Tim Boland is the Director of the Polly Hill Arboretum on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, West Tisbury, Massachusetts. Tim moved with his wife Laura and two children to the Vineyard in 2002. Before his move to the Vineyard, he was Curator of Horticulture at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. A plantsman with wide-ranging interests, he is a nationally recognized author, photographer, and lecturer.

Tim has an undergraduate degree in Landscape Horticulture and a master’s degree in Botany and Plant Pathology from Michigan State University with a specialization in Plant Ecology and Systematics.

Tim studies oak trees and has traveled the world to see oaks in their natural habitats. He is a board member of the International Oak Society, and Chair of the Oak Conservation and Research Committee.

Tim is also active in assembling a modern flora for Martha’s Vineyard and adjacent islands. He is a plant collections advocate and serves on the Living Collections Advisory Committee of the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.

In his position as director of the Polly Hill Arboretum, Tim guides the principal program areas of Living Collections, Education, Plant Conservation, and Community Ecology.

He is thrilled to see the transformation over the last several years of the Polly Hill Arboretum from a private garden to a community, regional, and national resource. A big part of this transformation is the dedicated work of the board, staff, and volunteers who so generously support the Polly Hill Arboretum through their time, and enthusiasm!

Jason Ross is the Managing Publisher of Wood Central - the world's largest news platform for forest-based news! Wood Central has more than 170,000 users, with over 75% of users under 45, and 47% under 35! We cover all the news on the Wood Central website, across all media channels that interest our users, with fresh content from across the world updated all day, every day.

So whether it's the next generation of mass timber buildings, the carbon power in our lithium batteries or even the use of Cold War technology in monitoring carbon stock across the world's forests - scroll over to Wood Central to stay informed about all the news that matters!

Jason has a passion for green buildings - probably why Wood Central is the only platform dedicated to writing up a new and unique project case study every day! As a former Green Star Accredited Professional (GSAP), he has been an active member in driving the adoption of Green Star projects in Australia - and is pushing for greener, cleaner and more sustainable building materials ahead of the Brisbane Olympic Games. He has advised the Queensland State Government on environmental protection, heritage, housing and public works.

From 2018 until 2022, Jason managed the PEFC brands in the Australian and New Zealand markets and is passionate about growing the certification awareness and compliance across the Asia-Pacific region. Still, trying to figure out what forest certification is and why it matters?

An experienced spokesperson, Jason has presented to a variety of forums, including the United Nations (Australia and New Zealand), the Property Council (Australia), Master Builder (Australia), the Building Designer Association of Australia (BDAA), the Australian Institute of Building, the National Retailers Association, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and New Zealand (NZGBC), the PEFC Council (Geneva, Switzerland), the Wood Processors Manufacturing Association (New Zealand) and the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP).

Alec Charais is one of the most passionate people in horticulture today. Having grown up on a family farm, his love for plants grew into a rewarding career that today finds him collaborating with breeders and agents across the globe, searching for trees and shrubs that will beautify the outdoor living experience for everyone.
At Bailey Nurseries, a family-owned fifth-generation nursery with growing operations in Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and Georgia, Alec leads the marketing and product development functions across the company. This includes successful consumer brands including First Editions® Shrubs & Trees, Endless Summer® Hydrangeas, and Easy Elegance® Roses – all brands that Bailey owns and manages worldwide. These brands are well known in many parts of the world and Bailey continues to breathe new life into their plants through extensive breeding and trialing to ensure people have lasting success.
In addition to his role as Chief Marketing & Product Development Officer at Bailey, he also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Garden Bureau and the Corporate Membership Committee of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Alec is passionate about bringing new ideas, people, and plants, to life!

Hal and I talk some of the highlights of the podcast thus far. We think you will enjoy the overview if you have never listened to our podcast before. Below you will find a short list of some of the podcasts that you might want to listen to or relisten to if you are a regular listener. You’ll hear how our guests are making a dent in the climate crisis by their positive actions. We are grateful to all of our guests for sharing their amazing work! And we thank our listeners for tuning in and for all of your wonderful comments and suggestions.

We thank you!!

