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Good-Bye. “I walked in the office and there they were, gone!” Okay, maybe that’s a bit exagger-ated, but I really wanted to start this off with some Pennsylvania Dutch-speak. As a lot of you now know, Rebecca Koetter and Dave Hanson have both taken on new directions and are no longer part of the TCA program or the Urban Forestry and Horticulture Research Institute at the University of Minnesota. Rebecca left for per-sonal reasons (hooray for baby daughter Hazel, too bad for us), Dave for a professional reason (great opportunity with MnDOT). They both played important roles in the evolution of the TCA program and I’m glad that I had the oppor-tunity to work with them. Sadly, we lost another of our own in 2011. Jay Willett, a Wisconsin resident but an active TCA in Minnesota and Wisconsin for many years passed away in 2011. I really enjoyed know-ing Jay. He was always in a positive, good mood, and tended to dwell on the silver linings, at least that’s the way I remember him. A very ac-tive TCA who always let me know what was going on in his world, was always open to learning and helping others. I did always resent that he was almost thirty years my senior yet had way more hair than I have.

Hello! With all of the goodbyes going on, it’s nice to have some hellos. There are two new people that will be working closely with the TCA program. Valerie Price is the new volunteer coordinator for our urban and com-munity forestry projects and pro-grams, including the Tree Care Ad-visor program. Valerie graduated in December with a degree in Horticul-ture and a minor in Urban Forestry. She has worked with us on our com-munity engagement/tree survey pro-jects for the past several months and is a perfect fit with the rest of our team. Along with Valerie, Jeff Carroll has segued into our volunteer programs. Jeff is an undergraduate research assistant in urban and community forestry, and has also worked with our community en-gagement/tree survey projects for the past several months. If you have called in to the Forest Re-sources Outreach phone line or emailed the same for some informa-tion, you have probably already met Jeff’s voice or electrons. Both Val-erie and Jeff are cut from the same cloth as all of our urban forestry team: they are people-people who have the ability to work with just about anyone, translating and passing on the best and most current urban forestry information.

Good-byes and Hellos Inside this issue:

• Good-byes and Hellos (page 1)

• Forthcoming TCA Program Changes (page 1- 2)

• TCA Survey 2012(page 3)

• Volunteer Hours Submission Form (page 4)

http://www.mntca.org Newslet ter Date Vo lume 18 , Issue 1

Jay Willett: Tree Care Advisor and distinguished-looking feller.

Forthcoming TCA Program Changes

Jeff Carroll: Undergraduate Research Assistant

Valerie Price: TCA Volunteer Coordinator

Twenty years ago, the Tree Care Advisor program was spawned. Starting with a first class of twenty volunteers, it’s grown a bit and we’ve done some good things. The value of our volunteer contributions to the state of Minnesota is approaching the $2,000,000 mark, for what that’s worth. More important to me is that we’re still here, still contributing to local, regional and state-wide urban forestry efforts, and still beating the odds. Most volunteer programs like ours don’t last this long. Longevity isn’t enough, though.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Carroll

“Rustic Snow” Afton State Park, Afton, MN

*Newsletter Photo Pick*

Gary Johnson, Managing Editor

For a chance for your nature photos to be included in future TCA newsletter publications, submit via email your photo along with your full name, photo title, and photo location (city, state). Email to: minntca@gmail.com

Photo courtesy of Micky at Flicker.com

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We’re on the web! http//www.mntca.org

Minnesota Shade Tree Short Course. The Shade Tree Short Course is coming up soon – March 20 and 21, 2012. It’s the 50th Anniversary of the STSC and another opportunity for us to thank and recognize the TCAs who have achieved volunteer milestones. Be sure to complete the attached Volunteer Hours form and get it into Valerie or me by the first week of February. Specifically, we need to add up your documented hours for 2011 in order to calcu-late your reduced registration rate for the STSC. As a reminder, these are the volunteer levels and associated STSC registration rate: *Bronze Club: 100-199 hours since you became a TCA. Cost: $105.00. *Silver Club: 200-299 hours since you became a TCA. Cost: $72.00. *Gold Club: 300-499 hours since you became a TCA. Cost: $37.50. *Platinum Club: 500+ hours since you became a TCA. No charge. The full registration for the 2012 STSC is $175, so these “thank you” rates are pretty significant. Visit http://www.cce.umn.edu/Minnesota-Shade-Tree-Short-Course/index.html for registration materials or more information. There will be no printed brochures this year, so everything is done electronically on-line. In the next newsletter, we’ll talk a bit more about the 2012 Short Course.

