2015 as an experiential educator, producer, and entrepreneur. Upon his stateside return, BK stepped into operations and facility management of the Student Union and Recreation Center at Central Washington University.

BK is a native Pennsylvanian, but self-proclaimed “global citizen.” He is motivated by a thirst for experience, and driven by a desire to engage leaders that impact society. He believes in the power of positive energy, an innovative mindset, and servant leadership. In his free time, BK enjoys gardening and playing disc golf.

Amber Grant is a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in the Environmental Applied Science and Management program at X* University (formerly known as Ryerson University). Her doctoral research focuses on examining environmental justice in urban forest management and decision-making in the United States. Most recently, Amber has been working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to investigate how environmental justice is being pursued and implemented in community tree-planting programs and practice. Amber has also worked with Dr. Andrew Millward and his Urban Forest Research and Ecological Disturbance Group for the last seven years conducting interdisciplinary research regarding urban forest function, ecological change, and human interactions with urban nature.

Hasan Malik's fascination with trees has been a constant for as long as he can remember.  With a hand pruners or saw, he readily gave attention to the tree problems he encountered growing up in Northeast Philadelphia.  Hasan is an ISA Certified Arborist and has a degree in Civil Engineering from Temple University.

In 2008 Hasan founded Tree Northeast.  The nonprofit organization plants street and yard trees throughout Northeast Philadelphia, engaging volunteers and residents by greening the community. To date, the organization has planted over 1000 trees and helps maintain them regularly.

Tree Authority started in 2012 with the goal of providing superior tree care in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Region. The nursery began the following year in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. Hasan and his wife Tasneem continue to expand the nursery, which now stocks over 200 varieties of fruit, shade, and ornamental trees, including a diverse selection of natives.

The Tree Authority's goal is to give trees the best chance to survive in an urban landscape right from the nursery. The nursery uses best practices to grow strong, healthy trees with virtually no girdling roots, no transplant shock, and the trees have visible root flares.

Visiting the Tree Authority in Perkasie Pennsylvania makes evident Hasan's melding of horticulture and engineering.  His innovations for container types, staking systems, irrigation techniques, and soil mixes consistently translate into healthy vigorous trees.

Dr. Tony Kendle is a horticulturist, educator, and researcher. He is the co-author of Urban Nature Conservation: Landscape Management in the Urban Countryside and the new book A Wonder In the Garden. Both books review the importance of urban and garden biodiversity.

After working for a local government parks department, Tony studied horticulture at the University of Bath.

This lead to further study and research in the University of Liverpool’s Department of Botany and Ecology. Tony was awarded a Ph.D. on the reclamation of mine spoil and the creation of new woodlands on destroyed land. This was followed by several years working as an ecological consultant, which gave him experience in the restoration of many degraded sites, from coal mines to metal mines, deserts, and even the island of St Helena in the mid-Atlantic.

During this same time period, Tony also worked with Peter Thoday, horticultural teacher, and presenter of the Victorian Kitchen Garden on the BBC. Through joint consultancy, they produced management plans and tree surveys for heritage sites and healthcare properties.

Tony then moved to the University of Reading where for ten years he taught Horticulture and Landscape Management in the degree and postgraduate level programs. His additional experience includes being a visiting teacher at the Royal Agricultural College and the Kew School of Horticulture.

Tony’s former students have progressed to roles in many countries as greenspace managers, educators, and directors of organizations working on city greening and community health.

His combined experiences led Tony to a role as a member of the founding team for the globally famous Eden Project in Cornwall – a site recognized for “reconnecting humankind with the natural world.”

The Eden Project is a botanical garden that was established as part of the United Kingdom’s Millennium initiative of national inspirational projects. It was developed by the team that had earlier restored the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Rather than being a conservatory of rare plants, Eden has an educational charitable mission. The living collections demonstrate our daily dependence on plants and the places where they are grown for us. The living collections are not rarities but staples, even so, they are plants that few people ever get to see in person.

Tony now works for Eden’s new company, the Eden Project International which works on developments throughout the United Kingdom and around the world.

David Hewitt has been working with plants, animals, soils, and water
for more than twenty-five years, starting when he began working on
small farms in upstate New York.  He has served in a variety of roles
at a number of Philadelphia institutions, including the Wagner Free
Institute of Science, and as a lecturer at the University of
Pennsylvania and a research associate in the Department of Botany at
the Academy of Natural Sciences.  He was an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in
Washington, DC, working in agricultural policy. David has an A.S. from
the Community College of Philadelphia, a B.A. in  biology from the
The University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the  Department of
Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

Merissa MacDonald is a Certified Arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture and the Southwest Tree Program Coordinator at Bartram's Garden, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In her work, she leads a cohort of high school urban foresters and encourages them to explore green Industry jobs from arborist to landscape architect and any job in between. Her work also includes community organizing around tree plantings in collaboration with partners at PHS (the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society). The goal is to increase the current 8% tree coverage rate of Southwest Philadelphia, with a focus on the neighborhood just outside Bartram’s Garden. Merissa has a passion for landscape design and community planning and incorporates the two into her urban forestry curriculum.

Steve Shreiner is the president and founder of Schreiner Tree Care established in 1986. He is a Master Arborist, and Tree Risk Assessment Qualified. Steve has proven successful in developing long-standing client and vendor relationships, many of which are twenty-five-plus years strong. He also enjoys working with clients who care about their trees, landscape, and the greater community. Shreiner has served on various local arboreta, environmental education, and business boards.

Sophie Nitoslawski is passionate about finding ways to better integrate trees and green infrastructure into the fabric of our cities. Her research centers on the intersection of smart communities and urban forest management, and she works with both private- and public-sector partners to pilot digital-based monitoring and management systems for urban ecosystems.

In addition to her Ph.D. work, Sophie is involved in teaching various urban forestry and sustainability courses at University of British Columbia (UBC) and is currently a member of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Science and Research Committee.

Tom Smarr is the Executive Director at Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens in Devon, Pennsylvania. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies from the Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree in Urban Horticulture Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has worked for established institutions such as the University of Washington Botanic Gardens in Seattle and the Native Plant Trusts’ botanical garden “Garden in the Woods” in Massachusetts. Tom’s most notable work has been leading horticulture at newly opened urban parks such as the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway in Boston; the High Line in New York City; and The Parklands of Floyds Fork in Louisville, Kentucky.

Zhaohua (Cindy) Cheng is a Ph.D. candidate in urban forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She has over five years of experience in community and youth engagement, climate change adaptation, student advising and engagement, and project management. Her Ph.D. research focuses on exploring urban forest-based solutions for climate resilience and urban livability.