16
It's a short conference, but so much is packed
into it, best shared in pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed the
53rd Annual Conference of the Society of Municipal
Arborists (SMA), held November 13-14, 2017 in Tulsa,
Oklahoma prior to the Partners in Community Forestry
Conference on November 15-16.
A bus tour of Tulsa (human pop. ~ 400,000) highlight-
ed the long and productive collaboration between the
Tulsa Parks and Recreation Forestry Section and the
nonprofit group Up with Trees, founded in 1976. Urban
forestry in Tulsa was first formally recognized in 1992;
its longtime city forester, Mike Perkins, recently retired
from the City and went to work as operations manager
for Up with Trees. Arborist Dave Zucconi then took
the city forester position, rising from the ranks of Parks
and Recreation. Tulsa benefits from the longtime posi-
tive working relationship between Perkins and Zucconi,
who gave a very animated tour and are rightfully proud
of their accomplishments and those of their colleagues.
The City of Tulsa's urban forest includes over 5.2 mil-
lion public and private trees. In the last four decades, Up
with Trees has planted over 30,000 trees at more than
500 sites throughout Tulsa. They maintain over 20,000
trees. One of Tulsa's goals per the 2016 Urban Forest
Master Plan is to increase the City's overall canopy cover
from 26% to 30% over the next 20 years; this seems
entirely plausible given the energy, funding, and synergy
between the City and Up with Trees.
Perhaps for me the highlight of the tour was touring the
public arboretum at the City's Woodward Park, which
features mostly native trees and shrubs; eighty of the nine-
ty-six taxa of trees and shrubs present are natives or native
cultivars found in the eastern forest region. The arboretum
contains four Oklahoma State Champion Trees: a dawn
redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), a yellow-fruited
American holly (Ilex opaca 'Aurea'), a blue ash (Quercus
quadrangulata), and a coliseum maple (Acer cappadocium).
Signage for memorial, dedication, and sponsored tree
plantings is done with wood and has a vintage feel about
it. Why use wood? According to the Up with Trees
website, "Wood production is one of Oklahoma's largest
industries, our signs are locally manufactured by our
volunteers, wooden signs are less expensive to replace,
wooden signs are safer than metal for drivers in a col-
lision, wood is biodegradable, but the most important
reason is: wood is a renewable resource."
