Extension Urban Forester Scott Sjolander Retires

Scott joined the Penn State Extension Urban Forestry Team in 1995 to assist communities in 14 northwestern counties of Pennsylvania and was stationed at the Crawford County Extension Office in Meadville. He has served on the Meadville Shade Tree Commission for years and will continue to in his retirement.

Prior to joining Pennsylvania State University, Scott worked as a tree worker for electric line-clearance contractors, a utility forester in the Midwest, and an electric line-clearance planning forester for Environmental Consultants, Incorporated. While at Missouri Public Service (a division of Utilicorp United), he administered a $3.5 million budget, coordinating tree pruning, landscaping, and industrial weed control operations across 22 counties in northwestern Missouri. Scott also worked in the oil field industry, family farming, and cattle feed operations.

Scott obtained his Bachelor of Science in Forest Management from the University of Missouri in 1985 and a Master of Business Administration from Penn State University in 2000. Scott has been an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist since 2008, a Utility Specialist since 2000, and held ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification since 2013.

In his role as an Extension Urban Forester and Natural Resources Educator, Scott has taught many short courses for arborists across the state, vegetation management workshops, Tree Tender trainings, forest landowner workshops, tree risk trainings, and pesticide education programs for the green industry. He has helped with the bare-root tree program, assisting communities with grants and plantings and coordinating the delivery of community bare-root trees in northwestern Pennsylvania. Scott also hosted the Community Forestry Lunchtime webinar series for many years.

As the ISA Penn-Del Chapter Certification Liaison since 2005, Scott has always helped assign continuing education credits to educational meetings and workshops and has assisted certified arborists by proctoring exams, fielding numerous questions, and resolving individual certification issues. Scott has also served as a Tree Risk Assessment Qualification Instructor for ISA, traveling to numerous states and teaching arborists about tree risk assessments as they prepare for the qualification exam. His work with the Penn-Del ISA Chapter has been invaluable.

We wish Scott all the best in his retirement and hope he will continue to volunteer as his time allows.   He will undoubtedly be missed by the many communities he assisted and supported over the years.

Communities in northwestern Pennsylvania needing assistance may contact Penn State Extension Urban Forester Brian Wolyniak.