Trees of Loose Park 2018 by Brad Hatfield

VanBooven Tree Care, the company I help manage, has received it's third contract for
pruning at the Loose Park Arboretum. We all feel fortunate to have the opportunity to
take care of these trees, it's quite an honor for our company to be chosen again.
 This is a team effort, from writing the proposals to having
the people and equipment to get the job done well. VanBooven foreman Chris Brewer and
his lead Arborist Luke Becker have been out there every day, providing the pruning expertise we need.
These two are the reason I have every confidence when out bidding tree work or writing proposals to care for rare and valuable trees, knowing they have the combination of intelligence, skill and experience in everything they do. We also needed machines and muscle to manage the tons of deadwood taken out of these trees- D'Angelo Hicks was the man with the machine and the muscle to get it done.
 I have been on this job nearly every day as a project manager, but more importantly to me, I have also been able to prune quite a few trees while there.

I wanted to share some of the pictures I have taken while out working on this project:


Pictured below is a huge, roughly 150 year old Walnut, located on the west side of the park.

Pictured below is a shot taken inside one of the Pine and Spruce groves.

Pictured below: Vanbooven Arborist Luke Becker pruning a giant Cucumber Magnolia. This is the largest, oldest Cucumber Magnolia tree I have ever seen.
Also want to mention that Luke Becker has done a fantastic job pruning these trees. Luke is not only a Kansas Certified and ISA Certified Arborist, he also has a degree in Horticulture from Kansas State University. It has been a genuine pleasure working with him and watching him mature into the consummate professional and expert pruner he has become.

Pictured below is a gnarly old Elm, covered in burls.  I love the shape and texture of the burls-  fantastic. This is a really cool looking old tree, picture taken prior to pruning.

Pictured below: The largest Pine and Spruce grove  located on the West side of Loose Park

Pictured below is another huge, very old Walnut tree being pruned. This tree is so massive it makes our bucket truck look like a  car! I could not fit the entire canopy in the picture.

Pictured below: Inside one of the Eastern Redcedar groves. Redcedar are a fantastic evergreen for Northeast Kansas, these are tough trees-resistant to disease, drought- I call them Kansas Redwoods.

Pictured below:Just in case there are Redcedar fans out there, I am adding an additional photo of
some large old trees.

Pictured below: VanBooven Arborist John Cox pruning large, old Norway Spruce tree

Pictured below: Massive old Siberian Elm. We spent the best part of a day pruning this tree.
there was huge deadwood, large broken, hanging limbs. This is the finished product.

Pictured below: I saved one of the best for last, a specimen Paperbark Maple tree. This is a large, old
tree for a Paperbark Maple, they grow very slow. Love the muscular branches, shiny, exfoliating bark.
This is another one of my favorites. There are actually two of equal size right next to each other. I practically ran over to where they are to make sure I was the one pruning them.Honestly, I would have pruned these incredibly cool trees for free.

Here is a shot of the same tree at a little more distance.

I took quite a few pictures, these are some of the best ones that I wanted to share.
We only have a few days of work left in the pruning contract.
One of the stipulations of our contract is that the trees be left in as natural a condition as possible-Brilliant!! I could not agree more. We have tried to do that with every single tree we pruned.
Loose Park is a fantastic place to work, I will have to visit when I have more time on my hands to take in the sights.If you get a chance, stop in and  take a walk through the park and enjoy the sights yourself, especially the trees.

Steve Stark and Taika Oyata Video-From The Learning Channel Documentary

Short video clip of one of my instructors, Hanshi Steve Stark and our teacher Taika Seiyu Oyata.
Also included are Tasshi Jim Logue and Kyoshi Gerry Senese, two well known and respected senior students of Taika Oyata. This was filmed in Gerry's dojo.
This clip is taken from a documentary about martial arts on The Learning Channel.
This particular video keeps making it's rounds over the Internet and throughout Facebook.

I am reposting it because it shows two of my favorite people- our teacher Mr. Oyata and in my opinion the most talented martial artist to come out of his system, Steve Stark.
Watching this video always brings back a lot of memories of my teacher-some involve pain!
Mr. Oyata was an amazing martial artist and taught a lot of things to
many different people. His martial arts belong to all the people who trained with him for many years, not just any one person or group. Steve Stark is an extremely talented martial artist and is still teaching, still training.Our research group, Goshin Jitsu, has been fortunate to have him teaching us, training with us the last two years.

I named my research group Goshin Jitsu in honor of my teacher Mr. Oyata.
His interpretation of Goshin Jitsu was martial arts technique/understanding performed at the very highest level. This is the ideal, the brass ring we should all be reaching for in our martial arts and applications.
.

Thank You Science! Using Nanotechnology to test for Oak Wilt

Exciting news from the Tree World I inhabit. New technology developed by the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) offers a simple
and affordable diagnostic test  for Oak Wilt utilizing nanotechnology and gold.

