Speakers

Standardizing Urban Lumber

The Urban Lumber Movement finally has Standards for Urban Lumber that include certification and chain-of-custody.

These standards will help to legitimize our industry and allow us to move our product into even more markets further minimizing the amount of urban wood going to the waste stream and therefore lowering our carbon footprint.

About:

Jennifer Alger is President of Far West Forest Products and has been working with urban and salvaged woods for over 20 years.  She is the director of the non-profit network USRW Inc. that has developed the first ever Urban Lumber Standards for North America.  These Standards, currently in review, will be a game-changer for the industry and for the first time allow Chain-of-Custody certification for Urban Salvaged Woods. She is working with an expert team of developers and customer experience specialists on the build out of AncesTREE™an Inventory Management System and enterprise application that will allow users to easily adhere to the industry standards, track the chain-of-custody, manage their inventory, and generally better manage and grow their urban lumber businesses.

Tree Equity

Research shows significantly less tree cover on public right-of-way in neighborhoods with more African-Americans, low-income residents, and renters. In response, American Forests has called for Tree Equity, an effort to ensure every neighborhood has the benefit of trees for health, wealth, and climate response.

Through the Tree Equity: Career Pathways initiative, the organization is addressing a nationwide labor shortage on the front lines in urban forestry. Few employers in the field have successfully tapped into the supply of workers in communities with the lowest tree canopy cover, which tend to have higher rates of unemployment. American Forests is building the capacity of urban forestry pre-employment programs and facilitating cross-sector partnerships that will ensure a sustainable workforce into the future. Whether you represent an urban forestry employer or are curious about running your own pre-employment program, or simply support an equitable and diverse workforce in urban forestry, join to learn how to create Tree Equity through improved Career Pathways.

About:

Sarah Lillie Anderson serves as Senior Manager of Tree Equity at American Forests. Her work focuses on delivering benefits of healthy urban forests to communities historically left out of receiving them. Sarah informs equity-driven strategies for climate, advocacy, and workforce development that advance environmentally and economically resilient communities. Via the Tree Equity: Career Pathways initiative, Sarah facilitates capacity-building activities for pre-employment programs that build and retain a diverse, qualified, and representative workforce. Previously, she ran Lillie Leaf Solutions, a consulting firm that helped urban greening stakeholders address equity, access, inclusion, and justice in their work. Sarah’s experience includes developing and administering national urban forestry programs, managing constituent engagement for urban tree and city park associations, and facilitating local and national conferences.

NASA Trees: Student Research, Citizen Science, and Space-Based Observations

Trees are vital to our environment. Tree Height is the number one indicator of how well an ecosystem can grow trees. NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) measures Earth’s tree heights from space. Now, through the GLOBE Program and the NASA Globe Observer (NASA GO) citizen science app, students and observers can measure the height of trees with either a hand-held clinometer or simply a mobile device. Learn all about how you can measure tree height measurements through NASA GO and the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign and compare your data to that of ICESat-2.

About:

Brian A. Campbell is a NASA Senior Earth Science Outreach Scientist with the NASA Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics Laboratory and the Laboratory for Atmospheres, at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. At NASA since 2001, Brian has served as a science educator and communicator for several NASA Earth-observing satellite missions, including the ICESat, ICESat-2, and SMAP missions, as well as several programs, including GLOBE, Coastal Observations, LIMA, and Ocean Color. Brian’s work focuses on communicating, with the world, how NASA satellites view the Earth synoptically, bringing an understanding of how our planet responds to change.

CAL FIRE Perspectives on California’s Urban/Rural Forest Continuum

A panel comprised of John Melvin, Henry Herrera, and Kim Corella will discuss their perspectives on challenges and threats that cross all forest types in California.

About:

Kim received her B.S. degree in Natural Resources Management and Environmental Forest Biology from SUNY ESF at Syracuse and then received her M.S. degree from Texas A&M in plant pathology. Kim is currently working as the Forester II – Forest Pest Specialist for CAL FIRE. Her area is Southern California from Monterey County to the Mexican border. A few of her duties include managing and controlling for any native/non-native/exotic/invasive diseases and insects affecting trees on state or private lands, performing applied research, and conducting trainings. Kim is a registered professional forester and a pesticide control advisor.

CAL FIRE Perspectives on California’s Urban/Rural Forest Continuum

A panel comprised of John Melvin, Henry Herrera, and Kim Corella will discuss their perspectives on challenges and threats that cross all forest types in California.

