Community Forestry 101 

About Maria

My love of the outdoors was born in the old orchards of suburban Silicon Valley. As a girl, I climbed high to pick and eat the plumpest and ripest apricots and cherries; back on the ground, I observed and collected plants, insects, and rocks, and made mud pies in the creek. After receiving bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I traveled the world studying animal populations. I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-‘90s to work at more urbane pursuits in forensic photography, baking, furniture making, and instructing yoga.

 

Then, in 2002, Ellyn Shea, the Tree Care Coordinator for Friends of the Urban Forest wooed me into volunteering with the non-profit for a semester – I was hooked, and have followed my passion for community forestry ever since. When I left FUF, I shifted to the municipal sector, and have enjoyed promoting the health, safety, and resilience of our urban forests and communities.

 

In 2002, I also journeyed to Anchorage, Alaska, to run the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon. Afterwards, I lingered a while. I kayaked in Valdez, went to a writers' conference in Homer, fished in Seward, and backpacked on a glacier in Wrangell St Elias. When I got on the plane to go back home, I thought, “Wow, why am I going home?” The place really resonated with me.

 

In February 2013, after living my entire adult life in Mediterranean climates, I returned to Anchorage. Years later, I remain completely intoxicated with my new life and home. As the first Registered Consulting Arborist in the state, and the only Registered Consulting Arborist in Southcentral, I have opened shop, and I will continue to draw on my varied experiences to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and innovation in the stewardship and management of people, places, and trees.