City Trees

You earned your undergraduate degree in Marketing from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). How did you decide to pivot to Public Policy: Environmental Policy for your master's degree? I'd always been interested in nature and the envi- ronment, but when I graduated high school in 2001, there wasn't the same momentum and opportunity around environmental jobs that there is today. It was during my first years in the workforce after under- grad that I became aware that I could work in the environmental field. I felt like I needed a master's degree to bring that kind of job within reach. That's why I decided to go back to school for an advanced degree. I think for people coming into the workforce now and in the future, green jobs are something that are more easily obtained; at least they need to be! I want to mention that as an undergraduate I had an important mentor, a woman named Michaela Rich who ran the UNI Recycling and Reuse Technology Transfer Center. I wanted to get my foot in the door of the environmental field very badly, and Michaela took a chance on me when I was 19. It was my first job in a professional setting, and Michaela was so kind to me, letting me try things and grow. Her patience and support meant a lot to me. This is just one reason I think SMA's mentorship program is so important—we all need someone who can help guide us through the challenges and opportunities that work brings. In the summer between my first and second year of graduate school, I interned in the office of Iowa Governor Chet Culver and Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge, working for multiple policy liaisons, including the environmental policy liaison. I did things like researching initiatives for the Governor and Lt. Governor's policy team around wind power, ethanol refineries, poverty reduction strategies, and flood recovery. That summer of 2008 was an inter- esting time to be there because historic flooding and tornado outbreaks meant that the Governor's office was an extraordinarily busy place, trying to address the needs of Iowans during a series of natural disasters. Fast-forwarding to Trees Forever and your work there, starting in 2011— how did it begin and evolve? Coming aboard Trees Forever as a Field Coordinator was when I got truly immersed in urban forestry. This was on-the-ground work with small towns across the state of Iowa. We helped communities secure grants and then showed up at tree planting days, coaching volunteers on proper site selection, planting, and post- planting maintenance. I became an ISA Certified Arborist during that time. Eventually, program management was added to my field coordination duties, and I attended Partners in Community Forestry (PCF) conferences, which I really love. In 2017, I moved into the position of Trees Forever Program Development and Innovation Director, and in 2019, I became Director of Programs. This was a good fit for my personality, as I like to be a big-picture thinker and then apply those insights to building pro- grams from the ground up. I had a great working relationship with Des Moines City Forester David Jahn (now retired). We made decisions well together and lifted each other up. David and I devel- oped the Trees Forever TreeKeepers training to cultivate volunteers to do tree planting, young tree pruning, and tree advocacy in the community. Leslie Berckes received the 2018 Tree Care Professional of the Year Award from the Iowa Arborist Association, represented by Association Board Member, SMA Member, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa City Arborist Todd Fagan. 12 CityTREES

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