My new favorite t-shirt

http://shirt.woot.com/  Its called “need more land” if you have to search for it.  Make sure to read the story near the bottom

I just ordered one.  Maybe I’ll get another to wear to an APWA conference

New Look, New State, New Outlook on Life

After waiting, looking, and waiting more…. I found a job that has really given me a fresh start. I am the State Urban Forester for Missouri… officially “Community Forestry and Communications Supervisor”. There is only one of these jobs per state…so I have one of only 50 jobs in the whole world. I take it as a big responsibility and so far I see lots of good people to work with.  I see lots of people who actually want  to be here… working on trees and care that things are done and done right.  Its been a while since I have worked daily with other foresters and I now see what was missing from my day
I have added some new pics, I just spent a week in Joplin helping after the F5 tornado, I have traveled to Wash DC for specialized training, and bought a big truck… Ford F150 extended cab 5.8L with only 106,000 miles… nice

More to come !

Arboriculture Conference time

When I heard several years ago that the International Society of Arboriculture was having its worldwide conference in Chicago… my home town… I thought cool…, I can have a vacation, not spend all the money on hotel and stay with family, and see everyone I know.  Now… here I sit at the in-laws house listening to everyone yell about every little thing and can’t wait (yes I can) to see what crazy thing happens next.

ISA International is 1000′s of people from all over the world talking trees.  Its very motivational for me to be around so many who care about their work more than everyone around me at most of the jobs I have.  Its been so long since I worked with other Foresters and Arborists that I miss being around others who think like I do.  When I worked for Davey Tree was the last time I have been around so many other tree people.  Other jobs have had me around people who cared about what I do and they want me to do it all… but its very good for me to be around other experts so I can bounce ideas off, listen to other ideas and opinions, and also let me know if I am ahead of the game or playing catch up on things like new research or tools.

Speaking of Davey Tree… I entered a contest of theirs about tree stories and I won a small video camera! At http://treestories.davey.com/ you can read other submissions or enter your own.  My story is about the Birthing Tree in McMinnville, TN Read it Here I will use that video camera a lot ot the conference over the next few days so now I have to figure out how to get the flip video on this blog.  I use Flickr for photos… but I guess I will use youtube to get video here.

Ah well…. I’ll work on it later.  Keep an eye out for more updates from the ISA conference!

In our dreams… trees stand for the wholeness of personality

In our dreams very often trees stand for the wholeness of personality: “Since… psychic growth cannot be brought about by a conscious effort of will power, but happens involuntarily and naturally, it is in dreams frequently symbolized by the tree, whose slow, powerful involuntary growth fulfills a definite pattern.”

C. G. Jung, Man and his Symbols

After seeing this quote… I tried looking up interpreting dreams about trees… and none of them seem to agree on exactly how to interpret dreams of trees but they all sounded positive.

Trees mean strength

Trees mean connection to family / friends / life

Climbing trees means striving for a goals… the more difficult the more challenge you feel or the greater the effort you have put forth

To cut down trees equals waste of time, energy or money

Trees mean sustenance to your self or others

Trees mean growth or spiritual connectivity

This all started not because of a dream about trees…. but my goals in life towards trees.  I work hard so I can grow (personally and professionally) more…. the more I grow the more connected I feel to my wife, children, and friends…. the more I grow the more I want to do better and be the best at what I do… so I work harder and see the benefits all the way thru my life.  Do you see it like I do?  Learn about work and life (grow)… Connection to my family and others (roots and branches)… Benefits ( shade, cool breeze, helping others, long life)

Of course… that’s the nice side of me… the evil side of me thinks of Conan the Barbarian… “Conan… What is best in life?  To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women”

See?  I have “wholeness of personality” both sides of me and my inner child are right out there for everyone

If its worth doing… its worth making it extraordinary !

