Professional tree care from biology to risk assessment. Practitioner-depth guides on tree structure, safety, pruning standards, and urban forestry.
Nurse stumps and nurse logs are the primary way old-growth forests regenerate in the Pacific Northwest. Learn how decomposing wood grows new trees, what stilt roots and colonnades reveal about forest history, and how to bring the same ecology into your garden.
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The internal architecture of a broad leaf: epidermis and cuticle, palisade and spongy mesophyll, chloroplasts, stomata and guard cells, transpiration, antitranspirants, and the controlled shutdown of abscission.
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The internal architecture of conifer needles and awl leaves: thick cuticle, sunken stomata, compact mesophyll, and the water-conservation engineering that lets conifers photosynthesize through a Puget Sound winter.
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The underground fungal economy that determines how trees thrive: how mycorrhizal partnerships work, what common landscape practices destroy them, and why the most effective management strategy is a list of things to stop doing.
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Root cap, apical meristem, root hairs, rhizosphere: how absorbing roots work, how severed roots regenerate, and why most urban tree problems start underground.
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Understand the macroscopic anatomy of trunks, branches, and twigs: trunk taper and live crown ratio, branch collar and included bark, and the buds, nodes, and internodes that map next season's growth.
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How the vascular cambium builds wood and bark: xylem, phloem, sapwood, heartwood, growth rings, rays, reaction wood, and why bark damage is worse than it looks.
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How to prune young trees for storm resistance, structural integrity, and decades of trouble-free growth in the Puget Sound region.
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Walk through any Western Washington neighborhood in early spring, and you'll spot the evidence: trees that look like they've been given blunt haircuts,
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