Levi Tree School

Come join at this season where he will be teaching tree identification classes in the arboretum.
Foundational skills, as well as many advanced techniques for identifying both native and non-native tree species will be explored.
All levels of experience will be met with new insights.
The first class of the season will be held on July 16 from 11am-1pm. YES, it’s a ways away, but space is limited and we expect to sell out this very special class!
$40/per person.
A portion goes to Hortus Arboretum, a nonprofit organization.
Since it’s on Father’s Day, bring your dad and receive a discount.
Click the link in bio to reserve your tickets!

“Tree Pruning,” by Dr. Alex Shigo,
It is not possible to overstate the contribution that Alex Shigo has made to modern arboriculture. The two and a half decades he spent working for the US Forest Service as chief scientist of a “Pioneering Project on Discoloration and Decay in Forest Trees,” and the 15,000 trees he dissected (longitudinally) with a chainsaw garnered him an immense understanding of tree decay, compartmentalization, and their implications on pruning, tree maintenance and failure, that perhaps no other person has ever attained. This invaluable education is distilled in large part within his book “Tree Pruning.”
Pruning is about structure and integrity, but it is also about decay. It is inadvisable to flush-cut branches and leave stubs and it is important to understand CODIT (Compartmentalization of decay in trees), but why? The relevance and importance of these key arboriculture concepts is fleshed out, in full. Not only that, Shigo is credited with conceiving of CODIT!! A line from the book reads: “People heal. Trees compartmentalize.” How can you not want to learn more!?
I own and have read half a dozen books on pruning. Many go more in-depth, adding to and expanding on Shigo’s insights, and providing more thorough and more numerous figures and diagrams, but none quite capture the essence fully of what Shigo discovered, and none contain such salient photographs as those present in this book. Other pruning books have their place on the shelf and elucidate certain concepts to a greater benefit of the reader, but I’m deciding to highlight this book because it places great emphasis on tree physiology and demonstrates these biological mechanisms through some of the most insightful photographs I have ever seen, accompanied with concise and (mostly) clear commentary. And because this book is a piece of history in the development of arboriculture.

I’m wishing everyone here a wonderful New Year!
I’m so grateful to have the chance to teach so many people. There are few things that motivate me as much as an eager and engaged audience, and helping people learn about trees is one of my greatest passions.
This past year, I started my masters degree at SUNY ESF in Forest pathology (to try to close my largest gap of tree-knowledge). My knowledge and understanding have grown and grown and there’s no end in sight. And yet, I frequently am flattened and turned around by mystery and nuance! What a wonderful world and an enamoring subject. Thank you all for accompanying me at peering (pun intended) into this world. We have so far to go. This year is the next chapter.
Also, look at this amazing black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)