Richard Hefley - Consulting Arborist : Landscape Design

03/02/2025

Just saying.

03/02/2025

The Lorax has gotten edgier since I was young.

Just saying.

02/22/2025

The tenets of our urban forest -
1. Put the right tree in the right place.
2. Diversity. We need many different genera out there to resist new and emerging stresses, and one of which can affect an entire variety of urban trees.
3. Encourage native trees and plants where practical.

02/20/2025

Silva Cells in Urban Forestry.
Great idea, but too damn expensive. These get shot down for the cost every time I present it as an option.
What they are to be used for is a culvert, to get tree roots from a confined planting pit to more and better soils that lie on the other side of a barrier, usually sidewalks, sometimes roads.
Why not use an actual culvert, filled with structural soils (space for water/oxygen), and large enough to handle mature tree root sizes?

We have all had to deal with unwanted tree roots in pipes...why not use a 'problem' to our advantage, and at a fraction of the cost?

01/03/2025

Barkskins by Annie Proulx.

700 pages but barely scratching the surface of the logging and ecology of North America, a GREAT read and far more accurate than the current spate of "we are all connected, NYTimes best selling" ecology books that are well meaning but can be sketchy in spots.
Barkskins follows two families descended from French orphans landing in Canada in the early 1700s and follows their descendants to the 20th century, touching on every aspect of ecology and life in Proulx's inimitable way.

The dedication piqued my interest -
"And for barkskins of all kinds - loggers, ecologists, sawyers, sculptors, hotshots, planters, students, scientists, leaf eaters, photographers, practitioners of shinrin-yoku, land-sat interpreters, climatologists, wood butchers, picnickers, foresters, ring counters and the rest of us."

If any of those apply to you, so will this book.
Also an amazing insight into the Mik'maque tribe.

(unsure of shinrin-yoku)

12/07/2024

staying up to date...

The Northwest Straits Foundation and Shore Friendly programs in northern Washington are hosting 5 professional workshops this spring focused on residential marine shoreline management. The workshops are intended for arborists, tree services, landscapers, bulkhead contractors and drainage contractors who work in marine shoreline environments. San Juan Island is the first, then Anacortes or Bellingham, Stanwood, Whidbey Island, and Sequim or Port Townsend. This first workshop is January 17th in Friday Harbor.

John Bornsworth is the lead presenter at these events, with additional presentations by local planners and Shore Friendly staff.

ISA and NALP CEU's pending.

11/23/2024

11/21/2024

little damage out here in the Marrowstone/Port Townsend area, but I am always fascinated to see what did fall elsewhere -

11/20/2024

Shared with me from Drue Epping -Tree Failure Data Bases are a critical tool for learning in our profession. I hope to encourage more orgs and municipalities to take part in these.
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/c8265067a8094c4a8710f67dce0e2857?fbclid=IwY2xjawGrKn9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQKarXcoWwTu79KkhKufyl_SZueG0FfkJDaVbUkoGFFA7k4walmVi2cIwQ_aem_QqUgQRVCKKCNvkrJnsUf2Q

11/20/2024

going out to survey the post-storm damage now. Wasn't too bad on southern Marrowstone Island though we lost power for a few hours.
Your mileage (wind-speed) may differ.