About:

In 2005, Henry Herrera graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and Natural Resources. Between 2004 and 2011 Henry worked on the San Bernardino, Cleveland and Sierra National Forests as a wildland firefighter, forester, and lands/special uses officer. His primary experience has been with fuels/vegetation management. In 2014 Henry took a job as the CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit Forester. Since May of 2019, Henry has worked as the CAL FIRE Regional Urban Forester for Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Henry is a Registered Professional Forester (RPF).

Climate Change and Urban Trees: Issues and Adaptation

Climate change presents a set of challenges to our urban trees and to the people who manage them. We will review the mechanisms behind climate change and the challenges it presents, as well as some methods that tree managers can use to adjust their tree species selection in the changing climate. We will conclude with an overview of the “space for time substitution” approach to selecting tree species that are likely to survive in the warmer future.

About:

Igor Lacan is a University of California Cooperative Extension Advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in urban forestry.

Igor’s program of applied research and extension provides technical and policy tools to advance sustainable environmental management. Focusing on urban trees and urban water, Dr. Lacan develops research projects on emerging issues in urban landscapes. Igor produces extension and outreach materials that transfer findings from the University of California and other academic sources to the practitioners, and serves as a technical resource for landscape professionals, planners and architects, local governments, Cooperative Extension colleagues and other academics, and tree-focused non-governmental organizations.

Marketing & Scaling Your Urban Lumber Business

Learn the latest techniques and strategies to grow your urban lumber business through marketing and branding.

About:

Steve Larosiliere is the founder and president of the Acres of Timber, the only marketing and lead generation agency dedicated to the urban lumber, sawmill, and wood industry.

CAL FIRE Perspectives on California’s Urban/Rural Forest Continuum.

Panelists:

Henry Herrera, Forester I, Urban Forester

Kim Corella; Forester II, Forest Pest Specialist

John Melvin, Staff Chief, Resource Protection & Improvement

Panel will discuss their perspectives on challenges and threats that cross all forest types in California.

Kiln demonstration at Pacific Coast Lumber

A short kiln presentation by Danny Torres of Deadwood Revival Design and Katanja Waldner and Ana Munoz of Urban Wood Rescue. The Sacramento Tree Foundation’s Urban Wood Rescue program operates both a vacuum kiln and a dehumidifier. This presentation will discuss some of the lesson’s learned through start-up specialty lumber drying operations.

About:

Ana Munoz recently graduated from Sacramento State University with a degree in Environmental Studies and assists with kiln operations and tracking, among other program support efforts. Both are passionate about producing quality, beautiful urban lumber as part of the Sacramento Tree Foundation’s full life-cycle approach to urban forest management.

Tour of Pacific Coast Lumber

About:

Sean O’Brien graduated from Cal Poly in Computer Science in 1991. He was a software engineer and manager for 25 years. Retiring from the software business, Sean, along with his wife Dana, operate a small boutique urban forested lumber products company. Pacific Coast Lumber produce products primarily from trees that need to be removed in the urban areas of San Luis Obispo County. These trees would otherwise go to the landfill or become firewood.

California Tree Selection: Factors to Consider in an Era of Climate Chaos & Decreasing Diversity

About:

Matt is a professor in the Biology Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a noted expert on the genus Eucalyptus, and a fiction and science author. His publications, including his latest book, California Plants: A Guide to Our Iconic Flora, attempt to foster a sense of appreciation for California’s unique flora and reveal to his readers the natural wonders around us. As a college professor, he helps young people cultivate their curiosity and learn more about the organisms in our world.

Building Resilience to Urban Heat: One tree at a time

The increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of extreme heat has far-reaching consequences on the health of our communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. By describing the integration of community science, urban development scenarios, and online decision support tools, this presentation will offer recent evidence about the distribution of urban heat and approaches to reduce impacts to human and ecosystem health.

About:

Vivek Shandas is a Professor of Climate Adaptation at Portland State University. Dr. Shandas’ studies the effects of urban development patterns and processes on environmental health, with specific attention to the assumptions that guide the growth of human settlements. He serves as Chair of the City of Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission, and is a Principal at CAPA Strategies, LLC, a global consulting group that helps communities prepare for climate-induced disruptions.

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Storage in Urban Wood Products

When fallen urban trees are used as fuel or mulch, carbon is quickly released into the atmosphere where it combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. When used instead to make products, the carbon is retained in the wood. In this presentation, the amount of CO2 not formed (referred to as CO2e) as a result is explained and examples calculated by major hardwood and softwood species. Important for urban wood businesses to be explicit about the environmental contribution of urban wood products.

