The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast

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.

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.

Lars Peter Jensen is originally from Denmark and arrived in the U.S.A. in 2003 and settled in Brevard County Florida where he lives with his wife and three children. Lars is the head of sales, marketing, and business development and part owner of the Blackmore Company.

Blackmore has been instrumental in the horticulture industry for more than 50 years. His company holds a patent for the Air Tray® technologies system which is what drew Lars to the company. 

As a systems person. Lars has a simplified but analytical approach to nursery production. His philosophy includes these two mottos "Don't automate a problem - remove it". And "To each action, there is a reaction".

Lars’ entry into the green industry was accidental – right out of a Denmark college, Lars went to Seattle, Washington to reorganize and run a small subsidiary of a Danish company. (His degree from university was International Sales). This was the first time Lars came to America and he liked it .. a lot.

After his taste of the U.S., and needing a work permit, Lars went back to Denmark and went on with his career in international sales and marketing. Lars settled down in Vejle, Denmark, and had a family. One day he received a call from Ellepot a company in Denmark asking him to go to America for them. At first, he said no, but then after talking it over with his wife, they agreed to go to the U.S. and settle in, Florida. This is where he met Skip Blackmore the owner of the Blackmore Company – the distributor of the Ellepot in the U.S.

Working with Skip Blackmore, Lars learned a great deal and eventually became a partner in the Blackmore Company. This was the start of a 20-year “road trip” as Lars calls it with a lot of bumps, hills, and unexpected curves but it all led to Air Tray® Technologies, which holds the Ellepot. This combination is a revolution in the horticulture industry and will lead to the next generation of growing efficiently and in half the time.

Kristin Ohlson is a writer from Portland, Oregon. Her new book Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World – which the Wall Street Journal calls “excellent and illuminating”--probes the mutually beneficial relationships among living things that undergird the natural world.  Her last book was The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, which the Los Angeles Times calls “a hopeful book and a necessary one…. a fast-paced and entertaining shot across the bow of mainstream thinking about land use.” She appeared in the award-winning documentary film, Kiss the Ground, to speak about the connection between soil health and climate health. 

Ohlson’s articles have been published in the New York Times, Orion, Discover, Gourmet, Oprah, and many other print and online publications. Her magazine work has been anthologized in Best American Science Writing and Best American Food Writing. 

Nykia Perez Kibler, co-founder of Philly Tree People (501c3), is an ISA Certified Arborist® with a Master in Environmental Studies degree with a focus on Environmental Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). She also has a Master in Liberal Arts from Penn, a Certificate in Landscape Plants from Temple University, a Master of Library & Information Science from The University at Buffalo, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. Her two capstones from Penn were: “Philly Tree People: A Case Study on the Formation of a Non-profit Community-based Tree Planting and Tree Care Organization" where she outlined the Pruning Club program and "Management of the Urban Forest: A Zip Code Level Approach" where she outlined the plan for a Green Skills Youth program both of which were heavily modeled after programs after UC (University City) Green in West Philadelphia. She was an intern at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve where she worked in their native plant nursery, participated in interpretation activities, led guided walks for families, assisted with grounds maintenance, marketing, and data collection. Nykia is generally interested in ecological restoration, urban ecology, urban wildlife, ornithology, wetlands, urban forestry, native plants, biological conservation, road ecology, environmental education, nonprofit leadership, urban orchards, food gardening, green walls, children’s play spaces/gardens, and citizen science. Professionally, she works as a library director and research librarian providing and developing research services for faculty and graduate students at Penn, supporting grants, and disseminating research results via websites and social media. She’s also a girl scout troop leader and engages youth in tree planting, pollinator gardening, camping, and citizen science.

