This episode features Nick Kuhn who is the Operations Manager at the Forest Preserve District of Cook County located in Illinois. Nick is a man who has been around the block a few times in a diverse career spanning the entire United States. He shares with us some stories from performing inventories in the Northern California forests to building up an urban forestry program from scratch and the education of staff, residents and elected officials that comes with it.
He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and started his career as a Wilderness Ranger for the US Forest Service which landed himself a couple seasons on the Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew fighting wildfires. He worked as an Inventory Forester for Davey Resource Group in California performing work for PG&E. From there he was the Area Forester for the Arkansas Forestry Commission and then blazed a path as the first City Forester in McMinnville, Tennessee. He piggy backed that experience to become the first City Forester for Albuquerque, New Mexico followed by the State Urban Forester for the State of Missouri.
Nick is a Certified Arborist Municipal Specialist, Tree Risk Assessment Qualified (TRAQ), a Municipal Forestry Institute grad and has also served on the board, including as President, for the Society of Municipal Arborists.
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