My name is Eva Marie Bonanno and I live in Santa
Cruz, California. I am studying Arboriculture and
Environmental Sustainability at Cabrillo College on the
California Central Coast and am studying for the ISA
Certified Arborist exam in December. My father has
been working as an arborist and orchardist for over
thirty years and I often help him during pruning season.
I started at Cabrillo in the Organic Crop Production
program since food sovereignty and addressing
food scarcity has been my background. I'm
also a Board Member for the California Native
Plant Society and have worked for years in res-
toration and native plant propagation.
The Arboriculture program at Cabrillo has been quite
wonderful, since my professor, Peter Quintanilla, is
not only a great teacher but hilarious and engaging
as well. His classes have been chock full of guest
speakers, formal and informal tree art, literature,
film, visits from former students who have recently
passed the ISA Certified Arborist exam, as well as other
consulting arborists and tree worker safety compli-
ance workers from larger arborist outfits in the Bay
Area. The mix of practical knowledge along with our
beautiful city tree walks and the partnership with
the City of Santa Cruz's Tree City and Arbor Day tree
planting events is unparalleled. I continue to main-
tain the generally shared feeling that this program is
one of the very best anyone could attend on trees.
In the future, I hope to find a municipal arborist job
that will utilize my background in the restoration and
rehabilitation of native plant communities and maxi-
mizing tree diversity. As a municipal arborist, I would
like to continue to help our city, Santa Cruz, mitigate
and offset the effects of climate change and help to
protect our urban tree canopy for the next genera-
tions. This is personal for me, as I lost my childhood
neighborhood to the CZU (Santa Cruz and San Mateo
Mountains) fires in 2020. Dedicating my life to this
work has helped me feel involved and proactive and
I hope to effect real changes in my community.
Student Member Eva Marie Bonanno
In the f uture, I hope to f ind a
municipal arbor ist job that
w ill utilize my background
in the restoration and
rehabilitation of native
plant communities and
ma ximizing tree diversit y.
36 CityTREES