Seth Lieberman

Seth Lieberman co-founded Quiet Clean Philly; an all-volunteer organization dedicated to phasing out gas leaf blowers in the City of Philadelphia. Seth’s activism and articles on the harms of gas leaf blowers have been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY’s Studio 2 and Radio Times, Channel 6 ABC Action News, The Chestnut Hill Local, The Weavers Way Shuttle, Planet Philadelphia, and The Jewish Exponent. Seth is also active as part of a national network of municipalities seeking healthier and more sustainable communities through changing how we think about lawncare. When not volunteering, Seth runs Leadership Breakthroughs, a leadership and strategy development business focused on academic medical centers.
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Dr. Bonnie Sager

Dr. Bonnie Sager is a Consulting Clinical Physician to the New York State hospital system. She has lectured internationally on eyecare and has served as Vice President and advisor to several Visioncare companies. As a clinician, she is concerned with the many detrimental health impacts that gas powered lawn equipment have on landscape workers and the general public. She is actively working with communities, medical professionals, environmental groups, and legislators to change policy and promote more sustainable landscaping practices. Dr. Sager and Dr. Lucy Weinstein are co-founders of Huntington CALM, (Clean Alternative Landscaping Methods) a Long Island-based citizens’ advocacy organization. She is also a co-founder of QCA (Quiet Clean Alliance) a national organization dedicated to educating and changing public policy on gas lawn equipment. Dr. Sager served on the advisory board of Noise Free America and has been featured in print, on television and radio addressing the topic Landscaping and Your Health.

Ron Kinney is the production manager at Monrovia’s Oregon nursery. Ron has a degree in Ornamental Horticulture from California State Polytechnic University and has been in the industry for more than 30 years. Part of his role as production manager includes responsibility for tree production, both in containers and in-ground field production, at Monrovia’s California and Oregon nursery facilities.

Ron and his wife also manage and operate a 20-acre Hazelnut orchard in Oregon.

Ari Miller, RLA, ISA Certified Arborist - Ari Miller is the director of design at Hinge Collective in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a public interest design firm that puts community engagement and public participation at the forefront of their practice. As both a landscape architect and arborist, Ari has always advocated for the integration and restoration of natural systems in urban design. Over the course of his 17-year career, Ari has worked as an arborist at Morris Arboretum, as a green roof design specialist at Roofmeadow, and has also led large-scale civic design projects at OLIN Partners. At Hinge, he uses this experience to help communities find design solutions that best support human and ecological health in their own neighborhoods through the enhancement of public space and community-led planning. Some notable projects include the Philly Tree Plan, Resilient Communities Stormwater Initiative, Unity Park, and Frankford Pause Park. Ari has also been adjunct faculty at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson University.

Steven Kiiskila is the Crop and Growing Team Manager at Arbutus Grove Nursery, located at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Each year his team grows 15 million container seedlings composed of 18 or more species, primarily for reforestation throughout Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. He has been involved in reforestation his entire career; from collecting seeds to organizing and monitoring tree planting programs, although his primary focus has been growing seedlings at various nurseries throughout B.C. While employed as a Seedling Reforestation Specialist, he advised nurseries and tree seed orchards on growing practices. In this role, he also guided foresters and others planting trees on seedling stocktype selection and planting practices and established numerous outplanting trials to search for answers in overcoming reforestation challenges.

Steven loves the combination of art and science used to grow forest seedlings, and the fact that as a grower he is always learning something new. One of his favorite tree growing sayings is: “Growing trees is not rocket science, it’s much harder.” He has a Master of Science degree in Forest Biology from the University of Victoria, a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, horticulture major from the University of Guelph, and a Horticulture Diploma from Olds, College.

Joe Lamb, founder of the Borneo Project, is a writer, activist, and arborist living in Berkeley, California. His poetry and essays have appeared in Earth Island Journal, The Sun, Caliban, Wind, Orion, and other magazines. His work is also included in the anthologies The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology, Robert Bly et al editors, and Veterans of War/Veterans of Peace, Maxine Hong Kingston editor.

Joe has degrees in biology, ecology, and film. He has taught biology and ecology in the United States and in Mexico. He worked as a field organizer on the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, and as a film distributor for The Video Project. For over forty years he has tended trees in the urban forest as co-owner of Brende and Lamb Tree and Shrub care.