Hey everyone,

I appreciate the comments and a phone call from a special someone to make sure I am OK.  It may seem I’m really depressed about all of this… but mostly I’m pissed.  I talked about the crew already so this is what they told me today… “I gave up years ago trying to get the mowers to stop hitting the trees”

I’ve worked very hard at making a name for Albuquerque and a new program… then to have some of it slowly taken away made me wary and worried… and then in one day for the rest of it to disappear and being told to “just deal with it” makes me angry.  I wasn’t asked anything… just told to move my office and start on a new priority.

Let me give a little background… I consider everything in my life after the age of 22… a bonus life… a free life… a one up mushroom.  Its a long story for another day… but I promised myself that I would always do what I wanted… and not what other people told me to.  For the people who know me, that is an obvious statement… for others… lets say I live life to my own pace (faster than many before I even have coffee) and with my own rules.  I remember once at a Society of Municipal Arborists Conference I was having lunch with Marla Eddy from Wisconsin and Douglas Airhart from Tennessee and I was talking about how I told the Public Works Dept that they were wrong about something ( the point of my story was something else…) but Marla asked if I told them just like that and didn’t I try to at least say it nicely?  I was thinking of how to answer and Douglas said “Thats not really Nicks way”  It was the perfect answer…. my way is what I believe to be right… not necessarily what will get me what I want… but what needs to be said.  I asked the whole table if some road engineer had ever removed or damaged a tree and then was unapologetic?  Everyone said “Of Course! All the time!” so my thought is why should we suck up to them?

The world is changing… roads will always be important but trees are gaining ground…is that a pun?

Historically… trees were part of every new home… shade, food, a garden… then the farm, the barn, the fence, whatever… Then someone developed better insulation, better windows, AC, roads to bring food closer to home, supermarkets to make buying all food quicker, and pipes to bring water to your house.  Trees lost their value as a tool to make your little piece of the world nicer and became ornamental… and therefore devalued by an industry based on quicker / cheaper / and all the same.  Things with little value during design are considered optional.  Look at any city or suburb built over the last 100 years.  Rich neighborhoods have wider tree lawns, more diverse plantings installed, and at least some effort at design.    Every middle class neighborhood is designed with big backyards and street trees.  Poor areas are built small and fast as possible with overhead utilities in the front yard or tree area, small lots, and no plantings.  1000′s of recent homes are built in ABQ with one cactus, one grass, and one shrub with one drip emitter at each… or no plants at all… all in the name of ‘low maintenance’.  Old ways still persist… a HUD housing person here said planting trees or shrubs is a waste of time because it causes crime and gardens only encourage theft.

In our world today… things are leaning our way… everyone is realizing that only when we combine technology and work within nature, instead of trying to dominate it… will we thrive.  Trees and plants are the greatest environmental and economic tools we have… so why do we allow how they look ( evenly spaced street trees, one tree per 10 parking spots, and all that other design stuff)  to supersede what they do for us?

YOU SEE…? I can’t stop being the lobbyist.  I’ll be fine… I want to do more than just ‘show up’.  I really don’t care who gets the credit… refer to everything I have done over the last 4 years thats been tagged with some mayors name.

If its worth doing… its worth making it extraordinary !

Life is too short to put up with small minds or stagnant spirits

So I have three jobs now…

City Forester enforcing the street tree and pollen ordinance, assisting with plan review for the Environmental Planning Commission, member of several boards and advisory groups,  participating in any ways asked or can wiggle my into, and taking every opportunity to educate everyone I meet.   I used to spend about 4 days a week writing letters, calling people, researching things, learning new studies, and applying all of this as requested by Parks or other departments

Managing the Parks Forestry crew… all I have heard scares me but I will take the challenge as an opportunity and see if I can help make the situation better.  A new and extra boss will only upset the crew…and rightfully so… but maybe I can be a new voice in an otherwise unhappy crowd.  I’ll talk about this more I’m sure.  They said at least 50% of my time should be on this now

