KEEP OUR MEMBERS AND COMMUNITY HEALTHY: In an effort to protect the health and safety of our members and attendees, the Western Chapter ISA Board of Directors adopted a COVID Policy for the 88th Annual Conference in January. Per policy, masks will be required in all meeting rooms and events except when actively eating or drinking. The full COVID Event Policy can be viewed here – https://wcisaconnect.com/covid-info/ Share your key takeaways and experiences on social media! Tweet or post using hashtag #wcisa2022 #wcisaconnect to keep the conversation going!

Registration Registration opens Monday, May 2nd at 3:00 pm. It is located in the Grand Ballroom atrium. Can’t make it before registration closes at 5:30 pm? Don’t worry it opens back up on Tuesday, May 3rd at 7:00 am.   Don’t forget the fun! If you are interested in any of our optional events (Thursday’s WIA breakfast and afternoon tours) and activities….It’s not to late to grab your tickets. Just visit Heather at the registration desk and she can get you taken care of.   If you’re onsite early Monday, jump on the trolley to the historic cypress lawn arboretum…..Departs from the Marriott at 11am. Stop by the registration to grab a seat.

Attire Casual attire is welcome. Bring a light sweater in case the conference room get a bit chilly.   Wednesday evening’s Annual Banquet is your chance to get a little fancy if you’d like! Jeans are perfectly acceptable also.

Weather The average high temperature in May is in the high 60s. For those not from the bay area you’ll learn that layering is key. Many microclimates – even throughout the conference center (room to room).

Getting there! Oakland International Airport (OAK) is only 8 miles away with convenient subway service adjacent to hotel. Alternative transportation would be City Express Shuttle, Uber, Lyft, Taxi. For locals if not staying at the hotel you can use BART if you don’t want to drive.

Parking There is a parking garage onsite and we have arranged a discounted parking rate for our attendees not stay at the hotel. The daily rate is $20.

Schedule of Events Your first stop when you arrive is the Registration Desk! Come by any time you have a question and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction. We’ll be in the lobby all week. For a complete schedule of events Click Here

Silent Auction Plan your bidding strategy in advance and win some fabulous items. Silent Auction closes on Wednesday evening during the Annual banquet.

• Attendance: $50/person
• Cap for attendance: 22
• Meeting site/time: Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway at 11 AM on 5/2 (trolley will transport guests round-trip, back to Marriott by ~4 PM)
• Tour will include:
  • ~1.5 hour walking circuit of historic East Campus of Cypress Lawn, beginning at original iconic archway from 1892 (start time goal is noon, with trolley transit allotted for ~1 hour)
  • Lunch (catered by Esposto’s) from 1:30-2:30 in Section K of East Campus, in shade of our champion cork oak!
  • Commemorative tree planting in honor of 88^th WCISA annual conference to close event from 2:30 – 3 pm
• Register Now

Step 1 – register for the ride 

Step 2 – build your fundraising page and donate the first $125.00 to jumpstart your campaign.  (It counts towards your $775.00 fundraising minimum).

Step 3 – get outside and RIDE! 

🌳🚴🏼 See you on May 2nd! 🚴🏻‍♀️🌳

https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/city-vaccination-mandate-ordinance

Where Proof of Vaccination is Required

You will be required to show proof that you have been vaccinated to enter some indoor places in Oakland, like:

• Establishments or events where food or drink is served including restaurants, bars, coffee houses, clubs, and banquet halls
• Entertainment venues including theaters, concert venues, museums, and recreation facilities
• Gyms, fitness centers and yoga studios
• Senior adult care facilities and City senior programs
• City Hall
• Large indoor events at city and privately-owned facilities

Western Chapter ISA COVID Policy

In an effort to protect the health and safety of our members and attendees the Western Chapter ISA approved a COVID Policy for the 88th Annual Conference to take effect immediately. This policy is in line with the guidelines and regulations of the City of Oakland.

It has been two years since we have been together! We all look forward to learning from each other about successful, current techniques, practices, discoveries, projects and collaborations, which are transforming the management of urban trees and green spaces. It may be the processes, collaborations, funding, technologies or all of these that lead to a unique project.

The conference committee invites you to share your experience, expertise, and professional knowledge by submitting a presentation proposal. The deadline for submitting proposals is 5pm, October 15, 2021.

Presentation Proposals are being accepted for the 2022 WCISA Annual Conference. The conference will be held May 2-5, 2022 in person at the Oakland Marriott City Center in Oakland, California with some key sessions live using a virtual platform.

This years theme is: “Innovative Arboriculture: Experiencing the Urban Forest.”

