Lillich Lectures Series: Developing an Urban Forest

Helen Lillich, founder of West Lafayette Tree Friends and known throughout greater Lafayette as the "Tree Lady", was a passionate advocate for the importance of trees for a sustainable community. Lillich was an environmentalist, educator, and cheerleader for all things green in the City. Her passion and activism spurred the passage of the Trees and Landscape ordinance that is still in place today. Lillich passed in 2010, but her efforts can still be felt today.

The West Lafayette Tree Friends honor her legacy by developing the Lillich Lectures Series, highlighting various topics that impact our urban forest. These two-hour sessions help educate the community on the urban forest, the challenges they face, and foster conversations on how to better protect our vital resources. This event is one of two lectures in 2023. ISA CEU's are available!

Agenda

In April of 2023, we hosted the first session of our two-part series on Developing an Urban Forest, focusing on design and planning. This lecture, we will be discussing the importance of proper tree care and management of our tree canopy. Join us as we walk through the importance of proper planning, planting, and caring for trees! The agenda is listed below:

9:30 - 10:00 am: Registration and Refreshments

10:00 am: Welcome

10:15 am - 11:00 am: Carrie Tauscher - Arboretum Director at Crownhill Cemetery - Maintaining a Historic Tree Canopy - 1 ISA CEU

Carrie Tauscher is the Arboretum Director at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. This Historic Rural landscape Cemetery was opened in 1863 as designed by Frederick Chislett and is home to Crown Hill National Cemetery.  The Level II Arboretum, accredited by ArbNet, is home to over 10,700 trees representing 135species on the 555 acre site.  

Carries work with the Crown Hill Heritage Foundation is to manage trees across the arboretum to retain the mature tree canopy characteristic of the site while enhancing the collections and mitigating tree risk. She works closely with preservation staff to stay true to original intent of the historic landscape design while ensuring the tree canopy will continue to serve the site and Indianapolis community for decades to come in this active cemetery site.

Carrie served as the Indiana Urban and Community Forestry Program Coordinator with the Indiana DNR Division of Forestry for 10 years helping Indiana communities. Early in her career Carrie Work with the Community Trees Program at The Morton Arboretum as an inventory technician for the 2010 Chicago Tree Census that lead to the Chicago Regional Trees Initiative.

‍11:00 - 11:15 am: Break/Refreshments

11:15 - 12:00 pm: Ben McCallister - Urban Forestry Specialist - Purdue University - Tree Care from Campus to Your Home - 1 ISA CEU

Ben McCallister graduated from Purdue in2006 with a BA in Photography then moved to Japan to teach English for 8 years. He returned to Indiana in 2015 to pursue a degree in Forestry, was introduced to arboriculture and urban forestry, and never looked back.

After graduating in 2018, he obtained his ISA Arborist Certification and headed to Portland, OR for a year to work as a climbing arborist for Bartlett Tree Experts. In that time, he was accepted into the Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) graduate program back at Purdue and returned in 2019 to pursue his Master’s in Urban Ecology. While h was finishing his program he began work as one of the campus arborists at Purdue. He finished his Master’s in the summer of 2021 and continued as campus arborist until joining the Extension team as the Urban Forestry Specialist and head of the Urban Forestry program in FNR in June 2022.

Thank You to Our Sponsor

Special thank you to this year's sponsor, Davey Resource Group!