I manage the Parks Dept web page adding or updating from all the divisions… usually only about 1 days work a week but with summer coming on… its only going to get more and more

I may gripe about this effort because they want to focus on the old, easy way… but it does get me outdoors more.  It just seems just a shame to lose our focus on citywide efforts, to lose the momentum I gained for my first three years ( which sustained me over the last year with so many changes in leadership), but now to change jobs, divisions, and locations will only confuse everyone who is used to working with me.  Professionally, I am losing ground and I was told “So what… we all have to adjust”  Not the best answer to a reasonable question…

Another request of my time I consider a major benefit to my work and the city is speaking at educational seminars, conferences, Master Gardeners… whatever.  I provide the urban point of view, within my background of knowledge, to help groups in a frame of reference that applies to them.  I think I have done well considering all of the requests I get.  Just today I was asked if I could be part of a statewide class for elected officials to be an instructor on natural resource stewardship.

SO… something nice happens and my tone lightens a little.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds – Einstein

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. – Douglas Adams

I want to make my piece of the world better.  I want to make a difference in my children’s life.  I have never lived my life waiting for something to get better.  I tried… vigorously… to make it better… and if I couldn’t… I moved on.  Life is too short to put up with small minds or stagnant spirits.

Am I still the City Forester?

So… I haven’t posted lately.  Why?  My world has changed at work and I have been unhappy.  I have avoided talking about it publicly because I was still trying to keep the appearance of everything controlled so things would not look bad.  Now they have publicly screwed me… so if you don’t want to read me griping about my job… stop now.

I moved to ABQ to be the first City Forester building a new program based on urban forests as tools for environmental benefits and a part of the city wide sustainability program under then Mayor Chavez.  I was not given the resources promised to be a city forester as many expect but since they had never had one there… most did not know what to expect.  I was a ‘Forestry Lobbysist’… and I was damn good at it.  I became more well known outside ABQ then inside…  which eventually created some of my problem.  Everyone knew I was part of the Mayor’s plan but there was a pretty distinct line of who was on my side and who wasn’t.  The Directors and other managers made it to those positions by being very good at delaying, saying the rights things, and being able to not actually do anything while still appearing to be in support of the mayors programs.  Some Directors were happy with my help… others fought actively against me… just not in front of the Mayor.  Then my Director Jay Hart left and he supported my work and actively led me towards doable work.  Just as I was getting really moving… he leaves and his replacement said he would not support anything controversial, would not fight against other directors, and told me to stall everything.  Then he assigned me to work for someone else who said I” don’t understand what you do” and I was suddenly out of the loop on everything.  I started getting other job duties and everything stalled… I was going nowhere… but I waited and did what I could hoping to see what would happen in the mayoral election.   Then Mayor Chavez lost the election and suddenly all new Directors, new asst Directors, and all new prioirties citywide.

It was these things happening to me that led me to look into doing this blog, and twitter, and volunteering for new work with SMA…. I was hoping to make a bigger impression and be more valuable at work.

So the woman who I was assigned to is now the asst director and our new director both have repeated “I don’t understand what city forestry is”  I repeatedly tried to talk to them about what city forestry is and all that I have been working on and could do to help the city and the Parks Dept.  Every time I scheduled a meeting to discuss this topic (four exactly)… I walked out of the room with out being able to talk while they asked the same questions over and over again.. “How does this help Parks?”, “Street Trees are Public Works Depts problem”… and “We don’t have to follow the ordinance so why do you keep stating its so important?”  The ordinance requires the City Forester ( I posted the pertinent section of existing city ordinance at the end of this post) to be responsible for certain things and they don’t care but won’t put it writing.  I also walked out of the room with another job assignment… webmaster for Parks Dept webpage, writing everyone else’s performance reports, helping other Divisions day to day work, and finally on the 4th meeting I said I didn’t want another job assigned because that’s what happened the other three times and they laughed at me and said we all have to deal with it.  I kept bringing up that I moved here to do a specific job and city ordinance requires me, by name, to do certain things… and they said thats not important anymore.