In 1991, under the auspices of Earth Island Institute, Joe founded the Borneo Project, an NGO that helps the indigenous peoples of Borneo secure land rights and protect their forest. Honored by the Goldman Foundation as an “environmental hero,” Joe was featured in the San Francisco public television program, “Green Means.”

For over 30 years the Borneo Project has helped indigenous peoples map their lands, bring their case to the court of public opinion, and press for the preservation of their forests through legal action. Learn more about the Borneo Project – see the link below.

Joe is firmly committed to trees as an essential part of any realistic strategy to help the world limit and mitigate the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change.

Mark Krawczyk is an applied ecologist, educator, and grower with a background in permaculture design, agroforestry, natural building, traditional woodworking, and small-scale forestry. He co-owns and operates Keyline Vermont LLC, teaching, designing, and consulting for farmers, homeowners, and homesteaders. Since 2008, Mark has taught over 30 Permaculture Design Courses and been a specialist guest instructor in dozens more. He holds Diplomas in Permaculture Design and Education from the Permaculture Institute of North America. He and his wife also co-manage Valley Clayplain Forest Farm - 52 acres of field and forest in New Haven, Vermont, USA.

Asha-Lé Davis joined the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) as Trees Specialist in 2021 to pursue her passion for empowering people to grow tree canopy in their communities. Since joining, she has helped grow the PHS Tree Tenders program in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties to over 60 active groups who have planted 3,000+ trees. She recently took on the role of facilitating the educational workshops within the program. Prior to her work at PHS, Asha-Lé was introduced to the necessity of healthy urban tree canopy through her work with TreePhilly. Asha-Lé is a PHS Tree Tender leader in her own community, East Parkside, using her knowledge to educate her neighbors about the benefits of tree planting and care.

Paul Hickman is the founder of Urban Ashes a pioneering company the advocates for urban wood utilization. The company transforms fallen urban trees into valuable local resources. Urban Ashes designs, develops, and implements urban wood utilization for infrastructure in collaboration with municipalities, local organizations and businesses to support the local community.

In addition to salvaging urban wood, Paul’s organization provides meaningful employment and business opportunities to formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted youth. This commitment resonates throughout the community, promoting safer and healthier neighborhoods through the People and Trees connection.

Paul is also one of the founding members of the national organization the Urban Wood Network.

David Teuschler is the Chief Horticulturist for Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery. He established the nursery’s propagation program and currently directs the propagation and inventory teams for the company’s sixteen locations across California. David has worked in the nursery industry for three decades, including many years at Valley Crest Tree Company. While there, he served as Plant Health Care Manager for the Specimen Tree Division, Account Manager in the Estate Gardens Division, and, most notably, Chief Arborist for the Apple contract grow, responsible for growing over 7,000 trees – half from seed – for installation at the Apple campus in Cupertino, CA. David is a Certified Arborist and a member of the Western Chapter of the I.S.A. and the I.P.P.S. He is a 3rd generation Californian and has a BS in Ornamental Horticulture from California State University, Fresno.

Matthew Aghai is a dedicated reforestation expert, applied scientist, and executive leader at Mast Reforestation. He currently serves as the VP of Research and Development at Mast Reforestation, General Manager of Cal Forest Nurseries, and advisor to Silvaseed Company.
His recent work focuses on scalable solutions for mitigating climate change through the development of new initiatives to modernize the reforestation supply chain and connect reforestation initiatives with natural capital markets. Matthew has been featured in several national publications for his work and real impacts, including a National Geographic article discussing national seed limitations, Mongabay articles discussing his team’s pioneering work in aerial seeding technology, and also many peer-reviewed publications.
Matthew is also a practiced and enthusiastic public speaker and actively seeks opportunities to engage with anyone and everyone about finding solutions to the challenges facing the world’s forests.

Kim Shearer is the Curator of Living Collections and Manager of the Haerther Charitable Trust New Plant Development Program at The Morton Arboretum. In her role as curator, Kim focuses on the development and maintenance of resilient living collections that provide a germplasm resource for researchers and plant breeders seeking to address the issues of climate change; while also working with the conservation community to identify priorities that can be addressed through collections curation and research. As Manager of New Plant Development Kim works with plant breeders and the nursery industry to select, evaluate, and develop new plants for the urban and suburban built landscapes. Kim completed her Bachelor of Science degrees in Horticulture Science and Plant Biology at North Carolina State University and her Master of Science degree in Horticulture Science with a focus in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Oregon State University.

