Joining hands for trees - Fifth National Urban Forestry Conference sponsored by the American Forestry Association - includes other AFA news - AFA Today

American Forests, Jan-Feb, 1992

Participants in the largest-ever urban forest conference came away with canvas totebags crammed with information and hearts swelled with pride.

Fess up! Neither you professionals here nor citizen foresters like me can save the urban forest alone. The only answer is partnership," urged Bill Press, TreePeople board member and speaker at the Fifth National Urban Forestry Conference.

Held November 12-17 in Los Angeles at the historic and elegant Biltmore Hotel, the meeting's theme was Alliances for Community Trees"-partnerships for building the urban forests of the future.

The landmark get-together also marked the 116th annual meeting of the American Forestry Association, which sponsored the conference in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, California Department of Forestry, and TreePeople. This was the first Urban Forest Conference to have support from corporations, with Geo automobiles being the presenting sponsor and the Discovery Channel as the media sponsor.

Over and over, conference-goers shared their amazement at the changes urban forestry has undergone since the first conference was held in 1978. Bob Skiera, recently retired as Milwaukee city forester, summed up the sentiment: "These conferences are shaping the urban ecosystem of the world."

Close to 1,000 attendees-professional and citizen foresters, researchers, environmental activists, and corporate representatives-came to listen and share, to touch trees by touching people.

In addition to hosting the conference, Los Angeles is the home of TreePeople, whose Andy and Katie Lipkis are the winners of this year's first-ever Global ReLeaf Special Achievement Award. The tree couple aired a video titled 2 Protect Our Planet," a film on TreePeople's training program for citizen fores

AFA President Charles Tarver welcomed a packed house at the opening ceremony and first general session. The urban forestry movement works," he said, "because it's more than air and water and soil. It's people. You and I are the future of the urban forest."

Neil Sampson, AFA executive vice president, added, "If we're ever to heal this planet, we have to heal it first in the communities that make it up."

National Urban Forest Council President Donald C. Willeke pointed out that all the priorities set at the last conference, held in St. Louis in 1988, have been met-including the "courage to sponsor a fifth conference!"

Congressman Jim Jontz (IN), author of the Urban and Community Forestry Act of 1990, held a "listening session' with urban forestry representatives from state and local governments and citizen tree-planting organizations from around the nation. Jontz promised to carry their messages back to Congress, which is expected to hold hearings on the federal urban forestry program next year.

Peter Ueberroth, vice chairman of the National Tree Trust, captivated the audience, talking about baseball, about winning, about trying. He concluded with.

As you deliberate, form alliances, and find solutions, remember, almost anything is possible if enough people care.'

Some 53 concurrent sessions covered topics such as assessing the costs and benefits of urban forests. An evening session on international urban forestry allowed participants an opportunity to span the oceans.

Commercial and educational exhibits offered wanderers a chance to catch up on the latest products and ideas. The importance of corporate partnerships and how to cultivate them was discussed by Daniel Pearlman of the Pearlman Group/Geo cars and David Gabrielsen of Mr. Coffee.

A Global ReLeaf Partnership Banquet was not only an elegant affair on white linen but also a time to recognize and thank many for their continued dedication. Discovery Channel previewed 'In Celebration of Trees,' a documentary that was shown nationwide on December 16. Famed actor Eddie Albert read the long list, pausing to exclaim: "This is awesome! Do you realize what you've done? The millions-the billions-of trees: how they've changed people's lives?'

After the keynote speakers, AFAs Gary Moll and TreePeople's Andy Lipkis introduced a second video program. As the lights dimmed, Ray Charles's voice, rich with feeling, filled the room, singing the simple and beloved words, America, sweet America . . . " Scenes of trees and people planting trees mingled with vignettes of places bare of trees. "As the trees disappear,' he commentator said, 'so do our dreams ... As the trees disappear, so does our hope for ourselves and our planet."

Neil Sampson said we are the healers and the teachers. The task is no small one. But then, as David Brower once said, Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir people's blood."

-CARRIE CASEY

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE A WARD

Available to both members and non-members of the association, it is given for noteworthy service to forestry and other aspects of resource conservation.

ARTHUR V SMYTH

Art Smyth began his forestry career in 1941 as a land examiner on the nation's first tree farm, the Weyerhaeuser Company's Clemons Tree Farm in Washington State. He spent 40 years with Weyerhaeuser, retiring in 1984. He has served as chairman of both the Columbia River and the Washington, DC, sections of the Society of American Foresters. He was elected vice president of the national society in 1989 and served as president during 1990. As immediate past president, he is a member of the SAF Council. He is presently associated with the Columbia Consulting Group.