So… I got pretty worried as budget crisis issues became worse and worse… I thought I would be laid off.  I got asked to meet on another subject by the new asst director and I was surprised with the director and the park mgt division manager being there and they said the meeting had a different subject.  I was being reassigned to Park Mgt and they were placing me in charge of the Parks Forestry Crew… but I still had to keep the City Forester title because politically they still need the name.  So I had gained enough support over the last 4 years to keep my job safe but not the job duties?  I have been directly told that City Forestry is not my priority anymore.

In charge of a forestry crew might sound good to some but this crew is a known problem by everyone citywide.  They are known as time wasters, public outright refusals to follow rules… including federal safety guidelines, and several violent occurrences have been ignored by HR, Directors, and past managers.  I said so to them in the meeting and they blew it off as to poor past management, exaggerated gossip, and that I was up to the challenge to correct the problems and then whatever time I saved by improving the crew I could use for city forestry work.

So… over the past week… EVERY PERSON I TALK TO WHO HAS WORKED WITH AROUND THIS CREW HAS WARNED ME TO GET READY FOR TROUBLE.  Not some… not just hints… out right warnings to have the police on speed dial, to never talk to any of them without witnesses, and the one that worries me the most… I was told that if my home address or phone number is public I should expect trouble and threats AT HOME !  Only one person said I should look at it as a challenge but he also said he would hide if he ever was put in my position.

So… now what do I do?  How can I maintain my sanity and professional desires at the same time?  I don’t want to be stuck as some middle manager who spends all my time dealing with personnel issues because they avoided dealing with it for the last 20 years.  I have made a name for myself in my professional groups and I don’t want to lose it all by being blamed for OSHA violations or I quit it all to avoid personal or family threats by this problem crew. What about all the projects and promises I have made to others?  I won’t have anywhere near the time or flexibility to do all I have promised to my professional group, to help other organizations, or to at least maintain the support publicly and politically I have gained over the last 4 years.

I have done amazing things here with no money and no staff… not anything I ever expected… but I adapted and did what was needed to help the city and advance the program.  Now… I have been put in a horrible position.  I can fix their 20 year old problem and make them look good, or I can fail and they can blame everything on me, or I can quit and they don’t get the blame.

To adapt an overused saying… I have been thrown in front of a bus.  I can stop it or  dodge it and someone else gets the credit… but if I get run over… they will make it look like my fault.

How can I be good enough that I get requested to be part of teams to update LEED building standards or to develop a national rating system for municipal sustainability programs or to help the EPA discuss green infrastructure in the SW region or all the other requests or all the other speaking or writing projects that I also participate in?  I am good enough to get $100,000 dedicated to tree planting every year… by another city department but they don’t want me use it because it helps that other department look good?  You know what they said when I offered to make a Facebook fan page or a twitter account for Parks Dept?  “What good is that?  Who will that reach that we can’t reach the way we always have?  and that takes too much time” I said we should at least have a Flickr account so we, or others, can post photos of our parks.  They had to ask what Flickr was… then said we can’t ask our staff to take pictures or rely on them to take good pictures and we certainly can’t allow just anyone to post pictures.  I had to contain myself from screaming so I didn’t even argue… I just said the offer is there anytime you want it.

I get it that we all have to adjust because of budget issues… but this isn’t about budget.  I’m not taking over someones job because they retired or was laid off… they put me in a new position and want me to keep all my old duties as well.  Its about a woman who has been screwed over for the last 8 years making up for lost time… Its about a manager less than one year from retirement trying to avoid a problem he created… and maybe someone wanted my office with a window?  Oh yeah… I forgot to mention… I had to move my office too.

