Colleagues

Guy Meilleur is a friend, a colleague, a frequent visitor to Florida and collaborator on several projects with me. Guy has been influential in teaching me how to look for alternative methods to preserve mature trees. If there is a way to save a tree, Guy will come up with a responsible way to do it. He is owner of Better Tree Care Associates in Apex, North Carolina. He can be reached at 919-387-7045 or this e-mail link.
Guy and I harvesting a sulphur fungus conk (Laetiporus sulphureus) from a live oak for a meal
Guy and I harvest a sulphur fungus conk (Laetiporus sulphureus) from a live oak for a meal. Not as tasty as I expected even with lots of garlic and olive oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guy in a tree pruning
Guy removes small dead branches from high in the center of the Maltby Oak crown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Danny LeBlanc owner of Taylor Tree Services based in St. Augustine operates one of the better tree service companies in northeast Florida 904-692-2008.

Dan LeBlanc of Taylor Tree Services operates the trencher to rejuvenate the Maltby Oak roots
Dan LeBlanc of Taylor Tree Services operates a trencher to rejuvenate the Maltby Oak root system. The technique is called radial trenching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason Shaw a certified arborist and owner of Jason Shaw Tree Service based in St. Augustine is one of the better tree services in northeast Florida. 904-794-7053, jd-shaw@comcast.net

Jason Shaw in a lift pruning the tree in front of the state capitol building This is Jason working with me on a project at the Police Memorial Tree in front of the state capitol building in Tallahassee in 2008.

This is the tree in front of the capitol building. I did the root rejuvenation with an Air Spade while Jason pruned dead branches out of the tree's crown.

 

 

 

 

view of Police Memorial Live oak in front of the state capitol building View of Police Memorial Live oak in front of the state capitol building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeb Teuton, owner of Above & Beyond Tree Service in Palatka, helped prune the Maltby Oak in July 2009. His phone is 386-937-5797.

Jeb Tueton cutting a limb on the Maltby Oak

Jeb Teuton removes a large dead limb from the Maltby Oak in July, 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philip van Wassenaer, Urban Forest Innovations, Inc.,
Mississauga, Ontario
(905) 274-1022,
email: pwassenaer1022@rogers.com.
Philip has been influential in teaching me a greater appreciation of veteran trees and an understanding of techniques for preserving them. Philip and Neville Fay gave an outstanding program in June 2008 in Asheville, NC on Conservervation Arboriculture: Care of Veteran Trees. The program was sponsored by the North Carolina Urban Forest Council.

Philip preparing to do a pull test on a tree
Philip is doing a pull test, a technique used mostly in Germany by arborists to determine the stability of a tree.

In the photo Philip is doing a pull test to determine the stability of a tree. The cable is attached to the tree being tested. The tree is fitted with sophisticated precision instruments that measure the change in inclination of the trunk as the pulling force is increased. The tree is not pulled to failure but only one to two percent of failure, sufficient for making stability calculations.