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Pruning 2.0: Hands-on tree care, overhead tree pruning, & overhead utility line safety workshop
Starts at 9am
Done by noon
Cost: $5
Where:
We’ll start on the NE corner of 9th Avenue and University Blvd.
Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood, Tucson, Arizona 85705.
As we work we may shift our location, but we will always be in the public right-of-way on the side of the street along either 9th Ave or University Blvd, within one block of the intersection of 9th Avenue and University Blvd.
Open to all (whatever neighborhood you live in).
Learn how you can organize similar Neighborhood Forester efforts in your neighborhood.
This workshop will cover foundational pruning, tree care, and mulching; though focuses on pruning overhead with pole saws, pole loppers, and other hand tools. It also offers guidance in avoiding tree conflicts (and potential fire threats) with overhead power lines.
All work will be done while standing on the ground.
After demonstration we will move to adjoining parts of the neighborhood to get supervised hands-on experience as we help prune native food-bearing trees and shrubs in our neighborhood’s public rights-of-way.
Participating in this workshop is required to be able to access the pole saw and pole lopper tools from the Dunbar Spring Neighborhood Foresters tool library.
Professionals can get continued education credits for the workshop from instructor Aleck.
Instructors: certified arborist Aleck MacKinnon of the Pedaling Arborist, assisted by Brad Lancaster of the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Foresters.
Bring pruning tools if you have them. We’ll provide for those that don’t.
Also bring water and snacks, and dress (sun hat, gloves, etc.) to be working outdoors in the sun.
Options for prunings:
• Reuse as a soil- and fertility-building mulch
after cutting up the prunings into 4-inch or shorter pieces
• Feed desired prunings to neighborhood goats
• Brush & Bulky will take your prunings away for free
if they are 5 feet or shorter in length
Scheduled 2025 brush & bulky pick ups in the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood are:
January 20, 2025
July 21, 2025
For brush & bulky pick up dates in other Tucson neighborhoods see here
All public rights-of-ways adjoining properties must maintain a continuous clear walkway area a minimum 5 feet wide and 7 feet tall to make our neighborhood walkways and forests accessible for all.
See our Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Walkability Study here.
Recycle your prunings & their fertility
You do NOT want longer pieces or branches pilled up hat will create a rodent nest or fuel for a brush fire.
You want to maximize the contact of the cut-up prunings with the soil for an effective water-conserving mulch.
The water harvested within the basins helps speed up the beneficial break down of the prunings into sponge-like, fertile soil.
Reproduced with permission from “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2, 2nd Edition” by Brad Lancaster
Reproduced with permission from “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2, 2nd Edition” by Brad Lancaster
