Trees Are Key

Keys to Moving Big Trees

Sometimes a tree is in the wrong place… maybe it was planted in the wrong spot, maybe the road needs to be widened or moved, and sometimes you want an immediate landscape impact. It is possible to transplant many trees, but there are many steps to moving big trees. Join us this week for Keys to Moving Big Trees.

Tree of The Week - Famous Trees of Texas edition

Listen to this week's #TreesAreKey to learn the story of the Goliad anaqua. This tree's story is a perfect fit for this week's topic "Keys to Moving Big Trees"

Advocacy Is Key

How do you get what you want and need? We need people to understand why trees are key, why trees need care, and why professionals are best to care for our trees. Many groups that I have worked with that lament about how if they could just better educate the public or the decision makers that life would be better. Others talk about how we need more promotion or public relations about a subject like trees. When it comes down to it we need advocates to help us promote our subject of interest.. in our case trees and forests.

Species Spotlight

Texas Sophora, Sophora affinis, is a beautiful small tree that can grow well on alkaline soils. Listen to this episode of trees are key to learn more about this elegant tree.

Keys to Salt Management

Last week we talked about how Winter Care is Key for our trees and covered a little bit about salts from de-icers, but they aren’t the only way that salts can cause issues. Over-fertilization, oil and gas exploration and wind along the coast can all damage our trees with salts. Join us this week as we talk about Keys to Salt Management.

Species Spotlight

Listen this week to learn more about Japanese Black Pine, Pinus thunbergii, which is an evergreen, non-native small, sweeping pine.

Keys to Restoration Pruning

With colder temperatures can come snow and ice. Both of these can cause damage to our trees. So can wind and errant chainsaws. Luckily, that doesn’t necessarily mean your tree has to be removed. Join us this week as we talk about the Keys to Restoration Pruning.

Species Spotlight

Listen to this week’s #TreesAreKey podcast to learn more about an imported pine tree, Afghan Pine, Pinus eldarica, that lets us extend the range of pines in Texas.

Winter Tree Care is Key

Winter can be a key time for our trees. Planting, transplanting, pruning and fertilization is just a few common activities this time of year. Join us next week as we talk about how Winter Tree Care is Key.

Species Spotlight

The tree diversity in Texas is fascinating. Listen this week to learn about an edible pine tree that is native to our great state. Mexican Pinyon Pine, Pinus cembroides.

Wow, it finally got cold and will continue to be cold across much of the US. Join us as we discuss the Keys to Freeze Damage. I’ve been moving this topic to the bottom of our topic list waiting for it to be timely. It’s not just how cold it gets, but how quickly it gets cold and how long it stays cold. Join us this week to learn more.

Species Spotlight

Listen to learn about a unique small tree that blooms as it's leaves are dropping in the fall, has been used to find water underground and has potential medicinal properties. This week's spotlight is American witchhazel, Hamamelis virginiana.

Happy Holidays! Join us this week for a review of some of the key points we made during 2017.

It’s been an amazing year and we can’t thank you enough for listening and sharing #TreesAreKey with your friends and family. Hard to believe it’s almost 2018. We’ll be back with more #TreesAreKey in the New Year.

Keys to Mentoring

We are continuing the mini-series this week. Coaching is one avenue for professional development. Another route is mentoring. Mentoring is significantly different from coaching because the relationship is, usually, initiated by the person seeking development, the mentor may not even realize they are mentoring. Join us as we talk about the Keys to Mentoring.

Species Spotlight

This week’s tree goes by many names, but two of them are Sweetbay Magnolia and Magnolia virginiana. The flowers from this tree were once used in the manufacture of several perfumes

We’ve talked about professional development in previous episodes, but what can you do to improve your ability to help others develop? In our next couple of episodes we are going to explore the worlds of coaching and mentoring. We hear a lot about mentor programs, but coaching is just as, if not more, important. Join us this week as we explore the Keys to Great Coaching.

Species Spotlight:

Join us this week to learn about the Shagbark hickory, Carya ovata, a great tree with a descriptive name and many edible uses.

We’ve talked about the importance of kids and students in episodes 55 and 116 respectively. We also talked about how the future is key in episode 115. I regularly hear (even during the recent #treechat on twitter) that we need more focus on educating children on why trees are key and the keys to caring for trees, but I don’t hear many efforts to retain and develop our professionals in arboriculture and forestry. Join us this week and we explore the "Keys to Early Professionals".

Species Spotlight

This week's tree species is armed and has an edible importance. Listen to learn more about honeylocust, Gleditsia triacanthos.