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ISA Rocky Mountain Chapter Annual Conference
October 02, 2025 8:00 AM to October 03, 2025 4:00 PM
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Beaver Run Resort & Conference Center
620 Village Road
Breckenridge, CO 80424
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Room reservations can be made by calling 800-525-2253 and mentioning ISA RMC for the discounted rate or online: https://reservations.travelclick.com/97052?groupID=4646048
Agenda
Approved for 12 ISA CEUs.
Thursday October 2nd |
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| Time | Speaker Name | Topic | Presentation Description |
| 7:00AM | Registration | ||
| 8:00AM | Roxy Seibel | Keynote: Training As Team Building: The Meta Way To Enroll, Educate and Achieve Exceptional Results | How training can be viewed as a team building, value building, culture reinforcement power for everyone. Top down, bottom up and sideways learning shall be engaged as we explore how you do anything is how you do everything: Be prepared to be uncomfortable for the greater good and growth of your team. |
| 9:30AM | Morgan Abbot | Teaching Trees: Community Science Education & Communication for Arborists | Arborists and tree advocates exist in a world where plant ignorance, generational divides and community disengagment are increasing--leading to gaps in tree care, education and communication. Explore science communication and educational tools, resources and techniques to build community, bridge generations, and develop partnerships while guiding current and future community leaders in arboriculture. |
| 10:30AM | Break | ||
| 10:45AM | Maegan Blansett, Ben Rickenbacker, Elizabeth Judd | Start with Your Staff: Increasing Capacity with an Operational Assessment | Operating a successful urban forestry program is a constant balancing act. Amidst shrinking municipal budgets and competing priorities such as public safety, tree equity, canopy expansion, and routine tree care, many organizations experience challenges around maintaining the staffing levels needed to function at their desired levels of service. Cities often assign ambitious goals to their urban forestry departments but don’t provide the resources needed to actually carry them out. In this first-of-its-kind assessment for the City and County of Denver, the Forestry Field Operations Division analyzed their staff’s existing capacity, identified gaps, and developed a new method for quantifying the increase in resources necessary to align the program’s outcomes with its operational goals. The study posed several key questions: 1) Which goals or outcomes are not possible with existing staff? 2) By how much would current staff need to be increased to accomplish those goals? and 3) How will staffing needs continue to change as the City acquires the maintenance responsibility for more trees and properties in the future? This presentation will cover the processes designed to answer those questions and how the results can be used to help the City advocate for increasing their staff. |
| 11:45AM | Lunch | ||
| 12:45PM | Alex McIntosh | Climb Ready: Inspect, Detect, Protect! | This presentation covers the essential procedures and best practices for inspecting arboriculture climbing gear. Attendees will learn how to identify wear, damage, and potential failures in ropes, harnesses, carabiners, and other critical equipment to ensure safety and compliance with industry standards. Additionally, I will help identify lesser-known safety notices and common concerns from specific manufacturers to enhance awareness and improve safety protocols. |
| 1:45PM | Roxy Seibel | Learning The Ropes, Knowing Your Rope Tools | Beyond basics examination of rope materials & rope construction.We'll discuss how materials affect rope characteristics, the fit for purpose & rationale behind choices. Rope tools are important and versatile items tree workers use on a daily basis. When our life and livlihood are on the line, we owe it to ourselves to be educated. Slide presentation for visual learners, rope samples for the hands on learners. Delivered with passion by rope geek who climbs and loves trees. |
