City Trees

4 CityTREES President's Message Jamie King Executive Director's Message Leslie Berckes Happy New Year to you! Welcome to the new calendar year and to the new UCFS Officers and Board Members. We welcome Jamie King as our new President, David Lefcourt as our new Vice President, and Jenn Cairo of Portland, Oregon; Mesude Duyar Ozyurekoglu of Louisville, Kentucky; and Emily King of Austin, Texas as new UCFS Board Members. I, for one, am thrilled to have each person's guidance and perspective to help move the Society ever forward. Jamie King writes here of the many small, cosmic happenings that lead us to our current place in time. Now, some of his imagery sparks my deep-seated (and irrational) fear of being lost in space—a fear that I've been assured time and time again, will never, ever happen! That said, I still very much appreciate how our chance encounters can open doors in ways we never thought possible. Some might call these happenings luck, but I'm a firm believer that luck is just where preparation meets opportunity. So, in this new year, how will you prepare for an oppor- tunity for growth and change? I'm not talking a New Year's resolution, per se, just a simple intention or an action that lays a foundation. Maybe you'll sit for the new ISA Certified Urban Forest Professional exam, which you can read about in this issue. Perhaps you'll seek out a mentor through UCFS—we can help you get connected with someone! Or, maybe you'll pick up the phone and call that person across the country whose urban forestry program you've long admired. Who knows where it might lead! Please do not hesitate to reach out to me or Jamie if we can help you along your journey. Your UCFS Board of Directors will be taking part in this preparation alongside you. Later this month, we'll meet for our yearly strategic planning ses- sion—strategic planning being the ultimate form of preparation for an organization—where we'll make sure we're ready for whatever opportunity comes our way within this universe of urban forestry. I am writing this with a sense of awe after a series of collisions in the universe that brought me here. If it weren't for a flyer on a cork board when I was 17, I wouldn't have ended up discovering the wonders of natural resource man- agement in Yellowstone National Park. If I hadn't met Dr. Eric Wiseman, I wouldn't have seen that we can harness the power of trees to support our communities. If I hadn't met Walt Warriner in an elevator in Tulsa, Oklahoma I wouldn't have attended the Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI) in 2018. If it weren't for these and other random particles floating through the vast void of existence, and all of you doing the same thing, I wouldn't be here today. I am humbled by you and our shared journey. Please accept my service. To me, the UCFS is home and it's built with sweat equity, grassroots, and organic relationships grown from expe- rience and connection. We gravitate towards each other through the ether of the cosmos and just as we're passing, we reach out and touch. For a moment we can see each other and say, "You too?" What we do is hard and I think making light of that fact is a disservice to the industry, our constituents, and especially ourselves. We are working every day to speak for the voiceless, undo injustice, and cultivate a future in an uncertain world. This is why UCFS exists—so we all may be connected and work together. I say this, not to feign some sense of sincerity or to pose a half-baked philosophy, but to present a worthy challenge to the Society. The connections I've had the pleasure of experiencing with Andy Hillman, Scott Altenhoff, Leslie Berckes, and many others of you have been wonderfully organic. As we navigate this inflection point in urban forestry—when our profession is finally seen as an essential service to society—how may we grow that grassroots system? How may we also cul- tivate a Society that is more equitable and accessible to the thousands more professionals needed to grow the urban forests of the future? How might we tilt the axis to facilitate more collisions in the universe? If you have ideas, I'd love to hear them: jking@americanforests.org

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