Jacelyn Blank is an ISA Certified Arborist® with a bachelor’s in fine arts and a master’s in education with Pennsylvania teaching certifications in Elementary and Special Education. She is one of the three co-founders of the federally recognized not-for-profit Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Tree Tender organization, Philly Tree People. When Jacelyn isn’t volunteering her time with Philly Tree People she teaches preschool children part time at a not-for-profit play school in Fishtown called By My Side, where she focuses on child led play and interests, increasing students’ social emotional understandings through incidental teaching opportunities, as well as introducing students to a variety of environmental and art related educational experiences. She also co-founded the Friends of H.A. Brown, her local catchment public school where she completed her student teaching in 2011 and where her son currently attends.

Jacelyn launched her own small business; Blank Slate Trees and Gardens, in 2021 where she works with Philadelphia clients on landscape design, garden creation and maintenance, installation and care for trees and installation of plants for window boxes and planters with an integration of native plants. She is currently completing her Pollinator Steward Certificate through the worldwide organization, Pollinator Partnership. Her ultimate career goals are to combine her love of teaching, arboriculture, and horticulture by continuing Philly Tree People’s Green Corps, a youth employment, education and empowerment group hiring students living and attending school in the Kensington neighborhoods in order to encourage more urban youth to move into the Green Industry while caring for Kensington’s tree canopy and learning through hands-on experiences.

Since April 2016, Craig Roncace has been the Urban Park Manager for the University of Pennsylvania. The Urban Park Department consists of five shops, each with its own Supervisor, and 58 staff who represent two unions. The Urban Park operation covers campus landscaping/maintenance, athletic field management, Penn Park, all hard surface maintenance, and the campus-wide waste/recycling program.

Before Penn, Craig worked in multiple roles as the Grounds/Area Manager for Temple University, at both their Ambler and Main Campus locations.

Craig was first introduced to the landscaping world by way of the golf course. He gained hands-on knowledge at an early age and quickly developed a love for the outdoors. He earned a degree in turfgrass management from Rutgers University, and within a few years, became the Golf Course Superintendent for a local private golf course in New Jersey.

Craig spent three years as a landscape manager for a large New Jersey based landscaping corporation, where he managed multiple teams in both turfgrass and horticulture maintenance within the local New Jersey/Pennsylvania Region.

In addition to his turfgrass education, Craig earned his MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, and his B.A. from Eastern University.

Craig is an active member of multiple committees at Penn. One is Penn’s Ecological Landscape and Stewardship Plan (ELSP) Committee. The ELSP committee helps ensure Penn continues its efforts, from planning/design to maintenance, of successfully following a more ecological landscape within the ever changing functionality of the campus. These efforts cover, but are not limited to, storm water management, mature tree preservation, native plants, research, and training.

In addition to his current position at Penn, Craig is the owner of SportsTurf Management Resources, LLC which is a sports turf, lawn, and landscaping consulting firm. Craig enjoys helping others manage their own properties, both residential and professional, with a portion of the proceeds going towards suicide awareness.

Markku Koivisto keeps an ear to the ground and an eye to the sky, connecting the needs of organizations around the world with the power of drone data. As Chief Business Development Officer, he combines analytical expertise with a can-do attitude to ensure GLOBHE delivers the right data to the right customer at the right time. 

While a young industry, Markku brings many years of experience in developing drone operations around the world. Connecting to GLOBHE’s mission of making an impact on our planet, Markku has also contributed to peacekeeping missions as well as worked within the defense industry pursuing global business for a number of years.

Andrew Conboy enjoys sharing his passion for trees and their many benefits with anyone who will listen. He is an ISA-certified arborist who most recently worked on the Urban Forestry team at the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia. In 2020, he created Colonial Canopy Trees, a non-profit organization that leads ecological restoration efforts in the greater Philadelphia area. In his free time, Andrew creates videos about environmental topics and shares them on social media. Through his work, he hopes to inspire people and change the way we view and value our natural lands, native plants, and wildlife. He studied Environmental Science at Chestnut Hill College and Evolutionary Biology in graduate school at Lehigh University.