Kristen Pullen completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Rider University. After university, she took an internship position at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The internship focused on all research aspects of the public garden from tissue culture to new plant evaluation and selection. Kristen has been with the new product department at Star® Roses and Plants since 2011. She previously managed domestic and international trialing of woody plants before accepting her current role as Woody Ornamental Portfolio Manager where she coordinates the development, launch, and market evaluation of all new trees, shrubs, and edible plants. Kristen also manages the Bushel and Berry® Brand for Star® Roses and Plants, a premium branded program of plants that provide both edible and ornamental uses for the home garden.

Lars Peter Jensen is originally from Denmark and arrived in the U.S.A. in 2003 and settled in Brevard County Florida where he lives with his wife and three children. Lars is the head of sales, marketing, and business development and part owner of the Blackmore Company.

Blackmore has been instrumental in the horticulture industry for more than 50 years. His company holds a patent for the Air Tray® technologies system which is what drew Lars to the company.

As a systems person. Lars has a simplified but analytical approach to nursery production. His philosophy includes these two mottos "Don't automate a problem - remove it". And "To each action, there is a reaction".

Lars’ entry into the green industry was accidental – right out of a Denmark college, Lars went to Seattle, Washington to reorganize and run a small subsidiary of a Danish company. (His degree from university was International Sales). This was the first time Lars came to America and he liked it .. a lot.

After his taste of the U.S., and needing a work permit, Lars went back to Denmark and went on with his career in international sales and marketing. Lars settled down in Vejle, Denmark, and had a family. One day he received a call from Ellepot a company in Denmark asking him to go to America for them. At first, he said no, but then after talking it over with his wife, they agreed to go to the U.S. and settle in, Florida. This is where he met Skip Blackmore the owner of the Blackmore Company – the distributor of the Ellepot in the U.S.

Working with Skip Blackmore, Lars learned a great deal and eventually became a partner in the Blackmore Company. This was the start of a 20-year “road trip” as Lars calls it with a lot of bumps, hills, and unexpected curves but it all led to Air Tray® Technologies, which holds the Ellepot. This combination is a revolution in the horticulture industry and will lead to the next generation of growing efficiently and in half the time.

Kathy Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine and hosts the popular GardenDC Podcast. She is also the editor of the Water Garden Journal (IWGS), The Azalean (ASA), and Fanfare, for the local daylily society. She is the author of Groundcover Revolution (out February 2023) and co-author of The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City.

A life-long gardener, Kathy believes that growing plants should be stress-free and enjoyable. Her philosophy is inspiration over perspiration. She speaks on gardening and has been honored to have presented programs at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, the Philadelphia Flower Show, U.S. Botanic Garden, the Historic Society of Washington, DC, and many other prestigious venues. Audiences both large and small enjoy hearing her on topics as varied as Dealing with Deer to Small-Space Gardening. For audience reviews of her recent speaking engagements, see her listing at the Great Garden Speakers web site (http://greatgardenspeakers.com/listing/kathy-jentz.html). To book her for online (Zoom) or in-person talks, contact her at KathyJentz@gmail.com.

One of her other hats is as the Green Media columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Grower newspaper, where she does a great deal of hand-holding and coaxing to get independent garden centers, plant breeders, and other horticultural businesses to join the social media revolution and maximize their online brands.

