Morgan S. Abbott

Utah Rare Plant Meeting 2026 Presentation

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March 4, 2026

Free ISA CEUs: Week of March 2, 2026

We are headed to Utah to present at the UNPS Rare Plant Meeting!

We’ll be booking folks in Utah and Salt Lake Counties on our trip. Click the “Contact Us” button to schedule an appointment.

There are two live webinars for free ISA CEU training opportunities available this week.

Tuesday, March 3

Increasing biological control of soft-scale insects by excluding ants from trees@ 11:00am-12:00pm Mountain

Soft-scale insects such as magnolia scale, calico scale, and oak lecanium scale are common pests on urban trees that are hard to manage. Ants feed on the honeydew excreted from soft-scales, and ants protect scales from predators and parasitoids that normally aid in scale regulation. Therefore, excluding ants from tree canopies should enhance scale regulation by predators and parasitoids. We tested the ability of basal trunk sprays of insecticides (bifenthrin and spinosad) as well as ant baits (spinosad and Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate – DOT) to exclude ants from oak trees infested with oak lecanium scale and we looked at resultant impacts on scale biocontrol. In this presentation I will share our research findings, our future plans to expand this work, and suggest how ant exclusion can be used to effectively manage scales.

Register Here

Thursday, March 5

Growth and Loss — Understanding Resident Perspectives on Urban Trees@ 10:00am-11:00am Mountain

Urban residents often desire and identify closely with trees in the municipal landscape. Join Candace B. Powning, City of Hartford, as she discusses new research about understanding the effects of sudden tree canopy loss (and regrowth!) in the urban environment.

Register Here

Forestry Webinars

The Webinar Portal, a product of Southern Regional Extension Forestry (SREF) and winner of the 2011 USDA Forest Service’s Two Chiefs’ Partnership Award, is a “multi discipline” web platform used to promote and deliver live and on-demand virtual events and webinars focused on forestry, agriculture, conservation, climate science and other natural resource disciplines.

Watch Here

TreeStuff Webinars on YouTube

Watch a video and pass the quiz to qualify for free ISA CEUs.

Watch Here

Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA)

Introduction to Arboriculture Safety (1.25 ISA CEUs)

In this program, you will learn about general tree care safety so that you can avoid accidents while working in the field.

Susan Harwood Grant program OSHA Trainings (Up to 5 ISA CEUs)

Remember, you can always ask your local ISA chapter if your event qualifies for CEUs.

If your organization is hosting a free in-person or virtual ISA CEU opportunity, please reach out to so we can share it!

Subscribe to continue to receive free notifications for no-cost ISA CEU events.

March 2, 2026

Tree Risk Assessments & Community Care

Last weekend, I attended the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop and it fundamentally changed my perspective on my life in the last 18 months. I haven’t decided if I’ll share some of the details at a later date, as it is very personal, but suffice it to say–I’m a changed woman.

The next day, I found out that I passed the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification. I was (and still am) over the moon about this accomplishment!

Many of my clients aren’t familiar with Tree Risk Assessments, so let’s break it down:

What are Tree Risk Assessments?

Trees, like life, carry inherent risk. When a tree fails, it can have severe consequences. However, most trees carry low risk and the ecosystem benefits that they provide frequently outweigh the risks they pose to community.

Tree Risk Assessments help tree managers/owners (homeowners, landlords, renters, etc) determine how to manage the risk of a particular tree or set of trees through the help of a trained professional (Tree Risk Assessor) to identify the potential causes of tree failure, the consequences of failure and how to mitigate the risk of a tree failing.

As someone who was raised in communities with reduced canopy, many trees are removed because any risk of failure is unacceptable to the person responsible for the care of the tree. This can be due to perceived or actual costs associated with tree care like watering, pruning, or home/liability insurance.

As your tree risk assessor, I’m providing an impartial view of how to mitigate risk while balancing the ecosystem benefits of a tree in your care.

How can I reduce the risk of my tree failing?

I’m a fan of the phrase coined by Benjamin Franklin ” an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Trees are living beings. They’re all individuals and require different kinds of care to stay healthy–just like humans.

