Mark your calendars now for this year's contest, pre-climb workshop and Arbor Fair. The winner of this year's competition will represent the Texas Chapter in the International Tree Climbing Contest. This is a great event to attend if you are a working climber and want to improve your skills.

Click here to volunteer as a judge or technician or to just help out

Support tree research and scholarships - Make your pledge to support  Neville Mann, our Team Texas Chapter ISA Tour des Trees Captain!

The Tour des Trees is an annual long-distance cycling adventure which serves as the primary public outreach and community engagement event for Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE Fund). Since 1992 Tour riders have cycled through communities in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., planting trees, educating children and shining a light on the work done by arboriculture professionals and the importance of science-based tree care. TREE Fund has been able to disburse nearly $4.0 million in grant and scholarship funding since 2002, and the Tour des Trees has been a key component in the organization's ongoing success.

Click here for more information on supporting or riding with Neville on the Tour des Trees

Is bigger always better? Not necessarily when it comes to recruiting talent. Today's job seeker is looking for more in a new position than just how big a company is. Just as David killed the giant with a strategic blow to the head, small companies can beat their larger competition by knowing their strengths - and the competition's weaknesses.

A quick scan of job postings will confirm that the competition for talented professionals is fierce. As the saying goes, "The war for talent is over ... and the talent won." With next to full employment, most candidates, including entry-level workers, have more career options than ever before. That means companies have to up their game to fill their open positions.

This represents a unique challenge for the green industry as over half of it is comprised of small businesses. Competing for talent against companies with bigger name recognition and fatter recruiting budgets can feel like a David versus Goliath scenario. But it doesn't need to be that way.

Savvy small business leaders can create compelling offerings to candidates, but they need to be proactive and carefully plan their approach. Here are five tips that can help you bag that highly coveted talent.

The same bacteria that is killing our Texas wine grape vines is now killing the olive oil industry in Italy.

Xylella causes plants to die of thirst from the inside out. The bacteria get passed from tree to tree by tiny pests called spittlebugs, which latch onto their hosts' xylem-the straw-like tubes inside plants that transport water from roots to leaves. If the bugs suck liquid out of an infected tree, they can carry the bacteria in their maw and inject them into the next plant they feed upon. The bugs are native to the region, and before Xylella arrived on Italian shores, they weren't seen as a problem. Now, their presence incites fear.

The Texas Big Tree Registry recognizes the largest known tree of each species growing in the state.  In some cases, these trees could be the largest in the country! Of the 653 Texas Big Tree Registry Trees, 274 are State Champions and 74 are National Champions.

 

Arborists are encouraged to contact the Texas A&M Forest Service to nominate big trees that they think may be Texas or National Champions.

Click here for the Big Tree Registry homepage