The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast Eva Monheim

Merissa MacDonald is a Certified Arborist through
the International Society of Arboriculture and the Southwest Tree Program
Coordinator at Bartram's Garden, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In her work,
she leads a cohort of high school urban foresters and encourages them to
explore green Industry jobs from arborist to landscape architect and any job in
between. Her work also includes community organizing around tree plantings in
collaboration with partners at PHS (the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society).
The goal is to increase the current 8% tree coverage rate of Southwest
Philadelphia, with a focus on the neighborhood just outside Bartram’s Garden.
Merissa has a passion for landscape design and community planning and
incorporates the two into her urban forestry curriculum.

 











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Sara Street is the green guru of First Community Foundation
Partnership of Pennsylvania. As the manager of Williamsport’s local nature
preserve, Rider Park, she fills the roles of forest ecologist, wildlife
biologist, environmental educator, working maintenance foreman, volunteer
coordinator and more.

With degrees in landscape architecture, ecological
restoration, park management, and landscape technology, Sara brings a wealth of
knowledge and experience to her role. As the steward of nearly 900 acres, she
is responsible for encouraging forest health and longevity, managing invasive
plants and pests (like spongey moth and hemlock elongate scale), and planting
native plants to enhance the park’s biodiversity. She encourages wildlife
habitat by encouraging landscape types that aren’t present at Rider Park (like
a shrub-dominated savanna on the edges of the forest and meadows). Sara also
maintains trails, coordinates volunteers, and shares her passion for nature and
wildlife with visitors.

Even when she’s not on the job, Sara spends a lot of time
outside—hiking, gardening, swimming in the West Branch of the Susquehanna and Loyalsock
creeks and attending soccer events with her son.

“I lived and worked in northwest Washington state, and the trees there are very
impressive in stature, height, and density. But the range of species pales in
comparison to the richness of North Central Pennsylvania. I adore walking
through the forest, looking at patterns, and identifying trees!”

 

















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Rebecca Johnson is an ISA Certified Arborist and a true arborholic. She is addicted to helping trees and the people who care for them. Rebecca regularly provides education to fellow arborists and the general public. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas Chapter of ISA as its president and is a private consulting arborist, teaching homeowners about proper tree care. Rebecca has been involved with the Certified Arborist prep courses since 2011 and was part of the cadre responsible for bringing the Certified Arborist prep class to Austin, Texas in 2015. She currently coordinates the Austin class.

Rebecca was recognized with the 2020 ISA President's Award for her work with Women in Arboriculture. She is a TCIA Certified Treecare Safety Professional, Tree Risk Assessment Qualified, and holds the Texas ISA Oak Wilt and Wildfire Risk Reduction qualifications, and has a degree in Forestry from Oklahoma State University. She spends her free time looking at and admiring trees and spends quality time with her family and pets.


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Ethan Olson is the owner of Walburn Run Nursery located in Brockway, Pennsylvania. His main plant focus at his nursery is on fruit and nut trees along with berried shrubs and edible herbaceous plants. Presently, Ethan spends the majority of his time growing and collecting the American chestnut (Castanea dentata). His mission is the preservation of a diverse chestnut germplasm in hopes of getting this once-great species back into the environment as a productive component of the northeastern forest ecosystem. Ethan has a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Temple University and is an avid outdoorsman.


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With more than 14 years in the horticulture and arboriculture industry, Rob Shaut joined Casey Trees, an Urban Forestry non-profit, in March of 2018. He has contributed to the operational efficiency and the expansion of their scope of work. Thanks to the leadership of Rob, Stormwater Low Impact Development and Best Management Practices are now an integral part of the Casey Trees portfolio, along with tree installation, pruning, and maintenance. Previously, Rob completed the two-year Professional Horticulture Program at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, studied at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and received a Bachelor of Science from Clemson University in business management. He spent five years working as a project manager and garden designer for Shimizu Landscape Design, a Maryland-based design and build firm. He worked for two years as a project manager for Cotswold Gardens, a design and build firm in West Grove, Pennsylvania. Rob is a certified Arborist and Tree Risk Assessment Qualified. He is currently a member of the MAC-ISA Board of Directors and the TREE Fund Board of Directors. As the Director of Tree Operations at Casey Trees, Rob focuses on increasing canopy coverage, stormwater mitigation, heat island mitigation, and phytoremediation. Casey Trees targets lower canopied areas and equity emphasis areas around our nation’s capital.


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John Perlin is a Professor and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of the newly released edition of A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization.

Perlin says, “It is my hope that the new edition of A Forest Journey will make clear the imperative humanity faces because losing our forests would not merely be the end of nature, it could mean the end of us.”

Originally published in 1989, the book’s comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life …….earned its recognition as a Harvard “Classic in Science and World History” and as one of Harvard’s “One Hundred Great Books.”

In the new edition, Perlin cites data on how humanity has cut down half the trees on the planet in the last 12,000 years, and that deforestation continues at an alarming pace with 15 billion trees removed per year. That’s 500,000 square miles of forested land lost since the first edition of A Forest Journey was released.

Perlin is also the author of three other books: A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology; From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity; and Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy.

Perlin lives in Santa Barbara, California.


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