City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/128847
made to face and adapt to things they may not do well or even want to do at all. Public speaking, managing for change, politics, visioning, and personnel matters make many of us uncomfortable, but they remain important skills to develop and have little or nothing to do with trees (our admitted passion). Teaching professionals to recognize, learn, and adapt such skills to their unique positions requires a frightening degree of adaptability, flexibility, and general knowledge. In the words of MFI's chief curriculum developer Paul Ries, "Semper Gumby!" (Latin for "remain flexible"). Teaching is a great way to sharpen one's mind and professional skills, but more importantly, it's a way to give back to our profession by sharing our hard-won knowledge with the next generation of professionals who'll be following in your footsteps, leaving them free to advance the knowledge base even further and continue to improve the world we leave behind. -Steve Shurtz, Urban Forestry & Landscape Manager, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Teaching in TAFE [Technical and Further Education, the largest vocational and training operation in South Australia] has helped me focus on particular topics that I would not necessarily be able to in my regular duties. My local government position—like most, I would assume—is diverse and there are not very many opportunities to spend time on one subject, so researching and delivering a topic for TAFE was a great experience and helpful in my working role at Lismore City Council. The challenges mostly revolve around finding time—researching topics and developing presentations was difficult during normal working hours. When you have not taught before, starting from scratch is very difficult. Preparation time is much more manageable if one is teaching the subject year after year. My weekends were sacrificed at first, until the preparation was completed. Then it was just the day of teaching. I was lucky in that my work allowed me to take my RDO (rostered day off) every second week as a half day every Friday. Overall, it was a worthwhile experience and something that if I could spend more time in, I would get more experienced and proficient at. —Martin Soutar, Parks Coordinator, Lismore City Council, New South Wales, Australia 32 Tom Munn and Kent Roosevelt High School Urban Forestry students. "Industry needs students as much as students need professional mentors," Munn says. Photo Courtesy City of Hudson, Ohio The economic downturn has created reduced budgets, combined duties, and less time to focus on urban forestry activities. As professional managers we need to delineate our core business and core values. My core values include: 1) quick customer service; 2) appropriate ethics; 3) professionalism – using established standards; 4) communication; 5) developing people; and 6) marketing urban forestry value. I believe teaching activities are at the heart of our core business now and to meet future challenges. Marketing the value of urban forestry needs to be a high priority. If you as the municipal arborist don't sell your program, who will? Typically tree commissions will follow your lead, and good volunteers will take the ball and run with it if we set the right direction and strategy. Regular teaching occurs on the City urban forestry webpage; Cable TV; Arbor Day; Earth Day; Regional ISA / SMA meetings; Rotary lunches, and press releases. Is there something in your City that is unique and a story worth telling? Develop it into a short presentation and volunteer. For Hudson, Ohio, it was our recent urban tree canopy study and how we use it as a planning tool for stormwater quantity and quality. We tie in the urban forest with watershed management and wellhead protection. A recent SMA conference theme highlighted forming creative partnerships. Any outside talk or presentation with the local high school, university, civic group or governmental agency will pay you back in dividends. For example, our local Soil and Water Conservation District now champions urban forestry for stormwater quantity reduction and stormwater quality for the annual EPA NPDES (Environmental Protection Agency National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) report. I would City Trees