Trees Matter Symposium

2017 Trees Matter Symposium
Wednesday, November 1 | 7:30 am – 4 pm
Silver Spring Civic Center, Silver Spring, MD

The sixth annual Trees Matter Symposium focuses on the health and welfare of trees in our increasingly developed landscapes. Learn from some of the country’s leading experts about innovative efforts to plant, protect and preserve trees in urban and suburban settings.

Trees provide many benefits: they cleanse and cool our air, stabilize our soils, provide wildlife habitat and beautify our urban and suburban areas. We encourage all arborists, landscape industry and environmental/green industry professionals, engineers, designers, housing developers and interested citizens to take advantage of this opportunity to learn new techniques and concepts on what can be done to ensure the survival of trees in our built environment.

Attendees can take advantage of early registration pricing of $85 until September 30. Regular registration begins October 1 and is $95. Exhibitors will also be there to present their latest techniques, tools and technologies related to urban forestry and landscaping.

For more information on how you can become a sponsor or an exhibitor at the Trees Matter Symposium please view the sponsor letter or contact:

Thomas Berry
Urban Forester
Thomas.Berry@MontgomeryParks.org
301-670-8061

Continuing education units (CEUs) will be available for the International Society of Arboriculture (5 credits), Society of American Foresters (4.5 Credits), MNLGA Certified Professional Horticulturists (1 credit), American Society of Landscape Architects (5 Credits), and Maryland Licensed Tree Experts (5 credits).

Meet our 2017 Trees Matter Speakers

Scott Aker
Head of Horticulture and Education at the United States National Arboretum

“Balancing diversity with adaptability and nursery availability to expand our tree palette”

Our history as planters and stewards of trees demands that we plant must diversity for future urban forests. If we don’t, they may not be able to withstand future challenges of climate change and introduced pests and diseases. Planting diversity is more easily said than done, since our tendency is to plant only the most adaptable species. Many species we’d like to grow are simply not produced by the nursery industry. A palette of trees that should be planted more often in our region will be proposed in this lecture along with challenges that must be overcome for their successful use.

View Presentation

Dr. Jason Grabosky
Professor of Urban Forestry at Rutgers University

Part 1: “Developing an urban context to service life expectations for canopy management planning”

This presentation will cover some ideas and straightforward methods for defining urban tree life cycles and growth expectations. Current and recent research will be discussed to provide some context and example. The methods can be used to better interpret and plan from standard inventory data.

Part 2: “Trees, Soils and Pavement….Oh My!”

The presentation will discuss the various approaches to integrating tree root zones and pavement support, structural and soil-based. It will also cover the background and recent research in designed soils and how these methods intersect and contribute to stormwater management planning.

View Presentation

Dr. Susannah Lerman
Research Ecologist in the Urban Forests, Human Health, and Environmental Quality unit of the US Forest Service

“The birds and the trees: managing the urban forest for wildlife”

As more land becomes slated for urban development, identifying effective urban forest management strategies becomes paramount to ensure the urban forest provides habitat to sustain bird and other wildlife populations. This presentation will describe a forthcoming wildlife module for i-Tree (an urban forest assessment tool) which quantifies and qualifies available habitat within the urban forest by linking bird habitat suitability models with urban forest structure. The presentation will also describe research assessing how tree risk management and mitigation impacts habitat for cavity-nesting birds, and how to reconcile safety with habitat.

View Presentation

Montgomery Parks

2017 Trees Matter Symposium Wednesday, November 1 | 7:30 am – 4 pm Silver Spring Civic Center, Silver Spring, MD

Topics

2017 Trees Matter Symposium
Wednesday, November 1 | 7:30 am – 4 pm
Silver Spring Civic Center, Silver Spring, MD