Pictured below is a microfluidic device used to isolate the Oak Wilt fungus from wood chip samples.
Picture credit-University of Minnesota

Oak Wilt is a devastating vascular fungus that quickly kills Oak trees. Arborists in the Kansas
City Metro area deal with Oak Wilt every year. The disease is not particularly widespread in our area,
but it can move quickly through root grafting in wooded areas with multiple Oak trees.
This can be a painful and expensive experience for homeowners with wooded lots.

Past testing for Oak Wilt has been a slow process, sometimes waiting for weeks to receive a positive diagnosis-it is often difficult to get a positive diagnosis from wood samples, creating a slow and frustrating process for everyone involved.

This latest scientific breakthrough enables Oak wilt detection within 30 minutes of sampling at a fraction of the cost (less than $5). This new technology uses gold nanoparticles to generate a chemiluminescent signal in the presence of Oak Wilt-this chemical signal must be read by a specialized hand held reader.

The team working on this project are refining a portable system for use in the field,
eliminating the need to send samples to the lab for confirmation. The field project requires only dipping wood chips from infected trees into a solution to extract DNA, then mixing with a second solution of gold nanoparticles to allow detection using a hand held luminometer.

The innovation by Abbas' research lab enables oak wilt detection within 30 minutes of sampling and at a fraction of the cost: less than five dollars per sample. The technology uses the agglomeration of gold nanoparticles to generate a chemiluminescent signal that can be read by a hand-held reader, in the presence of the oak wilt fungus DNA. The team is now refining a portable system that allows early detection of the disease in the field without sending samples to the laboratory. The new technology requires only dipping wood chips obtained from infected trees into a first solution to extract the DNA, then mixed with a second solution of gold nanoparticles to allow detection using a hand-held luminometer.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-11-technology-oak-wilt-faster.html#jCp

The innovation by Abbas' research lab enables oak wilt detection within 30 minutes of sampling and at a fraction of the cost: less than five dollars per sample. The technology uses the agglomeration of gold nanoparticles to generate a chemiluminescent signal that can be read by a hand-held reader, in the presence of the oak wilt fungus DNA. The team is now refining a portable system that allows early detection of the disease in the field without sending samples to the laboratory. The new technology requires only dipping wood chips obtained from infected trees into a first solution to extract the DNA, then mixed with a second solution of gold nanoparticles to allow detection using a hand-held luminometer.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-11-technology-oak-wilt-faster.html#jCp

Thank you science! This is going to speed up the process of  testing for Oak Wilt, help Arborists
and homeowners and should ultimately save thousands of Oak trees that would be lost to the rapid spread of Oak Wilt.

I'd Rather Be Training

I have had people asking me about why no martial arts posts for such a long time.
Frankly, I just get tired of posting. In the time it takes to write up a lengthy blog post,
I could have been training. Life is all about choices and priorities.
These days I would rather be doing something physical than talking/writing about it.
Still running, lifting weights and training to my hearts content-living the dream.

I will spend a few minutes on this short post-
The martial arts training over the last several months has been fantastic!
We have a great thing going on with our research group. We keep adding new people, last week there were 10 of us working out as a group. Good Training and sharing ideas in a research group creates
an extremely positive energy that is contagious.
 It's like the good old days, especially when Hanshi Steve Stark is teaching our Tuesday night class. I keep telling the younger members of our group that this is as close as they will ever get to training with Taika Oyata. It's beginning to sink in as they try and imitate what Mr. Stark has been teaching or answer his questions about particular kata motions and what they mean. It makes me laugh, that deer in the headlights look,exactly like I used to have when trying to duplicate what Mr. Oyata was teaching or answer his questions.

Our group has been working on many different things-most importantly we now have a
finished, completely fixed up version of Shi Ho Happo No Te, as taught directly to Mr. Stark by Taika Oyata.This is by far the most detailed, powerful version I have ever seen.
I have been working on this quite a bit, polishing it. It has become my newest martial arts obsession.

We also have been working on different drills, footwork and hand technique, as bridges between other drills and exercises.. Some of these are exercises we have created that tie into previously
 existing exercises, some stand alone and cover very specific concepts. It's all very interesting and fills some gaps between exercises/concepts as a teaching methodology.
For instance, imagine a drill  somewhere between Exercise 2 and the original Spiderweb, that ties it all together-this is just an idea of what it could be.  I am not going to explain any of them  or post pictures or videos.Why would I? You do the work, put the time in and figure it out for yourself.
It's fairly easy to figure these things out, it just takes 32 years of  constant martial arts training to see it all, put it all together.

