The CTPA is excited to bring to you the electronic version of the newsletter. It still has the same feel and look of the printed version so please take a look.
The Annual Meeting on Thursday, January 19, 2023, at the AquaTurf Club. We have a great lineup of speakers, exhibitors and food.
Wishing you a Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas.
The CTPA Annual Meeting is Thursday, January 19, 2023.
The Business Meeting of the CTPA takes place at 8:30 am with the voting in of the following proposed slate of officers.
Michael Almstead – President, Emmett Shutts – Vice President, Sean Redding – Secretary/Treasurer
Directors: Bud Neal, Charlie Iselin, Allan Fenner, Pat Flynn, Claire Rutledge, Greg Foran, Kevin W. Wyatt, Carter Peck, Stacey Marcell and Casey Tresp.
We look forward to seeing everyone in person again!
To register for the Annual Meeting, please complete the form below.
CEUs are available for the following: CT Licensed Arborists 3D/4.25, Forest Practitioner -1.5 CEU’s, ISA Arborist Certification- 3.75 CEU’s , and Advanced Certified Tree Warden – 4.25 CEU’s.
The day will begin at 8:00 am and end at 3:45 pm. Come spend the day!
All payments are non-refundable.
If you prefer to register by mail and pay by check, please download the AM Attendee Flyer 2023
If you prefer to register by mail and pay by check, please download the AM Exhibitor Flyer 2023
The CTPA is pleased to announce the 101st Annual Meeting will be taking place in person at the AquaTurf Club on Thursday, January 19, 2023.
There is a fantastic lineup of speakers: Dr. Robert Marra, Dr. Richard Cowles and Dr. Susanna Keriö all from the CT Agricultural Experiment Station will talk first about Beech Leaf Disease both from the biology and management aspects. The second talk is by Daniel Herms, Ph.D. from the Davey Tree Experts Company. He will talk about climate change, urban forests and arboriculture. And the keynote speaker this annual meeting is Christopher Luley, Ph.D. and he will be speaking about decay fungi.
CEUs are available for the following: CT Licensed Arborists 3D/4.25, and Forest Practitioner – Pending, ISA Arborist Certification- 3.75 CEU’s, TCIA CTSP – Pending and Advanced Certified Tree Warden – Pending CEU’s.
The day will begin at 8:00 am and end at 3:45 pm. Come spend the day!
All payments are non-refundable.
If you prefer to register by mail and pay by check, please download the AM Attendee Flyer 2023
If you prefer to register by mail and pay by check, please download the AM Exhibitor Flyer 2023
Chuck and Darryl Newman of Planters’ Choice Receive the Arborist Citation as it is Presented to their Nursery.
The Connecticut Tree Protective Association regularly honors individuals who have made significant contributions to arboriculture and to the care and protection of Connecticut’s trees. These awards are given annually and presented at the Annual Meeting. The CTPA Board of Directors is requesting nominees for awards for the upcoming Annual Meeting join January 19, 2023 and encourages you to nominate someone whom you feel deserves special recognition.
If you know of someone that is deserving of either of these awards, please print out the nomination form and email to cathy@ctpa.org.
The deadline for nominations is Friday, December 2, 2022.
The Connecticut Tree Protective Association presents an Electrical Hazards Awareness Program Workshop
Thursday, November 3, 2022
at the Eversource – Berlin Campus
107 Selden Street, Berlin, CT
Cost – CTPA Membership $85.00, Non-Members $100.00. Price includes lunch.
CEU’s will be available for State of CT 3D (Arborist License)/6.25 CEU’s, 6 (Rights-of-Way)/ 6.25 CEU’s, ISA/5.5 CEU’s, TCIA CTSP/ 7.0 CEU’s and Forest Practitioner / 2.0 CEU’s.
(Please note: This workshop is no longer associated with the TCIA EHAP course. If you need to be certified by TCIA, please take their course online at the TCIA website.)
This workshop will focus on the hazards all tree care workers face when they work around energized electrical conductors. This awareness is an essential part of basic tree care safety. It is recommended that all people who work in tree care take an EHAP course. This one-day workshop will be led by Emmett Shutts, Cheshire, CT. Emmett is a licensed CT arborist and Supervisor of Arborist Skills Trainer with The Davey Tree Expert Company. A tabletop live wire demonstration will be given by Doug Pistawka with Eversource.
During the seminar Doug and Emmett will share information about the electrical distribution system and the hazards associated with working near electrical conductors. Safety standards and best
practices for working near electrical conductors will be discussed.
