City Trees

MFI 2020 Recap SavATree Arborist Jean Zimmerman attended the 2020 Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI) class, becoming one of the more than 750 urban forestry and affiliated professionals who have completed the week-long leader- ship training. Jean's account of her experience is literary in nature because in addition to being an Arborist, she is a published author. The occasional parabolic arc of a dolphin off shore. We gathered along Alabama's famously gorgeous Gulf Coast, 65 pilgrims from all over the country and abroad. We had come to sharpen our leadership skills at the Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI), a long-running (since 2006) con- tinuing education symposium that was celebrated as one of the best in the world. I remember arriving at the Gulf Shores Hilton, being unsure of whether I could fit in. My fellow MFIers came from varied backgrounds. Some were urban foresters at municipalities of varying size, from New York City to Denton, Texas. Others hailed from not-for-profits, such as TreePhilly in Philadelphia. One participant, a champion tree-climber, represented the happiest place in the world, Disneyland. Another traveled from Sweden. There were representatives of PlanIT Geo and Davey Tree. I came to Gulf Shores from SavATree, the third largest tree care company in the United States, where I work as a commercial and consulting arborist. Before my work in arboriculture, I had spent most of my career as an author, writing fiction and nonfiction, focusing on history and specifically the history of women in America. I was a commu- nicator by background. In that capacity I had the chance to speak on television, on radio, and in front of diverse audiences all over the country. All that was great, but midway through my life's journey (as Dante famously wrote), I felt that I needed a change. Six years before I came to MFI, I became a certified arborist and began working for a small company, monitoring trees on construction sites. I grew up in the leafy precincts of Westchester County, attended college in Manhattan, and had always considered New York to be my home town. Surprisingly for an urban girl (or perhaps precisely because I was one), I had always loved trees, wilder- ness and the outdoors. Being able to contribute to the care of the urban forest in the vast conurbation of the five boroughs left me feeling extremely satisfied. I went on to work as a business developer for Davey Resource Group and then moved on to become a commercial and 12 CityTREES Sugar white sands. Crashing waves. MFI Class of 2020! Photo by Paul Ries

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