About:

Ph.D. Economics, Professor Emeritus of Urban and Community Planning, University of Cincinnati. Author of Harvesting Urban Timber: A Complete Guide reprinted by Echo Point Books. Worked in urban wood utilization for over 20 years. Appeared on New Yankee Workshop to promote urban wood utilization. Made custom furniture from urban trees and co-owner of kiln in Asheville, NC.

Urban Wood Panel Q & A

This panel includes professionals and experts from around the nation; Jennifer Alger, Jeff Carroll, John Melvin, Dwayne Sperber, and Andy Trotter.

This session will be a platform for existing urban wood professionals to discuss high-level questions and challenges that are facing the urban wood industry.

Possible topics:

• USRW certified wood and how to market it
• Collectively marketing urban wood as an industry
• How to overcome the unknown level of supply of any given species of wood
• How to get the larger urban forest industry interested in urban wood and trained to provide material in a useable state
• How to get municipalities, agencies, and other urban tree owners to adopt an urban wood policy
• Getting urban wood on the radar of more architects, designers, decorators
• Planting trees that have their highest end of life value
• Urban Wood grading and Drying Standards

If you have a topic that you really feel should be discussed, please email us.

About:

Wudeward owner Dwayne Sperber has always been interested in architecture, wood, and the environment. He was introduced to urban wood more than a decade ago, and with this intersect of his three passions, Dwayne immediately became a major advocate for its use. He has worked tirelessly to build awareness and markets for the abundance of wood being removed due to insect, disease, or circumstance.

Dwayne is a founding partner of Wisconsin Urban Wood, a nonprofit focused on building networks of people and businesses that links material streams and availability of quality urban wood products and services across our state. He also is an appointed member of the Wisconsin Urban Forestry Council.

Kiln demonstration at Pacific Coast Lumber

A short kiln presentation by Danny Torres of Deadwood Revival Design and Bethany Hannah of Urban Wood Rescue.

About:

In pursuit of a career as a Wildland Firefighter Daniel was drawn to the Central Coast in 2010. During his time spent working for the Los Padres National Forest, he developed a passion for chainsaw operations and the many challenges presented. Over the years, Daniel became immersed in the chainsaw culture and developed his skills in procedural tree felling, liming, milling, bucking and the establishment of fire breaks. It was during this time traveling through the western states, fighting fires, that he was exposed to the terrible scenes of our beautiful forests being decimated by wildfires. As a result, Daniel developed another passion and decided to found Deadwood Revival Design; sustainably harvesting lumber, in order to bring back to life what has been left for dead.

URBAN WOOD PANEL Q & A

This panel includes professionals and experts from around the nation; Jennifer Alger, Jeff Carroll, John Melvin, Dwayne Sperber, and Andy Trotter.

This session will be a platform for existing urban wood professionals to discuss high-level questions and challenges that are facing the urban wood industry.

Possible topics:

• USRW certified wood and how to market it
• Collectively marketing urban wood as an industry
• How to overcome the unknown level of supply of any given species of wood
• How to get the larger urban forest industry interested in urban wood and trained to provide material in a useable state
• How to get municipalities, agencies, and other urban tree owners to adopt an urban wood policy
• Getting urban wood on the radar of more architects, designers, decorators
• Planting trees that have their highest end of life value
• Urban Wood grading and Drying Standards

If you have a topic that you really feel should be discussed, please email us.

About:

Mr. Trotter has been with West Coast Arborists, Inc. since August of 1982. Prior to that, he had eight years experience in the tree care industry. After working as a Foreman for eight years, Mr. Trotter was promoted to Field Operations Manager in March of 1990. As Field Operations Manager, he supervises all of the field operations as well as overseeing our safety, training, nursery and wood recycling facility. He has been an industry leader in many key projects including United Voices for Healthier Communities Great Clean Air Planting Project, Toolkit for Developing Urban Forest Management Plans and the Western Chapter ISA’s annual “Workday” fundraiser.

Kiln demonstration at Pacific Coast Lumber

A short kiln presentation by Danny Torres of Deadwood Revival Design and Katanja Waldner and Ana Munoz of Urban Wood Rescue. The Sacramento Tree Foundation’s Urban Wood Rescue program operates both a vacuum kiln and a dehumidifier. This presentation will discuss some of the lesson’s learned through start-up specialty lumber drying operations.

About:

Katanja Waldner comes from a background in conventional forestry, including holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from UC Berkeley. She performs both milling and drying operations for the Sacramento Tree Foundation’s Urban Wood Rescue program.