| 3:00PM | Rachael Sitz | Bugs under our branches | Trees provide many species of wildlife with a source of food and habitat for foraging and nesting. Insects and other arthropods are one of the many groups found in and around urban trees. This presentation will focus on the tree as an ecosystem and highlight the insect diversity that Rocky Mountain arborists are likely to experience in the field. It will provide a description of four broad ecological groups associated with the urban forest, including (1) beneficial insects, (2) pests, (3) nuisance home invaders, and (4) mulch communities. Colorado-specific examples will be discussed, with representation from nearly every insect order. |
| 5:30PM | Conference Reception | ||
Friday October 3rd |
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| Time | Speaker Name | Topic | Presentation Description |
| 7:00AM | Registration | ||
| 8:00AM | Logan Johnson, Dana Karcher | Aligning Sustainability and Tree Goals: Collaboration for Climate Resilience | As communities prioritize climate resilience, forestry and sustainability departments must align strategies for impact. This session highlights collaborations that integrate tree canopy goals into sustainability plans—covering shared funding, communications, and data tracking. Case studies from Colorado’s Front Range and beyond show how cities adapt to meet equity, carbon, and heat goals. Attendees gain tools to strengthen partnerships for climate action. |
| 9:30AM | Rhett Richardson | Food Forest Gardens, a growing niche for arborists? | Edible landscapes and food forest gardening is an idea whose time has come. Using a power point presentaion I intend to: 1. Outline the history, design concepts, and benefits of food forest gardens. 2. Demonstrate how arborists can expand our understanding of trees and ecosystems by practicing food forestry and find opportunities to serve clients interested in the concept of edible gardens/permaculture. |
| 10:30AM | Break | ||
| 10:45AM | Evan "Lanny" Ellis | Direct Observation Microscopy (Looking Out for the Little Guys) | Arborists will learn the connection between soil health and tree health via the Soil Food Web and its many components. We will define the Soil Food Web, identify the important elements and functions within, detail the benefits of soil health and discuss methods for cultivating healthy soil and plants. This presentation includes a qualitative soil health analysis using a microscope and projector screen so that all participants will see beneficial organisms with their own eyes. |
| 11:45AM | Lunch, Business Meeting & Awards | ||
| 12:45PM | Mason Vollmer | What to do about that big ol’ Apple Tree? | Arborists, Urban Forest Managers and Homeowners are often faced with many challenges regarding big old Apple trees. This presentation shows how the Spindle method solved these problems for commercial growers and can also be applied successfully to the growing interest in tending trees in multi-functional transformative landscapes that provide a wide range of environmental services, educational and aesthetic functions, as well as foods for people and wildlife. |
| 1:45PM | Katie Suding | The Boulder Apple Tree Project | Learn about the Boulder Apple Tree Project led by professionals at CU Boulder and Front Range who are studying the age, health, history, and genetics of Boulder’s apple trees. Their work connecting the ecological and cultural heritage of apple trees in Boulder County helps to create a living resource that preserves the cherished place of apple trees in Boulder culture and provides a bank of historic, sustainable cultivars for the future. |
| 2:45PM | Darren Budlong | 8 steps to Aerial Rescue | The 8 steps to Aerial Rescue will describe and demonstrate everything from the first intial assement all the way through decent with the victim. We will have indepth conversations and demonstations on each step. |
| 3:45PM | Closing | ||
Tickets
$125.00 Member 1-day Registration (includes meals & 1-day of sessions)
$175.00 after 05:00 pm September 8
$150.00 Non-member 1-day Registration (includes meals & 1-day of sessions)
$200.00 after 05:00 pm September 8
$150.00 Student Full Registration (includes all meals, sessions and 1-yr Chapter membership)
$250.00 Member Full Registration (includes meals and all sessions)
$300.00 after 05:00 pm September 8
$300.00 Non-Member Full Registration (includes meals, sessions and 1-yr. Chapter Membership)
$350.00 after 05:00 pm September 8
$500.00 Conference Exhibit Table
$2,000.00 Lunch Sponsor (includes half-age ad, recognition, and exhibit booth w/ 2 seats)
$1,500.00 Breakfast Sponsor (includes recognition, exhibit booth w/ 2 seats)
$1,000.00 Break Sponsor (includes recognition and exhibit booth w/ 2 seats)
$125.00 Member 1-day Registration (includes meals & 1-day of sessions)
$175.00 after 05:00 pm September 8
