Healthy soils are fundamental to healthy and climate-resilient trees but can seem elusive in cities. In addition, they are often hidden from view and poorly understood. Dr Day will share her research as well as practical perspective on approaching urban soils: how we can learn about, protect, and manage our own soils in our own communities.

Speaker: Dr. Susan Day is a Professor of Urban Forestry in the Department of Forest Resources Management and the Program Director for the urban forestry degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Susan’s research focuses on managing urban soils to enhance tree growth and longevity in the context of environmental challenges such as stormwater mitigation and land development impacts on soil-mediated ecosystem services. She helped shape the soils metrics for the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES®) international crediting system for sustainable design projects and developed Soil Profile Rebuilding, a rehabilitation technique to restore damaged urban soils in situ and enhance urban soil carbon storage. Her research in the water relations of tree-engineered soil systems and in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Trust has informed stormwater policy in the Chesapeake Bay region of the United States. Susan is also currently a partner in the Los Angeles Healthy Trees Healthy Communities initiative. Susan has published more than 130 articles and book chapters on urban forests and urban soils and is the 2017 recipient of the L.C. Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research. Susan holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.S. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.