After retiring in 2020, Karen Kabnick wanted to do everything she could to help mitigate the damages of climate change and habitat destruction. Karen met Andrew at a volunteer event and was thrilled to learn he, too, loved to rescue and nurture seedlings of native trees. They shared that hobby. She learned all about the countless benefits of trees and how to plant them from Andrew, friends, courses and reading, and wanted to use her new-found knowledge to help Andrew with Colonial Canopy Trees to restore our local canopy and re-establish wildlife habitats. 

Bio for Rick Thaler

Rick Thaler was born and raised in Rochester New York. He tried going to college, but he didn’t stick with it.  After looking for a job he was inspired by the Whole Earth Catalogue (WEC) and began to explore carpentry. His exploration of the carpentry trade led him to  Corrales, New Mexico. It was in Corrales that he decided to resume his studies and attended the University of New Mexico but after one semester he dropped out again and started working in construction, building adobe houses, doing carpentry work, and making furniture. He was inspired by James Krenov, Sam Maloof, and Wharton Esherick, and deeply inspired by George Nakashima and his free-form but highly disciplined designs. Rick was also inspired by the solar renaissance in New Mexico and the idea of sustainable, low-waste building and living.

When Rick got married and his first child arrived he needed a reliable income and started working in a commercial wood shop. Eventually, he became a project manager and estimator, and after 10 years was able to buy the shop and ran the business on his own. Rick eventually grew the business into a $10 million-dollar-a-year business with 100 employees and did projects all over the southwest and around the country. Rick sold the business in 2019 and bought a portable sawmill to use as a hobby.  After all of his carpentry work, he still thought of George Nakashima and his creations.

Rick’s son Jacob got interested in the sawmill and they started a business together making live edge slab planks. They wound up building a woodworking shop to go with the mill. Rick came full circle to his roots of making custom furniture. This time he had better equipment and an ideal place to work.

Live edge timber from local salvaged trees is now the backbone of their business. Rick and Jacob call it treeincarnation.net. They power the shop entirely with an array of solar panels. With all the carbon they are sequestering from tree rescues they are close to net carbon neutral in their business. Rick says they are a good example of combining sustainability, waste reduction, craft, and profitability for a right livelihood in environmentally difficult times. 

Bio for Jacob Thaler

Jacob Thaler was born and raised in Corrales New Mexico. He never liked school and struggled to learn the way other people do. At age 16 he took the GED test and got his high school diploma. He worked at various jobs but realized that he didn’t want to work for someone else, so he opened his own business in Colorado. He had a successful business there from 2015 -2020. After finding that he had a daughter on the way he decided to sell his business and move back to New Mexico to be near family. Ariella was born right at the beginning of Covid, with a heart defect that required surgery at 10 days old. Jacob and his partner Angelica couldn’t work because they were in and out of the hospital for the next year. Now their daughter Ariella is a happy, healthy three years old now.

Jacob got interested in his dad’s hobby sawmill operation between hospital appointments, and they discovered that they liked working together. Jacob enjoyed both the mechanical aspect of running the mill and the joy of opening up ordinary logs and finding the beauty inside. They decided to make a business out of the mill with a focus on turning dead, downed, and unwanted trees into planks for sale. This part of the business quickly led to a full-scale furniture operation, along with custom milling for other people in the business. Jacob still runs the saw and operates the kiln and is learning the furniture-making trade from his dad and their shop partner. He is looking forward to growing the business and keeping it sustainable for the future.

Jeff Lowenfels is a humorous and entertaining lecturer. He is a reformed lawyer and author of Timber Press' award-winning and bestselling books, Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to The Soil Food Web and Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition and completing the trilogy, Teaming With Fungi, The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae and Teaming With the Bacteria; The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Endophytic bacteria.

Hannah Lewis is the author of Mini-Forest Revolution: Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World, published in June 2022 by Chelsea Green. A French translation of the book was released in January 2023 by Editions Eyrolles in France. Hannah has a Master of Science in Sustainable Agriculture and Sociology from Iowa State University and a Bachelor of Art in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College. She lives in Minneapolis, where she works for the non-profit Renewing the Countryside to build sustainable local and regional food systems and to plant mini-forests.

