me to the field of arboriculture and encouraged
me to become an ISA Certified Arborist in 2017; I
went on to become a Municipal Specialist, Board
Certified Master Arborist, and TRAQ qualified.
Paul also led me to UCFS by introducing me to its intern-
ship program, through which I worked with now-Oregon
Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program
Manager Scott Altenhoff when he was then-Eugene,
Oregon Urban Forestry Management Analyst. Scott
provided me with an amazing introduction to munic-
ipal arboriculture and since then I knew that I wanted
to work as an urban forester. I was extremely fortu-
nate to have the mentorship of Paul and Scott.
Research was a large part of my OSU program. Paul Ries
and I along with Ashley D'Antonio and Ryan Contreras
published two papers in Arboriculture and Urban
Forestry: "A Tree Selection Survey of Tree City USA
Designated Cities in the Pacific Northwest" and "How Are
Managers Making Tree Species Selection Decisions in the
Pacific Northwest of the United States?" I really enjoyed
doing research and might go back to academia at some
point in the future. In the meantime, I'm grateful for
the way that my OSU studies prepared me to inter-
pret methodologies and research findings that I read
or see presented at conferences. At OSU I also earned
certificates in Urban Forestry (2017) and GIS (2022).
From there I worked as a consulting arborist for a
company called Tree Solutions Inc. in Seattle for several
years. In 2022, I was hired as urban forest planner at
the City of Burien, a small city (pop. ~ 51,000) outside of
Seattle, where I work now. In my job I wear a ton of hats,
from talking to residents, to going to City Council meet-
ings, to selecting trees that will boost our urban forest's
diversity, to scouting for pests (EAB is on the horizon.)
I think compared to many people my trajectory into
urban forestry has been pretty straightforward, but
there are a few things that would've helped me in my
current job. I'm still working at having a "seat at the
Josh Petter climbing Mount Ellinor in the Mount Skokomish
Wilderness in Washington State.
30 CityTREES
