Please tell us about your
educational and career trajectory.
Doug Still: I was an art history major in college
at Oberlin, graduated in 1988, and worked in a con-
temporary art gallery in Manhattan for five years.
I started taking classes at the New York Botanical
Garden in the Bronx in botany, horticulture, and
landscape design. I found that what I loved most
were the classes about trees, and I got really
into learning the Latin names and ID features.
I started appreciating more deeply how important
trees were to the quality of life in the Brooklyn neigh-
borhood where I lived. I encountered the concept
and field of urban forestry and was fascinated,
serious enough to ask, "How can I make a career out
of this?" I applied to Penn State and got an MS in
Forest Science with an emphasis on Urban Forestry.
After grad school I went back to NYC and worked
for Central Forestry for nine years as Deputy
Director of Street Trees, overseeing the capital
planting of street trees throughout the five bor-
oughs. In 2005, the Providence City Forester position
became available. I had my eye on Providence
because I grew up on Cape Cod, I love New
England, and my family and friends are there.
I love that Providence is a small city where I can
have a big effect in my position. I do a whole range
of things from setting policy and writing man-
agement plans to working with homeowners and
neighborhood groups to plant significant numbers
of trees. I still work directly with trees, which I love.
What does the SMA Accreditation
mean to you, and what is exciting
about achieving this recognition?
DS: Over the years, the urban forestry program
here in Providence has been built slowly and
steadily. The SMA Accreditation is an oppor-
tunity to step back and look at what's been
accomplished, where we are, and where we
still need to go to make the program better.
We're proud of meeting the standards of the SMA
Accreditation and it gives the Mayor, the press,
and the public at large a chance to recognize what
we've done and learn about the ecosystem bene-
fits of the City's urban forest. Accreditation helps
give the public confidence that the program is solid
and moving in the right direction, and that in turn
helps the program stay adequately funded. We
promoted the Accreditation on social media, and
Providence Monthly did a nice story about it. >>
Doug Still & SMA
through the Years
Doug Still has been attending SMA annual conferences since 1997;
he is an SMA Past President (2011); and he has received an SMA
Award of Achievement and an SMA Honorary Life Membership
for his many contributions to the organization. Doug was the
prime mover behind getting the SMA Arborist Exchange Program
off the ground in 2003, has served as chair of that program com-
mittee for much of its history, and Doug and his committee
organize the yearly silent auction at the SMA Conference to
raise significant funds for the Exchange and other programs.
20 CityTREES
