Joe Hansen's
UCFS Arborist Exchange
to Portland, Oregon
By Michelle Sutton, Editor, City Trees
UCFS Arborist Exchange host Casey Jogerst
(left) and visiting arborist Joe Hansen.
Wilmette, Illinois Village Forester and Tree Preservation Officer
Joe Hansen sought an arborist exchange in a bigger city, one
with well-established tree protection codes and procedures
that differ in meaningful ways from those of Wilmette (pop ~
27,000). Hansen was hired by the Village in 2022 to oversee
its then-new tree preservation ordinance. Before that he
worked as the City of Park Ridge, Illinois Urban Forester.
UCFS Executive Director Leslie Berckes listened to Hansen's
hopes for an exchange and connected him with Portland,
Oregon (pop. ~ 631,000) Portland Parks and Recreation Urban
Forestry Division Permitting and Regulation Manager Casey
Jogerst. She thoughtfully scheduled his three-day visit first, and
then scheduled her staff's annual field day during Hansen's
visit. Jogerst prepared a detailed and comprehensive itinerary
for the exchange, which Hansen says was the best and most
meaningful educational experience of his career to date.
"Casey and her staff are top-tier professionals and the level of
collaboration within the Urban Forestry Division is really impres-
sive," Hansen says. "Here in Wilmette, I am one of three village
foresters. I work out of Community Development and my two
forester colleagues work out of Public Works. Of course, we
work together on overlapping issues, but I think it would be
better if we could someday be in the same division—some-
thing I saw the benefits of in Portland, over and over again."
20 CityTREES
