WLS – Mt. Cuba’s Resilient Tree Canopy (Online)

Trees are the backbone of any landscape. With current pest and disease threats and the predicted change in our climate, we must adapt our practices to protect our trees from these stressors. Please join Mt. Cuba staff as we discuss our strategies for preparing our garden’s tree canopy for a changing climate. We will share the thought process and models used to shape our current strategy, our ongoing data collection and tree monitoring tactics, and how we intend to use the information gathered to implement practices that will help nurture a resilient future tree canopy. This program is part of the online Mt. Cuba Lecture Series.
This program takes place online Wednesday, February 19, 2025.
About the Instructors:
Nicole DeLizzio is the Arborist Assistant at the Mt. Cuba Center. She holds a BS in Agriculture and Natural Resources with a minor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Delaware. Nicole is an ISA certified arborist. In addition to co-teaching the Ecological Arboriculture course with the rest of the arboriculture team, she can be found sharing her combined passion for trees and art in pyrography, or the art of woodburning. One of Nicole’s favorite ecological gardening concepts is to allow trees to decay in place, when it is safe to do so, to be utilized by wildlife.
George Coombs, Director of Horticulture at Mt. Cuba Center, leads a team of horticulturists, arborists, and grounds maintenance technicians who cultivate and improve formal and naturalistic gardens and play a pivotal role in the implementation of Mt. Cuba Center’s long-range master plan. George produced award winning reports on native plant research as the former Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt Cuba Center and introduced four new Coreopsis cultivars. He holds a degree of Plant Science from the University of Delaware with a focus in landscape horticulture.