Tim Walsh

E-mail: ssadirector@att.net

By now some of you may have heard about the Student Society of Arboriculture (SSA). For those of you who have not, here is a little background on our origin.

The SSA serves to link students to the field of arboriculture and vice-versa. The SSA gets students interacting with members of the industry as well as academia. The SSA-UWSP has an illustrious record of participation at green industry events, especially conferences. The SSA-UWSP works with the local community and area schools to teach proper tree care techniques as well as to encourage appreciation for trees in the human landscape.

The students work closely with the WAA. We help at conferences by assisting at the registration tables, running A/V equipment, and raising money for the ISA Research Trust Fund through a number of fund raising activities. The SSA-UWSP also helps the local chapter by contributing members, currently about 10% of the WAA were members of the SSA-UWSP. It is a very symbiotic relationship - the students get to learn more about their career profession and the professionals get to meet highly qualified, motivated potential employees. The WAA also offers scholarships for undergraduates, graduates, and tech school students of arboricultural fields.

As mentioned earlier, SSA-UWSP members are seen frequenting conferences. We have made a name for ourselves more so at the ISA Conferences than any other due to our long history with the ISA. We send as many students as finances allow, to as many conferences as we are welcome to. We have sent students to the last two Urban Forest Conferences, hosted by American Forests. Recently we have established a relationship with the National Arborist Association, and attended and had a table at the TCI Expo in Charlotte, NC. The ISA holds yearly leadership workshops that we send a few of our board members to also.

All work and no play… well you know the rest. We try to have a little bit of fun as well. Every semester we have a social eatery at the house of our advisor, Dr. Miller. We also have fun or work climbs to get people off of the ground as often as possible The fun climbs are mainly recreational opportunities for interested students and faculty to improve their climbing techniques safely and have a good time. We use the work climbs to train students about proper tree care. We have also created the Underground Climbing Network (UCN), for those climbing enthusiasts who will climb any tree, anytime, anywhere. We have an email list set up so when one person wants to climb, they just put the who-what-when-where on the net and send it to all the members.

The SSA-UWSP has been appointed the task of assisting other schools with forming new branches of the SSA. We have been doing this through a newsletter to all student members of the ISA and sending our people to speak at other schools. We are always looking for ways to benefit the students. A few years ago we became a Shigo and Tree Associates textbook distributor to offer to students these books at a reduced rate.

Our first major project was a first in the tree care profession as well. We hosted the First Annual Student Society of Arboriculture Conference and Workshop. The conference was held just outside Stevens Point, WI on April 4-6, 1997. Dr. Alex Shigo and Ken Palmer were the featured presenters. We also held a business meeting to assist other schools in becoming recognized branches of the SSA. The conference is the culmination of over two years of effort and the assistance more people than I can list here. Suffice to say that we have had great support from the profession, as well as federal, state, and local forestry associations.