 The question I ask myself and the people I am training with -"Are your martial arts evolving"?
Are they? They better be-If not, you are either not training enough  or not training with the right people-you  may not  be putting enough thought into what you are doing, what it means, applications.
There are many layers to every kata, drill/exercise and technical application. This Art has many subtleties, nuances that are easily overlooked without a deep understanding of body mechanics, hand and foot motion. It takes constant practice and years of dedicated training to truly understand these things, where they become second nature-you do them without conscious thought, they are part of you.

If you do the same thing over and over, without questioning why or looking for ways to do it better, you are standing still.If you are not training at least 2-3 days a week, you are standing still.
Stand still long enough and everyone else will catch up to you or pass you by.
It's painfully obvious in training sessions who has been working on their martial arts and who hasn't.

P.S.
Don't make excuses- I have heard them all and still keep hearing them.
I could write "The Karate Training Excuse Book" , multiple pages of all the reasons people constantly miss training sessions, no longer take the time to train,  why they quit, who hurt their feelings-why they are butthurt and sad, how they are planning to train again, eventually...............(yawn)
" If it is important to you, you will make the time "( quote by Mike Anderson)

Don't tell me how good you were 5, 10, 20 years ago, I don't care about that either.
Show me how good you are right now or please don't talk to me about martial arts.

Here is a picture of myself and Taika Oyata when I received my 7th Degree Scroll in Oyata Shin Shu Ho Ryu. That is all the inspiration I will ever need to continue my training.

I think about my teacher and his martial arts every day. I work on my martial arts every day, that is how and why they are evolving.

Dr. Alex Shigo- The Tree Guru

"Trying to treat what you do not understand is the same as trying to start a Rolls Royce by hitting it with a sledgehammer" Dr. Alex Shigo🌳



Dr. Alex L. Shigo
May 8th, 1930
October 6th, 2006

This has been a long time coming, should have written this years ago!
For those living outside the Tree World,  who may not have not heard of him, Dr. Alex Shigo was
(and still is) the Arborist's Guru, the father of Modern Arboriculture. He was the rock star of the tree world for many years. A Biologist and Plant Pathologist,  he was  also  Chief Scientist with the US Forest Service.
He established the theory of CODIT- Compartmentalization Of Decay in Trees.
His research is highly published and he traveled the globe, lecturing and studying trees,
sharing his concepts with the world. His books are fascinating, a culmination of his years of research.

I was fortunate to have attended  a few of Dr. Shigo's workshops. I was even more fortunate
to have had the opportunity to meet with him privately, once for after dinner drinks and some incredible conversation with this brilliant man.
 I drank beer, he sipped wine, he talked and I listened. I had a list of
questions folded in my pocket, but never did get to the list, I had made it to the top of the mountain,
listening to the guru himself-the list and the questions no longer mattered. I was trying to absorb every detail of what he was telling me. The first thing he told me was this- "I do not have all the answers, nobody does". I knew I had met a truly honest man. He went on to say that
I would discover those answers on my own, over time.(He was correct)
His belief was that you had to understand trees as a system. Once you understood how the system worked, understood the processes, you would arrive at your own answers.
He was and still is my  personal guru-his wisdom and brilliant theories changed how Arborists around the world think about and care for trees.

Normally I would caution someone about putting people on a pedestal.
Sometimes we meet our heroes, people we look up to and are disappointed when we find
they are just  just like us- mere mortals. This was not the case with Dr. Shigo, he never disappointed.
He challenged me-asking me if I was satisfied with 70-80% or was I willing to try to be the best, always searching for answers, was I willing to change my way of thinking about trees and accept new information, new theories?
But Shigo was different-everything was simplified with him-it was one of his brilliant qualities.
Define your terms, know your subject, simple diagrams, make things clear, brief and practical.
He felt that to be a good Arborist, you had to get out in the field, get your hands dirty and really study trees up close and personal, there was no other way.

I asked him to autograph a copy of his book-Modern Arboriculture. He signed it and he also wrote me a personal note inside. More importantly, what he wrote was the key to understanding everything about trees-it is one of my most cherished possessions, because of what he wrote.
(I'm not going to tell you) It forever changed how I would think about Arboriculture.

He told me he did not have all the answers, but I believe he did.
What he wrote in my book changed my entire way of thinking.
He had the most important answer-the key to it all.

I have a theory if anyone would like to hear it.  Anyone?
The great teachers lead  you down the  path, or towards the top of the mountain.
These  teachers are your guides, but you must arrive at your own destination, having completed the journey on your own. They are helping you make the journey, but the journey is yours, a process in itself. You discover your own truths, your own enlightenment along the way.I know I did.
Thank you Dr. Shigo!

Positivity

pos·i·tiv·i·ty

ˌpäzəˈtivədē/

noun

noun: positivity the practice of being or tendency to be positive or optimistic in attitude.

"pupils draw power from the positivity of their teachers"

I will always hold to the belief that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet.

Not because I am immensely wealthy, devastatingly handsome or incredibly intelligent.