Line Clearance Qualification for employees can only be certified by the employer however this educational seminar can be part of the training. Mr. Shutts will discuss how employers can implement this training and document certification. CTPA will not be providing this additional training or testing.
CTPA encourages all companies engaged in tree care to have an EHAP program in place for all of their employees.
Cost for this workshop is $85 members and $100 non-members. This price includes lunch, and full day of instruction. Ensure your reservation by Oct. 24th.
If you are requiring certification from TCIA, you will need to take the EHAP course online. This course put on by CTPA, is designed to give education on Electrical Hazards but is not associated with the TCIA certification process.
Please go to the CTPA website – www.ctpa.org to register for the workshop.
Checks are accepted and can be mailed to: CTPA, PO Box 1946, Wallingford, CT 06492
If you have questions, please call Cathy at 203 484-2512
The CTPA would like to thank Eversource for the generous use of their facility and for their support of this program.
One hundred years ago today – on August 16th, 1922 – 32 individuals gathered at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison in order to initiate the Connecticut Tree Protective Association. These individuals, under the leadership of Cornelius A. Millane and Francis A. Bartlett and with the strong support of Walter O. Filley and W. F. Britton of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, took the steps necessary to build a strong foundation for a tree care educational association that remains solid in numbers and accomplishments to this day.
It is intriguing to look back and think about how aware those early arborists were likely to have been as to where their efforts would lead. It is also powerful to be a part of CTPA and to connect to all of the tradition, effort, progress and vision that continue to be a defining feature of the organization.
100 years – it is quite an accomplishment. If anyone is interested in exploring this history, the CTPA Timeline has been posted. Today is a good day to climb a tree or to give one a hug. Or, just to take a close look at a tree – its crown, its roots, its bark, leaves and trunk – and appreciate how amazing these wonders of nature are. After all, it was what CTPA members have been doing for a whole century now.
Happy CTPA Centennial!
Alyssa Cleland, who recently completed her first year of study at UConn in the Ratcliffe Hicks Urban Forestry and Arboriculture Program, was highlighted in an article in UConn Today, a newsletter for the UConn community. Ms. Cleland was also the 2022 recipient of CTPA’s Arborist Scholarship.
The article describes Alyssa experiences working this summer as an intern with Davey Tree Experts, an experience she appears to be truly enjoying. Alyssa also attended this year’s Summer Meeting as CTPA’s guest and so that she could be honored as this year’s Scholarship recipient.
To read the UConn article, visit UConn Today.
CTPA President Pat Flynn and Arborist Scholarship recipient Alyssa Cleland at the 2022 Summer Meeting
This past week’s Summer Meeting was a great success from many vantage points. The number of attendees was excellent, the participation of the exhibitors was great and the educational programs were all outstanding. Even the weather was not that bad. Well, maybe last point that is subject to debate, but the food made up for it. Everyone left the meeting feeling it was a day well worthwhile.
One educational topic that received a lot of attention was that of beech leaf disease. CTPA’s meeting organizers invited Dr. Matt Borden from the Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories in North Carolina to provide an update on this new disease that has become one of this summer’s most vexing problems. Matt’s message was mixed – there is a lot of very good research being done but, so far, no clear answers have arisen. He provided some very useful background regarding the work that is happening within the Bartlett organization as well as at other research institutions, including at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station and within New York State.
A major question on everyone’s mind was – “what do I tell my clients?” Dr. Borden suggested using as a guidee a letter written by Margery Daughtrey, Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University’s Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center. This document provides a good summary of the research that is currently happening and does so in a way that is reassuring for property owners and for arborists. Dr. Borden also cited the work being done at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station by Dr. Bob Marra and others.
Dr. Borden has said that his lab will keep arborists in Connecticut informed with respect to their research findings on BLD, including any news that result from potentially promising work being done in Cleveland, OH. CTPA will also do its best to keep members informed regarding advances in dealing with very damaging tree disease.
Dr. Matt Borden provides a research update on beech leaf disease at the CTPA Summer Meeting
In honor of CTPA’s 100th Anniversary and just before our Centennial Year Summer Meeting, it is appropriate to publish The History of Arboriculture as written by Oscar Stone. This is a short article that was originally written by Oscar for inclusion in the New Chapter of ISA’s newsletter. The date on the article is November 1997.