Beginning with our 2012 training sessions in Saint Paul, classes will begin in April instead of January, February or March. As the last class is completed in mid-May, there should be more opportunities for teaching/learning experi-ences, instead of all pictures. The entire program will get a face-lift, too, with term limits yet opportunities to renew if desired. More importantly, I believe, there will be volunteer and training emphases that TCAs can select from. As urban forestry becomes more complex and more like urban natural resource management, the program is evolving with those changes. Staying in touch with you will have more options beginning in 2012. Reporting volunteer hours will become even more criti-cal to the health and future of the program and more of an emphasis on our part to facilitate that process. We absolutely must let others know what we’re doing if we are to be chatting with each other about changes in another twenty years. Your peer advisory committee, DIRT, will be meeting with us in a couple of weeks to discuss the changes. In our next newsletter, we’ll outline those changes and be able to offer you some alternative opportunities that we hope will keep you vested in the program and recognized as relevant volunteers.

Forthcoming TCA Program Changes

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Program Contacts: Gary Johnson, Managing Editor Phone: 612-625-3765 Fax: 612-625-5212 Email: johns054@umn.edu Valerie Price, TCA Volunteer Coordinator Jeff Carroll, Undergraduate Research Assistant Phone: 612-625-2361 Fax: 612-625-5212 Email: minntca@gmail.com Mailing Address: University of Minnesota Tree Care Advisors 115 Green Hall 1530 Cleveland Avenue North Saint Paul, MN 55108-6112

TCA DirT Members:

Bruce Allen Polly Augustson

Nancy Bjerke Barb Gasterland Glen Hambleton

Ada Hegion Mimi Hottinger

Chris Johnson Heide Ludwig Harriet Mason

Carol Mason-Sherrill Sally McHamara

Carol Strong Marty Strong

Gary Wyatt ph: 507-389-6748, email: wyatt@umn.edu

Dakota County: Barb Stendahl, ph: 952-463-8002, email: stend004@umn.edu Hennepin County: Terry Straub, ph: 612-596-2130, email: strau097@umn.edu Olmstead County: Angie Gupta, ph: 507-328-6001, email: agupta@umn.edu Ramsey County: Sarah Jaycocks: ph: 651-704-2063, email: rcmg@umn.edu Saint Louis County: Bob Olen, ph: 218-733-2870, email: rolen@umn.edu Stearns County: Janelle Daberkow, ph: 320-255-6169, email: kuec0022@umn.edu

Ken Holman, DNR Forestry ph: 651-259-5269, email: ken.holman@dnr.state.mn.us Green River Greening ph: 651-665-9500, email: info@greatrivergreening.org

Additional Reference Contacts:

Regional Extension Educator Contact:

County Contacts:

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Tree Care Advisor: Survey 2012

Current Contact Information (please fill out entirely)

Name:

Address:

City, State, Zip Code:

Email Address:

Phone Number (include area code):

Survey Questions (please fill out entirely) 1. How would you like to receive future TCA information (check one box only)?

Email Mail Remove from contact list

2. How long have you been a TCA?

3. What motivates you to be a TCA?

4. Which of the emphasis trainings listed below would you be most interested in attending (check all or none that apply) ?

Community Tree Surveys Volunteer Event Management:

• Tree Identification • Planting Programs (e.g. Arbor Day)

• Condition Rating • School Nursery

• Tree Measurements • Buckthorn Removal

Outreach: Plant Health Maintenance:

• Community Programs • Diagnostics

• School Programs • Pruning

Other

• Writing Workshop • Insects

If you wish to remain within the TCA database, please complete this survey and mail back by February 4, 2012. Return Mail Address: University of Minnesota

Tree Care Advisors 115 Green Hall 1530 Cleveland Avenue North Saint Paul, MN 55108-6112

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Tree Care Advisor: Volunteer Hours Submission Form

Current Contact Information (please fill out entirely)

Name:

Address:

City, State, Zip Code:

Email Address:

Phone Number (include area code):

Report Duration (please fill out entirely) from to example: mm/dd/yy

Please complete the this form and the survey form on the page 3 and mail back by February 4, 2012. Return Mail Address: University of Minnesota

Tree Care Advisors 115 Green Hall 1530 Cleveland Avenue North Saint Paul, MN 55108-6112

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