Kathy’s work has been featured in numerous area publications including Pathways Magazine and Washington Women magazine. In addition, she has appeared on regular gardening guest spots on Channel 9, Channel 4, as well as WTOP, WAMU, and WOWD-LP radio stations in Washington, DC.
Currently, she is the President of the Silver Spring Garden Club and is on the board of several other garden clubs and organizations.
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About Washington Gardener Magazine:
Washington Gardener Magazine is the gardening publication published specifically for the local metro area — zones 6-7 — Washington DC and its suburbs. We sent out our premiere issue in March/April 2005 and we are now about to be celebrating our 17th anniversary.
The content of the magazine gives real examples that you can use immediately in your own garden. It will save you time and show you how to stretch your garden resources. It will inspire you with new ideas and new ways of looking at things. With all of that, we don’t forget to include a heavy dose of whimsy, a sense of humor, and a portion of wonder. We have some great stories in the works — from Unique Plant Combinations to Starting a Water Garden to Growing Vegetables in Tight Spaces — we can’t wait to share them with our readers!
If you are a DC-area gardener, you’ll love Washington Gardener magazine! Subscribe today at https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/.
The magazine is written entirely by local area gardeners. They have real-world experience with the same problems you experience in your own gardens. They’ll be sharing their thoughts on what to plant in deep shade, how to cover bare spots, which annuals work best throughout the humid DC summers, and much more.

Kristin Ohlson is a writer from Portland, Oregon. Her new book Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World – which the Wall Street Journal calls “excellent and illuminating”--probes the mutually beneficial relationships among living things that undergird the natural world. Her last book was The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, which the Los Angeles Times calls “a hopeful book and a necessary one…. a fast-paced and entertaining shot across the bow of mainstream thinking about land use.” She appeared in the award-winning documentary film, Kiss the Ground, to speak about the connection between soil health and climate health.
Ohlson’s articles have been published in the New York Times, Orion, Discover, Gourmet, Oprah, and many other print and online publications. Her magazine work has been anthologized in Best American Science Writing and Best American Food Writing.

Nykia Perez Kibler
Nykia Perez Kibler, co-founder of Philly Tree People (501c3), is an ISA Certified Arborist® with a Master in Environmental Studies degree with a focus on Environmental Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). She also has a Master in Liberal Arts from Penn, a Certificate in Landscape Plants from Temple University, a Master of Library & Information Science from The University at Buffalo, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. Her two capstones from Penn were: “Philly Tree People: A Case Study on the Formation of a Non-profit Community-based Tree Planting and Tree Care Organization" where she outlined the Pruning Club program and "Management of the Urban Forest: A Zip Code Level Approach" where she outlined the plan for a Green Skills Youth program both of which were heavily modeled after programs after UC (University City) Green in West Philadelphia. She was an intern at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve where she worked in their native plant nursery, participated in interpretation activities, led guided walks for families, assisted with grounds maintenance, marketing, and data collection. Nykia is generally interested in ecological restoration, urban ecology, urban wildlife, ornithology, wetlands, urban forestry, native plants, biological conservation, road ecology, environmental education, nonprofit leadership, urban orchards, food gardening, green walls, children’s play spaces/gardens, and citizen science. Professionally, she works as a library director and research librarian providing and developing research services for faculty and graduate students at Penn, supporting grants, and disseminating research results via websites and social media. She’s also a girl scout troop leader and engages youth in tree planting, pollinator gardening, camping, and citizen science.

Jacelyn Blank
Jacelyn Blank is an ISA Certified Arborist® with a bachelor’s in fine arts and a master’s in education with Pennsylvania teaching certifications in Elementary and Special Education. She is one of the three co-founders of the federally recognized not-for-profit Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Tree Tender organization, Philly Tree People. When Jacelyn isn’t volunteering her time with Philly Tree People she teaches preschool children part time at a not-for-profit play school in Fishtown called By My Side, where she focuses on child led play and interests, increasing students’ social emotional understandings through incidental teaching opportunities, as well as introducing students to a variety of environmental and art related educational experiences. She also co-founded the Friends of H.A. Brown, her local catchment public school where she completed her student teaching in 2011 and where her son currently attends.
Jacelyn launched her own small business; Blank Slate Trees and Gardens, in 2021 where she works with Philadelphia clients on landscape design, garden creation and maintenance, installation and care for trees and installation of plants for window boxes and planters with an integration of native plants. She is currently completing her Pollinator Steward Certificate through the worldwide organization, Pollinator Partnership. Her ultimate career goals are to combine her love of teaching, arboriculture, and horticulture by continuing Philly Tree People’s Green Corps, a youth employment, education and empowerment group hiring students living and attending school in the Kensington neighborhoods in order to encourage more urban youth to move into the Green Industry while caring for Kensington’s tree canopy and learning through hands-on experiences.