Our cities continue to reinvent themselves, updating parks, major streets, and other public greenspaces. At the same time, densification is continuing, and land values continue to increase, making urban space a precious resource. The quest to provide adequate planting space for trees while balancing other uses of space and residents’ needs and preferences is a process requiring multidisciplinary relationships, innovative approaches, techniques and frameworks for successful projects. Thus, one focus of the 2022 Conference will be on urban construction, tree planting and preservation. We are keen on learning about new tools, technologies, processes, funding and collaborations.  Additionally, our cities are adjacent to the wildland-urban interfaces (WUI) which are subject to specific hazards, most notably wildfires. Thus, we are also interested in hearing about successful arboricultural techniques, technologies, programs and projects, and which preserve trees in WUI while mitigating wildfire and other hazards.

We welcome proposals for presentations that:

• Share large scale urban forestry projects involving existing and planned tree plantings in high density, limited planting space sites. Discuss city and public agency roles & processes and include specific financing (budgets) through completion and into the maintenance of the project.

• Describe innovative approaches to complete comprehensive urban forest master planning where disadvantaged communities are engaged successfully and lead clearly to the success and longevity of the project.

• Share specific projects which use cutting edge technologies (i.e., imagery, drones and monitors) to inform urban forestry managers responses leading to an improved management of the urban forest.

• Describe results and implications for practice of research relevant to the Wester Chapter, which employed innovative methods, collaborations with practitioners, or emerging technologies to evaluate longstanding or emerging issues in arboriculture in light of our changing climate.

• Demonstrate an innovative or unique approach in tree climbing or in-tree monitoring systems (using technology, equipment, new science) which has proven to be effective and may be underutilized by others.

• Demonstrate innovative approaches to forest management in the WUI, a utility corridor, or even a city center, which have shown success while having been challenged by some level of attack by wildland fire (or implemented while preparing for wildland fires).

Submission instructions:

The preferred proposal format is submitting online our online form. Proposals may also be emailed to Rose Epperson (repperson@wcisa.net) and if necessary, they may be mailed to WCISA 2022 Program Committee, 31910 Country Club Dr. Porterville, CA 93257.

For more information about the conference, please visit our conference website – www.wcisaconnect.com.

If you have any questions, please contact: Program Chair, Igor Lacan (ilacan@ucanr.edu) or Executive Director, Rose Epperson (repperson@wcisa.net)

Thank you for attending! We hope you enjoyed yourself!   I hope you found your time spent with the Western Chapter ISA, our gracious presenters, moderators, vendors, and social participants was worthwhile and had you inspired to learn more and implement some newfound skills into your professional pursuits.     WCISA is a member driven organization. Your feedback about what we’re getting right and what needs improvement is very important to us and will be taken into account when we’re planning future conferences.   THREE WAYS TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK Share your “aha” moments through our “mentimeter” app – Add yours here Let the individual speakers know what you thought of their presentation by completing the evaluation in the conference app. Just click on the session and scroll to the bottom – there is an evaluation tab set for your use. Take a few moments to complete our conference survey. You can find that here.   CONTINUE YOUR EXPLORATION If you still have that craving to learn more, please revisit the conference website where you can find each presentation available to you on-demand at your convenience through 9/30/2021. Please remember to fill out the speaker evaluations while in the platform.   CEUs You can still earn continuing education credits by watching the sessions that you may of missed. Complete the CEU sheet listing any sessions viewed in their entirety and return by email to heather@wcisa.net or by mail to 31910 Country Club Drive, Porterville, CA 93257 Click here to download the CEU sheet.   We know that in these uncertain times, the decision to remain with us in a virtual setting is not an easy one. I can attest to the challenges myself, but certainly appreciate each one of you that committed yourselves to join us in some way. Your contributions to the array of conference programming, to include those generous souls that made donations to the Britton Fund silent auction, are not lost on me, the Board of Directors, the Epicenter staff or the conference planning committee. As we migrate back into previously-charted grounds and a return to in-person events before too long, after an unimagined excursion into isolation, I hope this year’s Annual Conference will have served as a launchpad to bigger, better, and more “far out” opportunities for us all. Thank you for not only your flexibility and forgiveness during this wild ride, but the many compliments received of our event that have more than overwhelmed me and the rest of the team that brought this to you.   LET THE MOMENTUM CARRY YOU Keep the connection with your peers alive by sharing your favorite tree planting photos or videos from your received conference tree seedlings. You can upload them with the link provided below. Also include the general location it was planted in and, like the far out space explorers and the Apollo 14 “Moon Trees”, we can reflect decades in the future to monitor these seedlings’ resiliency as an indelible impact of our conference journey together. On that last note, if you haven’t yet, drop a line to our Annual Conference Chair, Kelaine Ravdin, and let her know how remarkable and appreciated her efforts were at broadening our horizons, creating a lasting informative & entertaining connection, and taking the seeds of an idea, nurturing their growth, withstanding the storms, and seeing them develop, like the mighty redwood giants of the Lost Coast, into an unforgettable experience that captured the awe and praise of nearly all that beheld it.   To Trees and To You,   Jimi Scheid WCISA President 2020-2021