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. 

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.  

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. 

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.

Jennifer Alger is President of Far West Forest Products and has been working with urban salvaged woods for over 25 years. She is the director of the Urban Wood Network Western Region, a membership network that connects tree managers, arborists, lumber producers, and makers to connect all links in the urban wood supply chain.  She is also the founder of USRW Inc., which developed the first-ever Urban Wood Standards for North America. These Standards will be a game-changer for the industry and for the first time allow Chain-of-Custody and certification for urban wood, known as USRW Certified Urban Wood. She has worked with an expert team of developers and customer experience specialists on the build-out of Urban Lumber Market with AncesTREE™ an inventory management system and enterprise application that will allow users to easily adhere to the industry Standards, track the chain of custody, manage their inventory, and better manage and grow their urban lumber businesses.  Additionally, Jennifer has recently opened a store in California where Urban Wood Network members can sell their USRW Certified Urban Wood.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kristin Biddle is a horticulturalist, Trustee, and Chair of the Horticultural Committee at Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, and Arboretum. Biddle earned a degree in Horticulture from Temple University, Ambler, Pennsylvania, and brought her passion for gardening to several public gardens, including The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Wave Hill, The Mt. Cuba Center, and Historic Bartram’s Garden. She then served as a trustee on the boards of The Mt. Cuba Center, Bartram’s Garden, and The Ambler Arboretum. Biddle has worked at Andalusia since 2005 and focuses on maintaining its historic gardens, manages the Garden Volunteer Program, and sometimes gets to garden.

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.

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!”

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.

Ethan Olson is the owner of Walburn Run Nursery located in Brockway, Pennsylvania. His main plant focus at his nursery is on fruit and nut trees along with berried shrubs and edible herbaceous plants. Presently, Ethan spends the majority of his time growing and collecting the American chestnut (Castanea dentata). His mission is the preservation of a diverse chestnut germplasm in hopes of getting this once-great species back into the environment as a productive component of the northeastern forest ecosystem. Ethan has a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Temple University and is an avid outdoorsman.

With more than 14 years in the horticulture and arboriculture industry, Rob Shaut joined Casey Trees, an Urban Forestry non-profit, in March of 2018. He has contributed to the operational efficiency and the expansion of their scope of work. Thanks to the leadership of Rob, Stormwater Low Impact Development and Best Management Practices are now an integral part of the Casey Trees portfolio, along with tree installation, pruning, and maintenance. Previously, Rob completed the two-year Professional Horticulture Program at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, studied at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and received a Bachelor of Science from Clemson University in business management. He spent five years working as a project manager and garden designer for Shimizu Landscape Design, a Maryland-based design and build firm. He worked for two years as a project manager for Cotswold Gardens, a design and build firm in West Grove, Pennsylvania. Rob is a certified Arborist and Tree Risk Assessment Qualified. He is currently a member of the MAC-ISA Board of Directors and the TREE Fund Board of Directors. As the Director of Tree Operations at Casey Trees, Rob focuses on increasing canopy coverage, stormwater mitigation, heat island mitigation, and phytoremediation. Casey Trees targets lower canopied areas and equity emphasis areas around our nation’s capital.

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.

Sarah C. Low is a business management consultant, ecologist, and educator. Sarah has been a change-maker in municipal governments, federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations. She is the Founder of Tacoma Tree Foundation, an organization formed to help grow a greener, healthier, and more connected Tacoma. Sarah is now the principal and owner of Strategic Nature, LLC, which specializes in helping organizations and individuals make meaningful changes.

Hugh Weldon gained early knowledge of horticulture working on vegetable farms in Ireland – his home country. He earned a horticulture certificate from the practical experience he gained which led him to a supervisory position with a landscape nursery with 30 staff members. He was in the position for 5 years. Hugh then worked as a foreman in a flower and bulb nursery for two years where he continued to broaden his horticulture background.

