GREAT BEND, Kan. – Friends of Kansas’ community-based "forest" trained in Great Bend Monday [April 23], honing skills in everything from using a bucket truck to planning streetside plantings.

Session leaders came from as far away as Charlotte, N.C., to provide guidelines, updates and demonstrations. The participants from across Kansas included parks workers, educators, tree service professionals and foresters.

In four "your-choice" training sessions, those participants learned:

• How to identify hazardous trees, evaluate the risks and analyze decay.

• How to use aboriculture’s tools of the trade – ranging from chainsaws to chippers – for safe work high in a tree, for lowering big limbs and for disposing of branches.

• How to care for trees from planting through establishment, maintenance, and pest management.

• How to design community projects using basic design concepts for open space, recreation areas and street plantings

The seminar was the joint effort of the Kansas Forest Service, Barton County’s Extension office, and the Great Bend Tree Board.

Session leaders included Bruce Fraedrich, vice president of research for Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories in Charlotte; David Mattox, urban forestry supervisor for Manhattan, Kan.; Gus van der Heoven, retired state landscape horticulturist for K-State Research and Extension; and Kansas Forest Service staff.