A member of the UCFS Young and
Emerging Professionals Committee,
Josh Petter is the City of Burien,
Washington Urban Forest Planner.
Growing up I spent most of my time outside and I
knew that I wanted to work in the environmental
field since I was in high school. This led me to the
University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington in 2009
to major in Environmental Studies. At the time
I thought I would work for a conservation non-
profit or in a field related to climate change.
I had just two exposures to urban forestry while
at UVM; now-Vermont Urban and Community
Forestry Program Manager Elise Schadler pre-
sented in one of our natural resource classes, as
did then-Burlington City Arborist Warren Spinner.
It sounded cool and I would have loved to stay
in Vermont, but I had the impression—right or
wrong—that there weren't enough urban forestry
jobs to make it a viable career option for me.
After graduating in 2013, I quickly realized that the
environmental job field was a confusing place, and
it was difficult to determine what an entry level job
truly was. My friend was working for a local tree
nursery and suggested I come work there for the
summer. I had taken a dendrology course at UVM
and I thought that tree nursery work would be an
ideal way to cement that knowledge. My time at
the nursery seeded my interest in urban forestry,
in part because I interacted regularly with munic-
ipal clients and other industry professionals.
Four years later I decided to leave that sea-
sonal nursery role and return to school at
Oregon State University (OSU) to pursue an M.S.
in Forest Ecosystems and Society. At OSU, my
advisor and mentor Paul Ries introduced >>
The advice I'd give folks new
to the field is to join UCFS and
other professional societies
and to be intentional about
reaching out for mentorship
(like through the UCFS
Mentoring Program).
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