December 30, 2019
The late fall/early winter season has been a whirlwind of activity. Here are a few things that NUF has been up to lately.
First, we are excited that two more of our team members recently earned their arborist certification. This achievement requires years of experience as well as passing a challenging test. Congratulations to Alex Ferguson and Ryan Roeder, we are proud of their achievement.
In the early Fall we spent several weeks working on a grant-funded project in collaboration with Athens Clarke County and the Athens Land Trust. Funding for this project came from the Kendeda Fund for the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network and worked to create a more sustainable and equitable community in the West Broad Street Neighborhood. We are proud that we were chosen by Athens Clarke County to be the community partner to provide tree care as a portion of this project.
More recently, we have been working on removing trees for the construction of the Winterville portion of the Firefly Trail. We love seeing new trails in our community, and we are thrilled to see the connectivity that the Firefly Trail will bring to the Athens area.
In November, we were given the opportunity to visit Lifespan Montessori School to speak with the students about the job of an arborist. We gave a climbing demonstration and led a nature walk. These young scholars were very good listeners and were attentive and kind. We hope to have the opportunity to visit many more schools in 2020.
As the holidays approached, we participated in one of our favorite events of the year, the Athens Parade of Lights. We love seeing the community show up for this event. This year was particularly exciting because our float, which included a treehouse made out of recycled materials, won an award for Best Use of Theme. The theme this year was Home for the Holidays. We are extremely proud of this accomplishment. We were also able to help acquire and secure the Christmas Tree for Downtown Greensboro Georgia again this year. It’s always fun leading up to the holidays to participate in these community events.
We also attended the Georgia Tree Council annual conference in Stone Mountain. It was fun to make new connections, catch up with old ones and learn about trees around Stone Mountain. Our minister of culture, Jessie also was named the Secretary of the Georgia Tree Council. We are proud to be associated with this organization that makes great efforts to protect Georgia’s Tree Canopy.
Two of our team members, Will and Morgan McFadden welcomed their first child, a boy, in early December. We are thrilled to have baby Will as a future arborist. We think he’s pretty cute.
Finally, for the last three years, Hall Roberts has been the driving force for New Urban Forestry’s landscape design and installation division. Since before joined NUF, Hall has been interested in opening and operating his own landscape design business. With the experience he’s gained here at NUF, Hall is ready to strike out on his own. We’re excited to announce that beginning January 1st, Hall will open the doors of Royal Landscape and Gardens. This transition means that NUF will be closing the doors on our landscape division and the NUF faces you’ve come to know and love will be working directly with Hall’s new business. We are excited to see where this new venture will take him, and we look forward to working alongside him in the future.
We have exciting things on the horizon for 2020 that we can’t wait to share with you. Thank you to our clients, friends, neighbors’, and family members for an excellent year. We can’t wait to see you again in the new year.