He emigrated to the U.S., for greater opportunities in the horticulture industry in 1993 and worked with an arborist learning all aspects of tree care, planting, pruning, and removal. With tree experience under his belt, Hugh worked with a company to learn numerous aspects of landscape maintenance of residential and business properties which included snow removal.

In 1995 Hugh applied for a grounds position at Villanova University and continued his education earning a Horticulture Degree from Temple University. After several promotions and numerous years of work, Hugh became the Horticultural Supervisor followed by Horticultural Manager. He can now say he has been happily tending the staff and the landscape at Villanova University for over 27 years.

Mayor Tim Schultz has been a resident of Hatboro for over 20 years. Devoted to his community, Tim has served in the capacity of Borough Historian, a member of the Hatboro Tricentennial Committee, Chairman of the Hatboro Holiday Parade, and the President of the Greater Hatboro Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Schultz also joined the national Mayors for Monarchs program in 2020 dedicated to improving pollinator survival across America.

Tim is also the proud owner of Bright House Creative Services, LLC, and loves being behind a camera. In addition to his photography business, Tim is a Realtor at Class Harlan Real Estate.

Tim, along with his wife DJ and five children, have a passion for all things Hatboro and have dedicated themselves to improving the Borough in every way possible.

Tim’s strong leadership and devotion to the Hatboro community shines through his work as President of the Greater Hatboro Chamber of Commerce and now as Mayor.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

Sir Tim Smit KBE (Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Durham University. This began a lifelong passion for regeneration and putting his passion and energy into his work. He has followed his occupations embracing his many interests from Archaeology through music to wreck diving, Rare Breed animal husbandry, and building restoration. In 1990 he ‘discovered’ and then restored ‘The Lost Gardens of Heligan’ with John Nelson and remains a director. Heligan is now one of the UK’s best-loved gardens having been named ‘Garden of the Year’ by BBC Countryfile Awards in March of 2018.  Tim’s book The Lost Gardens of Heligan won Book of the Year in 1997.

Today, Tim is Executive Chair and Co-founder of the multi-award-winning Eden Project in Cornwall. Since its opening in 2001, over 23 million people have come to see a once sterile pit, turned into a cradle of life. Eden contains world-class horticulture and startling architecture symbolic of human endeavor and our dependence and unbreakable part in the systems of the natural world.

Anthony Tresselt is a certified arborist, arboricultural safety consultant, trainer, and 30-year student of arboriculture and tree climbing.  He is a lead instructor with Arboriculture Canada (ArbCan) Training and Education. As a part of the amazing ArbCan team, he travels, educates, facilitates, and writes helping to spread the word about safe, efficient arboriculture.

Anthony’s mission as an arborist, leader, educator, and human is to have a positive impact of growth and achievement on everyone he interacts with whether in person, through books and articles, or through online media. To quote his mentor and philosophy professor, Dr. R. Ginsburg, “Teaching is the hope I practice.”

He is also a regular contributor to several arboricultural trade magazines and has two works of fiction based on trees and tree climbing novels published, Free Falling: An Arboreal Novel and Fall Factor both can be found on Amazon.

Andrew Bunting is Vice President of Horticulture and leads the utilization of planting and design to promote environmentally sound gardening practices at PHS (Pennsylvania Horticultural Society). Andrew has elevated each of the departments he oversees and has increased the brand and visibility of PHS through their respective work.

Andrew received his Bachelor of Science in Plant and Soil Science from Southern Illinois University. Prior to arriving at PHS, Andrew worked at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Chanticleer Garden, and the Scott Arboretum for a tenure of 27 years. He has received the American Public Gardens Association’s Professional Citation, Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development, and the Certificate of Merit from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He also serves on the Board of Magnolia Society International. Andrew published his first book in 2015, The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias.

Andrew enjoys bird watching, travel and, of course, gardening.

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.

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.