I am upset, sad, angry, worried, and confused all at the same time… BUT… I will not give up… and I will do the right thing and not sacrifice my professional integrity… but I will also be looking for another job

(A)     The City Forester is hereby authorized and empowered, and it shall be his duty, to supervise the planning, maintenance and removal of all trees, shrubbery and other vegetation within the city, and to formulate rules and regulations for such planning, maintenance and removal under the supervision, and subject to the consent and approval of the Mayor, and to issue permits for such planning, maintenance and removal.  In drawing such rules and regulations and in issuing such permits, the City Forester shall be governed by the effect on public health and the nature, kind and quality of the trees, shrubbery and vegetation in the city as a whole, and in such particular sections of the city as it is desired by the applicant for a permit to plant trees, shrubbery or other vegetation in any particular section shall be in harmony with other trees, shrubbery and vegetation in that vicinity.

(B)     The City Forester shall implement and enforce the Albuquerque Pollen Control Ordinance and the Street Tree Ordinance.

(C)     The City Forester shall review all city ordinances, policies and regulations that affect landscaping within the city limits and propose suggested changes to the Mayor and members of Council when appropriate.

(D)     The City Forester shall employ a variety of methods to educate the public about the benefits, best use and maintenance of the urban forest including producing and posting a poster that identifies the levels of pollen emitted by each tree species commonly planted or sold in the city.

(E)     The City Forester shall coordinate with the city’s nursery industry to develop and promote plants and trees that provide the highest benefit to the public health, safety and welfare.

http://ow.ly/1DsN8 Sesame Street Oak Tre

http://ow.ly/1DsN8 Sesame Street Oak Tree…This is your life!

Protection for Trees – Part Three – Choose to keep it or not

In Step One it was determined if you can keep it…

In Step Two you performed an assessment of health, safety and other risk factors…

Part Three is using that information to decide whether to keep it or not.  You may only get to make part of this decision so I won’t go to far into this.

This decision is based on several factors based on all the info you determined in parts 1 and 2…. plus acceptable levels of liability, policies for your city/company, local prejudices, and other things out of your control.  The best you may be able to do here is provide technically accurate and well researched information about the tree(s) in question.  If you are a private consultant, non-profit group, tree advocate, whatever… you may be making a presentation of these factors to a group.

The best you can do is to know what and who is involved to make sure there are no surprises.  Knowing those people and their opinions can help you tailor your argument appropriately.  Don’t exaggerate…. just answer in the report or be ready for certain questions or comments.

I specifically left out setting a dollar value on the tree at this point. It can be a huge part of convincing others to retain trees during construction planning and work… BUT… will be reserved for a later post due to how big of  a subject that can cover.

Examples of things I have personally dealt with and trees had to be removed….

• I love apple trees but try and convince a lawyer or engineer that people won’t slip on fallen fruit.
• Explaining growth rates and that junipers can’t possibly grow fast enough in one year to raise a block wall to Risk Management who agreed to pay a homeowner for damages
• A politician who absolutely will not allow a tree called HawTHORN to be kept anywhere in public
• A politician who fought against removing a Ailanthus in a cemetery because its called ‘Tree of Heaven’
• Removing trees so engineers can dig utility trenches in straight lines
• The idea of suing nurseries and landscapers who plant allergenic trees for air quality violations ( including existing trees) to pay for removing every allergenic tree in this city

Things I have heard of…

• Risk Management allowing an entire shopping complex to cut all trees down and start over because ‘big trees aren’t safe’
• Not cutting an unsafe tree down to retain the illusion of safety after an accident

So… make your argument technically correct… but be ready to explain things in a conversational manner or in the terms accepted by that person.  Lawyers want to hear risk assessments, engineers want to hear how it doesn’t/won’t interfere with their work, LA’s want to hear how it can fit into the design…

In my experience… getting people to say yes… and getting them to stick to that decision… is two different things.  Watch for Part Four ‘The Plan’

Geckos and camouflage… just some cool pics

Click here to see ! Tree workers in tropical areas need to be careful.