More Trees Please is Canopy’s adult education series of tree talks and webinars for residents, tree industry experts, community leaders, and decision-makers on the benefits of urban trees, with resources and practical tips to advocate and care for trees in their community to ensure the health and longevity of the urban forest.

Growing Climate Resilient Urban Forests

Tuesday, June 13th, 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Webinar Featuring:

  • Dr. Erica Spotswood, Director of Science and Senior Ecologist, Second Nature
  • Dave Muffly, Former Senior Arborist, Apple
  • Dr. Dave Fujino, Director, California Center for Urban Horticulture

While our urban forests are threatened by both climate change and rapid urbanization, they’re also part of the solution. Trees — the backbone of nature in our urban areas — sequester carbon and provide many other environmental and public health benefits. We need to protect and plant more trees in our cities, but which trees, and where, and how? This webinar offers guidance from Bay Area experts on ways to ensure resilient urban forests, providing useful tools to decision-makers, from elected officials to city planners, arborists, tree growers, and landscape architects.

Register in advance for this Zoom webinar. Certified Arborists will earn 1.5 ISA CEUs upon attending the live webinar.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from [email protected] containing information about joining the webinar.

This program is made possible by a generous grant from the Santa Clara County Office of Sustainability.

The County of Santa Clara seal

About the Speakers:

Dr. Erica Spotswood

Dr. Erica Spotswood (she/her) is the Director of Science and Senior Ecologist at Second Nature where she specializes in using science to guide urban biodiversity conservation, evaluating biodiversity responses to changes in the urban landscape, and making connections between urban biodiversity and human health and well-being. Erica has led projects in partnership with cities, park districts, conservation non-profits, urban designers, and private companies. She brings broad experience creating effective cross-disciplinary collaborations to guide nature interventions in urban settings. Prior to joining Second Nature, Erica was the Science Director for the Urban Nature Lab at the San Francisco Estuary Institute. Erica holds a PhD from the department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California at Berkeley.

Dave Muffly

Dave Muffly (he/him) is the former Senior Arborist at Apple, who selected, grew, and planted the 9,000 trees within the 175-acre Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, bringing to life Steve Job’s vision of a tree-rich park resembling the Stanford hills. As Canopy’s first program director, Dave orchestrated the planting of 500 trees in Palo Alto neighborhoods. Later, while serving on the Canopy board of directors, Dave designed Canopy’s East Palo Alto Tree Initiative, the award-winning planting of 1,000 drought-tolerant trees along the Bayshore freeway. Dave’s wisdom and insight, gained from 30 years of observing, growing, planting, researching, and stewarding nearly 100,000 trees, is unparalleled. His mission in life is to create the best possible urban forests in California, capable of adapting to the changing conditions brought by climate change. He’s continuing his research and experiments with species native from other areas, to select and grow those that he believes will survive and thrive in California.

Dave Fujino

Dr. Dave Fujino (he/him) has served for more than 16+ years as the director of the California Center for Urban Horticulture (CCUH), Co-Director of the UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance at UC Davis and past Chair of the Saratoga Horticultural Research Endowment. He earned his B.S. in Plant Science at UC Riverside, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from UC Davis in Environmental Horticulture and Plant Physiology. Fujino’s experience includes over 17 years in senior-level management with a large wholesale horticultural company. His expertise includes organizational development, operations improvement, information technology, strategic planning, marketing, research and development, training, fundraising, and other areas. In 2017, he was inducted into the Green Industry “Hall of Fame” for having a positive impact in the horticulture industry.

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Event Archives

June 4, 2022 | Stewarding Trees Beyond Your Front Yard

Learn more about this in-person event (no recording available).

Speakers:

  • Mary Dateo (she/her), Canopy Board Member, horticulturist, and urban forest advocate
  • Matthew Feisthamel (he/him), City of Mountain View Forestry Coordinator

June 2, 2022 | Urban Forests: Maintenance and Management Best Practices

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Elise Willis (she/her), Master’s Student in Environmental Horticulture at the University of Florida, Graduate Assistant for the Urban Tree and Landscape Management Lab, Former Tree Programs Director at Canopy
  • Matthew Feisthamel (he/him), City of Mountain View Forestry Coordinator
  • Brittany Whitehill (she/her), City of Mountain View Associate Planner

May 20, 2021 | Greening the Outdoor Classroom: Bringing Nature to School Campuses

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Jaime Zaplatosch, Director of Green Schoolyards for Healthy Communities, Children & Nature Network
  • Lauren Freels, Landscape Architect, Bay Tree Design
  • Devon Conley, Board President, Mountain View Whisman School District

April 29, 2021 | Designing Biodiverse Urban Landscapes on Google’s Campus

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Erin Beller, Urban Ecology Program Manager for Google’s Real Estate Sustainability Team
  • Dan Stephens, Vice President and Principal of Restoration Design at H.T. Harvey and Associates
  • Drew Wenzel, a Real Estate Development Executive at Google

March 25, 2021 | Bridging Trees and Health: The Public Health Outcomes of Urban Tree Canopy

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Dr. Desiree Backman, Director of the Population Health Group within the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research at UC Davis
  • Dr. Neal Kohatsu, MD, MPH, FACPM; Chief Health Strategist of the Population Health Group within the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research at UC Davis
  • Ray Tretheway, Founder of the Sacramento Tree Foundation

October 15, 2020 | Save the Trees Please: Best Practices for the Development Plan Review Process

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Dave Dockter, Former Planning Arborist, City of Palo Alto
  • Alison Hicks, Council Member, City of Mountain View

August 20, 2020 | Landscape Resilience Lessons from the Facebook Bayfront Campus

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Lauren Swezey, Sustainability and Landscape Project Lead, Facebook
  • Rayna deNiord, Principal, CMG Landscape Architecture
  • Molly Batchelder, Consulting Arborist, SBCA Tree Consulting

July 16, 2020 | Resilient Trees for a New Climate

Recordings and Resources

Speakers:

  • Dr. Igor Lacan, Environmental Horticulture Advisor, University of California, San Francisco Bay Area Cooperative Extension
  • Dave Muffly, Former Senior Arborist, Apple
  • Dr. Erica Spotswood, Applied Ecologist, San Francisco Estuary Institute