I began my career as a municipal arborist
for Prince George's County, Maryland. After
a brief stint in DPW HQ, I was promoted to
the DPW field operations office where we
performed roadside vegetation manage-
ment. I was there for a decade and then
went to the MD DNR-Forest Service where
I spent a few years as a regional Urban
Forester and then a decade as Supervisor
of Urban and Community Forestry (UCF).
While at MD DNR I had the opportunity
to work with some fantastic partners
(Morgan Grove and Dexter Locke, USFS;
Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, UVM) on urban
tree canopy assessment. As we per-
formed these assessments, we found that
in most places, most of the existing and
potential tree canopy was on residential
private property. We also found programs
of financial and technical assistance for
rural public and private property, and for
urban public property. However, there
was a lack of resources to support tree
canopy on urban private property.
Seeing this gap made me want to go
"where the action is," so with my 23
years of state service in hand (I was able
to take my county service to the state
system), I left for the NGO sector where I
was fortunate to help set the tree canopy
goal for the nation's capital. I have since
been in the private sector, as Director
of SavATree Consulting Group, to help
public and private landowners across the
country manage their tree resources.
Some people told me I was crazy to "retire"
from public service at that point, but it
has been the right choice for me. My time
in the public sector made me a better
practitioner and provided me opportu-
nities I never would have otherwise had.
Serving in the public, NGO, and private
sectors has been a great experience, and
I am pleased that in the last decade or
so we have finally started to see more
resources for protection and enhance-
ment of tree canopy on private property.
— Mike Galvin
urban-forestry.com 27
Mike Galvin on a consulting expert assignment
regarding a public agency tree that failed.