For those who did not have the good fortune of knowing Oscar, he was one of CTPA’s most active and influential members for a good 4 decades at least – a period of time that ran from the 1960’s right up until the time of his passing, in July 2007 at the age of 94. He was Secretary for CTPA for many of those years, as well as an instructor in arboriculture who helped many, many arborists in Connecticut their license, and a well-known arborist in his own right
The linked article is a direct scan of the original article as printed out on Oscar’s dot-matrix printer. In this article, he provides a good summary of where arboriculture and CTPA came from. Enjoy!
Oscar Stone leads a tree walk for the members of the Fall 2004 Arboriculture 101 class.
The Summer Meeting is Thursday, July 21st at the Farmington Club in Farmington. This will be an in-person event.
We have a great lineup of topics and speakers as well as opportunity to earn CEU’s. CT Arborist (3D) 5.0 CEU’s, CT Forest Practitioner – 2.0 CEU’s, Advanced Certified Tree Wardens’ -5.0 CEU’s, ISA – Pending and TCIA CTSP – Hazard Tree Talk/1.25 CEU’s, Line Clearance (IN SPANISH)/1.50 CEU’s.
8:30 am – Registration
9:00 – 10:15 am, repeated at 1:00 – 2:15pm (choose one in each time slot)
Beech Leaf Disease (BLD) and Boxwood Blight. by Matthew Borden, Ph.D., Plant Pathologist,
Bartlett Tree Research Lab, Simsbury, CT – This presentation focuses on Beech Leaf Disease and
Boxwood Blight. Dr. Borden will touch on the cause and control along with current research and management
recommendations.
Hazard Tree Assessment and Risk Mitigation for Field Employees, Emmett Shutts, Davey Tree
Experts and Casey Tresp, Bartlett Tree Experts – When working on or near trees that present a high risk
of failure, field employees need to make informed decisions whether it is safe to proceed with the work. Casey
and Emmett will give guidance on how to make these decisions and on critical techniques to make work safer.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
10:30 – 11:45 am, repeated at 2:30 – 3:45pm (choose one in each time slot)
What is Currently Harming Our Trees? by Rich Cartier, Rainbow Treecare Scientific
Advancements, Minnetonka, MN – Today’s talk will cover the most common issues on landscape trees in
2022 as well as newly emerging pests to be aware of. It will cover various control options for these issues as
well as what results to expect.
Milling Wood from Backyard Trees, by Tom Worthley, Associate Extension Professor UCONN,
Storrs, CT – Tom will present basic log making and lumber making, log and lumber grading, sawing
techniques and lumber drying considerations. He will cover basic, portable sawmill design and operating
procedures as well as provide information about marketing, products, and the relative value of different species
of wood.
_________________________________________________________________________________
**NEW** 10:00 am – 11:15am Safety Talk presented in SPANISH for all attendees.
(Session NOT repeated)
The Incidental Line Clearance and Qualified Line Clearance Arborist – What is the difference?
Regulations and standards for tree operations in the vicinity of electric conductors have changed. Work Rules
and minimum approach distances vary based on experience and training of the tree worker as well as other
factors. This session will cover the key differences and what standards apply to you.
3:45 pm – Adjourn – CEU Certifications Available – **During the course of the day, there is only a
potential to attend 4 talks. Therefore, the number of CEU’s will not exceed 4 talks.
CTPA’s Summer Meeting often comes across as part company picnic, part outdoor trade fair, part summer party and, keeping everyone focused, a strong set of educational offerings. Held on the third Thursday in July, the CTPA will often draw over 700 people to this one-day event.
What attendees almost always comment on first is the food – how much there is and how good it all is. Hosted by the Polo Club in Farmington, the event is known, for among other offerings, the chili and clam chowder served starting at 9 in the morning!
More than the food, though, the trade show draws a huge crowd, as the extensive grounds allow vendors to display such large items as aerial lifts, tree spades and large chippers. Many exhibitors also bring a van that they can set up as a mobile store, helping busy tree care workers replenish their supplies mid-season.
It’s not all commercial vendors, as, for instance, one mainstay of the event is the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, which sends several of its staff to help provide updates to attendees regarding the insects, diseases and conditions prevalent during that year’s growing season. Other exhibitors include representatives of various state and federal agencies, other non-profit agencies and Stockbridge School.
The educational portion of the event is also not to be overlooked. Important talks on major issues, such as chipper safety, updates on various insect pests, the nature and properties of ropes and more, have all been presented at CTPA’s Summer Meeting.