However, structural pruning, consistent watering and planting the right tree in the right place, in the right season for the right reason will likely set up your tree for generations of success.

Plant Expertise for your Community

Having an expert in your back pocket that understands plant biology and knows how to apply plant ecology processes for the health of your plant community is invaluable.

Investing in the care of your plant community–trees, shrubs, wildflowers, grasses, mosses, lichen, and more–is a return on investment that is counted in generations, not decades.

An experienced plant scientist guiding the way to sustainable systems of care for your community supports the peace of mind that only a healthy landscape provides.

Marching Orders

I’ll be in Utah next week for the Rare Plant Meeting; I’ll be providing the closing presentation on Day 2, marking the beginning of a new year for the plant and people communities in the high desert. I highly encourage everyone to attend either in-person or on Zoom.

On March 10th, I’ll be interviewed on Career Opportunities in Ecology webinar with the Ecological Society of America, sharing my career journey and advice for folks entering ecological career fields.

I look forward to connecting with you all soon!

Contact Us

February 27, 2026

Free ISA CEUs: Week of February 23, 2026

This week has been full of travel: from the mountains of New Mexico, across small towns on local backroads, to Texas Hill Country.

Orion offered familiar guidance through new locales and greeted me every evening, while camping or in a bunkhouse. An old friend, Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) was the star at the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop in Wimberly.

If you’re wanting to “clip into” tree climbing or want to support an organization that does, we highly recommend WTCW. The environment was incredibly supportive, safety-focused and offered representation within arboriculture and outside of the profession.

Next week, we’ll be in Utah speaking in Day 2 of the Rare Plant Meeting, hosted by the Utah Native Plant Society, Red Butte Garden and many other organizations that support the people and plants of Utah.

We only have availability for consultations in Utah and Salt Lake Counties on March 2, so book ASAP to get on our calendar.

While we did earn CEUs at WTCW (and you can too!) no live webinars for free ISA CEU training opportunities are available this week.

Forestry Webinars

The Webinar Portal, a product of Southern Regional Extension Forestry (SREF) and winner of the 2011 USDA Forest Service’s Two Chiefs’ Partnership Award, is a “multi discipline” web platform used to promote and deliver live and on-demand virtual events and webinars focused on forestry, agriculture, conservation, climate science and other natural resource disciplines.

Watch Here

TreeStuff Webinars on YouTube

Watch a video and pass the quiz to qualify for free ISA CEUs.

Watch Here

Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA)

Introduction to Arboriculture Safety (1.25 ISA CEUs)

In this program, you will learn about general tree care safety so that you can avoid accidents while working in the field.

Susan Harwood Grant program OSHA Trainings (Up to 5 ISA CEUs)

Remember, you can always ask your local ISA chapter if your event qualifies for CEUs.

If your organization is hosting a free in-person or virtual ISA CEU opportunity, please reach out to so we can share it!

Subscribe to continue to receive free notifications for no-cost ISA CEU events.

February 23, 2026

Free ISA CEUs: Week of February 16, 2026

We’ve been traveling through four different states over the last 7 days and helping folks with their trees.

We are headed to Texas for the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop, then on to Utah to present at the UNPS Rare Plant Meeting!

We’ll be booking folks on our trip. Contact us for more details if you’re interested in booking an appointment.

There is one live webinar for free ISA CEU training opportunities available this week.

Thursday, February 19th

Futureproof the Workforce @ 10am-11am Mountain

We’ll learn how our work advocating and working for tree equity aligns with our inherit our roles in workforce development. Both of these components are equally important and without future stewards our initiatives may be lost.

Register Here

Forestry Webinars

The Webinar Portal, a product of Southern Regional Extension Forestry (SREF) and winner of the 2011 USDA Forest Service’s Two Chiefs’ Partnership Award, is a “multi discipline” web platform used to promote and deliver live and on-demand virtual events and webinars focused on forestry, agriculture, conservation, climate science and other natural resource disciplines.

Watch Here