At the intersection of power tools and creativity, John Mahoney found his niche – turning otherwise forgotten urban green waste into dazzling works of art. Born into a family of tree workers, arborists, and creatives, it was no mystery that Big John would find himself carving his own legacy into the Urban Forest just as his dad did before him. When he began chainsaw carving at the age of 22, John witnessed the emotional connection people had to his wood art pieces that could have otherwise so easily become mulch or firewood.

Covered in sawdust and immersed in the competitive beard world, John found himself at a crossroads between one-off artistic ventures and a desire for a greater purpose. He found himself itching to raise awareness for the importance and value of urban trees as a precious bioresource, from their carbon-capturing capabilities to their unique, unrivaled beauty. This practice has turned into a mission of salvaged wood stewardship.

Today he oversees Street Tree Revival, an Urban Wood Recycling program founded by West Coast Arborists, Inc. (WCA, Inc.) California’s leading tree maintenance and management company for communities who care about trees. His primary purpose is creating quality, one-of-a-kind lumber while making a lasting positive impact on our environment.

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.

Mike Toffan is the founder and Executive Director of Project Forest.  In October of 2020, Project Forest launched with a mission to create a community of environmentally responsible businesses with a unified mission to Rewild the Canadian Landscape One Forest At A Time.  Mike is passionate about restoring disturbed landscapes across Canada, specifically to restore ecological function to non-productive agricultural lands with Conservation groups and Indigenous communities.

An outdoor enthusiast and wildlife advocate, Mike knew early in life that he wanted a job that let him explore nature. As the founder of Project Forest and a Professional Forester, he’s contributed to the reforestation of tens of thousands of hectares across Western Canada during his career. Aside from earning his Bachelor of Science in Forest Business Management, Mike also has a Technical Diploma in Forest Technology from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). His happiest moments are in the field, among the trees, where he gets to make an impactful difference every day where it matters the most, Our Environment!

Theo Hooker is a systems thinker and nature-based solutions champion based in Washington, DC. He is passionate about cultivating businesses that are both good for people and the planet while laying a roadmap for other businesses to follow. He believes that in order to create a just and sustainable future, we have to imagine a new way of interacting in the world. In 2020, he co-founded Cambium Carbon, a climate tech company that builds local supply chains across the country. Starting with urban wood, Cambium connects naturally fallen trees to primary and secondary processors (e.g. sawmills & wood shops) and then onto end buyers (e.g. furniture manufacturers, architects, designers…etc.) In his spare time, Theo trains for ultra-marathons, practices handstands, and enjoys good books.

Brice Dorwart is an ISA-certified arborist and utility specialist. He has worked for the last 11 years with Davey Resource Group, on a utility vegetation management contract with a major power company in Pennsylvania. He has volunteered extensively with the PHS TreeTenders program, helping various neighborhood clubs around the city of Philadelphia, especially with their young street-tree pruning efforts. He loves planting trees, but he also has a passion for controlling the invasive exotic tree species in preserved wooded areas near his home outside Philadelphia.

Heather Andrews is a published author, photographer, and speaker who routinely works with homeowners and businesses to create sustainable native pollinator habitats. She grew up as one of 12 grandchildren in North Carolina, and often took walks in her Granddaddy Andrews acre garden, where she learned about pollinators and increasing yield.

During the growing season, you will find her in her monarch waystation, Cat-a-pillar Haven,  video blogging on her new YouTube Channel, Garden Thoughtfully. She encourages gardeners to provide wildlife habitat and fuel for native pollinators and improve vegetable yield via pollinator hedgerows/corridors.  She combines information from her career in clinical research to guide her messaging, and routinely creates actionable video content to enable gardeners to create a pollinator paradise in their own backyard.

She is a two-time recipient of the “Garden of Distinction” award by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for Her Monarch Waystation, Cat-a-Pillar Haven in 2020, and for a pollinator Garden, she designed for the Historic Craighead House in collaboration with the Penn State Master Gardeners. Her award-winning photographs and articles have been featured in magazines and on Medium.

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.

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.

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.