City Trees

This was my first time attending both the SMA and Partners in Community Forestry (PCF) conferences. I was thrilled to dis- cover that attendees came from across the country. I had many wonderful conversations with city arborists, environmental program managers, and not-for-profit organization members on the common challenges we all face—and our similar and unique approaches to solving them. Mostly I was just thrilled to meet so many amazingly smart folks devoted to sound arboriculture practices and promoting urban forestry in their communities. Sarah Lillie Anderson of American Forests gave an enthusi- astic closing presentation for SMA that stole the show for me. Her talk was upbeat, no-nonsense, and blunt about the realities that our communities face concerning tree equity issues and creating better pathways to careers in urban for- estry to meet the current and coming workforce demand. Throughout both conferences, I took the opportunity to ask Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI) graduates about their experience to help me make a decision about applying to attend myself. At a wonderful dinner out with fellow conference attendees, City Trees Editor Michelle Sutton and Virginia Tech Campus Arborist Jamie King, I asked Jamie about his experience at MFI. Out of every story of how amazing the MFI experience was, Jamie's main takeaway was most striking to me. He said, "empowerment." At the same time, this year's PCF conference theme touched on how NOW is the time; what are you going to act on now?! The thought that MFI might be that very experience that could help empower me to take my approach and programming to the NOW convinced me to apply. Attending the SMA/PCF conferences and engaging with 500 amazing urban and community forestry folk from across the country was a truly brilliant experience! —Carolyn Cheatham Rhodes, Environmental Program Manager/Urban Forester, City of Clearwater, Florida Bottom-left: (l to r) Providence City Forester Doug Still, Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP) Program Coordinator Candace Powning, and NYC Parks Assistant Commissioner for Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources Jennifer Greenfield get caught up at the Tuesday luncheon. Photo by Michelle Sutton Bottom-right: The 2020 SMA Urban Tree of the Year reveal at the Tuesday luncheon employed a clever, clue-filled poem by Steve Cothrel and a word-scramble approach with enough participants to spell out C-E-L-T-I-S O-C-C-I-D-E-N-T-A- L-I-S. Photo by Michelle Sutton Middle: SMA Board Member Sam Oludunfe visited Cleveland's iconic Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Photo by Andy Hillman Top-left: Carlye Kush, Keona Koster, and Lachel Bradley- Williams worked registration for the SMA, Partners, and other conferences taking place in Cleveland. Photo by Michelle Sutton Top-right: Downtown Cleveland shimmers at sunset. Photo by Owen Croy www.urban-forestry.com 15

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