Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Extending Arboriculture to the Public

Yesterday, Bryan Thompson-Nowak, the Walter W. Root Endowed Arborist intern, presented his project, entitled “Extending Arboriculture to the Public".



Arborists commonly capture the attention of those passing by when they are performing their maintenance duties high in trees. People will stop and watch what the arborists are doing and often have many questions. Bryan's project aims to take capitalize on these sorts of regularly occurring "teachable moments" through an informational sandwich board that can easily travel to different sites with the arborists.  The information is layed out in an easy to understand manner with graphics to help explain the work going on without distracting the arborists in the trees..see images below.


One side of the panel graphically explains how an arborist climbs a tree, identifies the equipment being used and has a rope with a climbing "friction hitch" knot and carabiner attached for hands-on learning.

The opposite side has a top portion made with dry-erase board film that can be written on.  The arborists will write on this part of the panel to identify the common and scientific name of the tree that is receiving care as well as point out the type of work being done.  The bottom of the panel highlights some of the common maintenance issues that need remedied on young and mature trees.

Bryan did a great job presenting his project and putting together an informational learning panel that will take advantage of many teachable moments around the garden.  Next time you are at Morris Arboretum and see the arborists working in a tree, look for the sandwich board and learn a little more about what the arborists are doing.

Also, check out this great YouTube video showing how Bryan climbs through a tree:

1 comment:

  1. Good to know that you are getting the word out about arboriculture and tree pruning by presented Bryan Thompson-Nowak's project, entitled “Extending Arboriculture to the Public".

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