November 16th – 17th 2015 in Denver, Colorado

The 11th Continental Forest Dialogue meeting was held in conjunction with (and in the days prior to) the Arbor Day Foundation’s Partners in Community Forestry National Conference.

• 2015 Final Meeting Summary (PDF, June 2017)
• Download the 2015 Continental Dialogue Meeting Save the Date (PDF, issued March 2015)
• Review the Final Continental Dialogue Agenda (PDF, November 2015)
• Review poster abstracts 

Thank you to all who joined us in November!

Archive of Presentations:

November 16th:

Keynote- Troy Timmons, Deputy Director of Operations and Strategic Planning, Western Governors’ Association

Welcome and Update on Forest Health Protection in Colorado – Dan West, Colorado State Forest Service Entomologist

Overview of the Continental Dialogue and update on progress on initiatives over the last year – Bill Toomey, Forest Health Protection Program Director, The Nature Conservancy

USFS Forest Health Protection Program Updates- Monica Lear, Forest Health Protection Director, USFS

Perspectives from the US Conference of Mayors and Emerald Ash Borer on Denver’s Doorstep  – Scott Gilmore, Executive Deputy Director of Parks and Planning and Rob Davis, Denver City Forester

Current and Future Forest Health Concerns – Stacy Scott, National Operations Manager, Pest Management Programs, USDA APHIS

Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities App – Chuck Bargeron Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, with Dr. Rich Hallett, USFS NYC Urban Field Station

Recent Research and Developments with Thousand Cankers Disease –Jane Stewart, Colorado State University

Positioning Invasive Species Management for Greatly Increased Funding in the Next Farm Bill – Scott Cameron, Reduce Risks from Invasive Species Coalition

Industry Partnership in Pest Prevention: Systems Approach to Nursery Certification (SANC) – Craig Regelbrugge, Vice President Government Relations, AmericanHort

National Plant Board Update – Piera Siegert, National Plant Board Representative and New Hampshire State Entomologist

National Association of State Foresters Forest Health Update – Robert Simpson, NASF Representative and CEO of GreenWoodGlobal Consulting

Targeting and Monitoring Programs at Western and Interior Ports –  Kevin Harriger, US Customs and Border Protection

Invasive Forest Pests from the Intermountain West Perspective – Amy Gannon, Forest Pest Management Program Manager for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

City of Boulder: EAB, TCD, Drippy Blight, and EPIC – Kathleen Alexander, City Forester for Boulder CO

Colorado’s EAB response and biocontrol release updates – John Kaltenbach, Biological Control Specialist, Colorado Department of Agriculture

November 17th:

Firewood Outreach Perspectives – Leigh Greenwood, Forest Health Protection Program, The Nature Conservancy

Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities Initiative– Rachel Holmes, Forest Health Protection Program, The Nature Conservancy

Results of Analysis of Recreation Databases– Frank Koch, Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station

Changing the movement of firewood by campers – Leigh Greenwood, Forest Health Protection Program, The Nature Conservancy with research findings from Andrea Diss-Torrance, Invasive Forest Insects Program Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Update on Firewood certification from industry and regulators – Geoff Friedman, Lost Coast Forest Products

Embedding citizen science into K-12 curricula: Empowering youth to help manage the urban forest ecosystem – Samuel Severance, University of Colorado Boulder

Hungry Pests Campaign – Abbey Powell, National Outreach Campaign Manager, USDA APHIS

Plant Heroes’ Plant Mapping Platform – Dan Stern, American Public Gardens Association

Integrating the i-Tree Software Suite with NGSS Standards-based lesson plans in the classroom – Jessica Sanders, Casey Trees & Arielle Conti, The Davey Institute

Progress and Policy Update regarding Coalition Against Forest Pests – Faith Campbell, Vice President Center for Invasive Species Prevention

Institutional Considerations in Deploying Bio-control for Tamarisk in Colorado – Dan Bean, Director of Biological Pest Control at the Colorado Department of Agriculture

Policy Approaches for Forest Ecosystems– Gary Lovett, Senior Scientist Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Western Governors’ Association – Troy Timmons, Deputy Director of Operations and Strategic Planning, Western Governors’ Association

National Invasive Species Council Policy Initiatives– Stas Burgiel, Assistant Director for Protection and Budgetary Coordination, National Invasive Species Council