Fortune smiles on us all in different ways- I have a job/career I truly enjoy, a lovely wife,

a strong and intelligent son to carry on my name and some very good friends.

My family has been blessed in many ways- with good health, a comfortable lifestyle and a nice home filled with laughter/life. All of these things make me a fortunate man.

I have led a rather interesting life-the ups, downs, highs and lows have provided me

with  good perspective. Over time, the high points made me realize how easy it is to fall, the lows reminded me that only hard work and perseverance would elevate me again.

The most worthwhile personal endeavor I ever undertook was martial arts training.

One of the reasons I consider myself among  the luckiest people on the planet was

the opportunity to train as a personal student of Taika Seiyu Oyata.

Some of his best lessons weren't about martial arts, they were about life.

If I learned anything from him, it was never give up, never stop trying, never stop learning.

He was forever thinking about his martial arts, changing things, showing us new concepts or the evolution of a previous concept-it was maddening at times-frustrating. He forced you to step up, to keep up or you would quickly fall behind. (as in life)

When I was struggling to learn something, he would say"you can do this, I learned this,
you can learn this" or my personal favorite"Do it-no choice". Who could argue with that logic? 

I admired my teacher for many different reasons. One was his ability to make fun of all of us, collectively and also individually, one at a time-you never knew when it was your turn.

It was very, very funny once you got used to it. There was no malice-it was all in good fun/humor, nobody was safe and nothing was off limits. He made fun of everything and everybody-I know this was a quality that was a never ending source of amusement to me and probably bound me to my teacher the most.

 My teacher was very serious about who he trained as a student. There was an expectation
that you would show up on time, give 100%  in class and then practice what he was showing you.
There was also an expectation that you would follow his moral code-you were a representative

of his name, his family art-don't do anything that would take anything away from his reputation.

This kept me on the straight and narrow path-I never wanted to be that guy-the one that badly embarrassed his teacher.

The most important lessons I learned from my teacher were right before my son was born.

He took me aside and said I always needed to be a positive role model for my son, that little eyes and ears were always watching and listening to everything you did, everything you said.

I was grateful then for this guidance, I still am.

He then went on to say"Most important lesson in life-man's words and actions must match,

easy to talk big, hardest thing is to do what you say will do-this man's character"

I have never forgotten his words. Of all the lessons I learned and tests I took in front of my teacher,this was the lifelong test, the most important test I am determined to pass.

A  man could go  his whole life and never get this type of advice.

This is just one example that reflects the mentoring role of my teacher, sharing his positive outlook, his wisdom/life experience.Was this his greatest lesson/test for me? I think so.

The lesson for today is: Positivity

Negativity is everywhere-don't accept it, don't buy into it.You have to question the motives and wisdom of people who are constantly talking bad about other people, whether it's martial arts or life in general-everyone has their own agenda. Just remember-it's only their opinion! 

I choose to keep things in my life positive and to associate with like minded people.
It seems to be working very well for me.

 Peace!

Trees of Loose Park by Brad Hatfield

The company I work for and help manage has been awarded our second
contract for pruning trees at Jacob L. Loose Park/Arboretum in Kansas
City Missouri. This is an invitation only bid to care for some rare and historic
trees. This is the second time VanBooven Tree Care has received this prestigious
contract. I have written the proposals that have landed our company these jobs and
believe I have successfully articulated why our company is best suited
to care for these trees.We have certainly proved it with our pruning abilities.

As an Arborist, it doesn't get much better than this. Arborists take pride in their work
and every pruning job is your signature-what you leave behind, the finished
product, is your own very unique signature.
The opportunity to prune rare and historic trees in a public park/arboretum is
the icing on the cake. We  treat these trees with all the respect they deserve.
Every one of these tees is different,  each one is a unique work of nature.

Loose Park is an iconic 75- acre jewel of the city, a beacon of green grass and lush foliage,
inviting passerby to come stroll through the park and take in the sights or to simply
stop by and rest in the shade of mighty Oaks. If you haven't ever been there or visited
in awhile, you should. It is a rare and wondrous thing to behold in the city.
I have always compared this park to Central Park in New York, a place to come
to get away from the noise and congestion, a place to unwind and feel the grass
under your feet.

Here are a few pictures of my favorite trees.

Pictured below is on of many Northern Red Oaks in the Oak Grove, located on the West side of the park. This particular tree is one of my favorite Northern Red Oaks in the park.

Pictured below is a large, old Chinese Chestnut. These trees are fairly rare in our area, I only know of a few others of this age and size. I love the shape and spread of this particular tree. I pruned this tree myself in 2012, it was like restoring Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel-you have this masterpiece in front of you-you are just cleaning it up, a caretaker of sorts, helping it along for the next generation to appreciate.

Pictured below is one of my favorite Sugar Maple trees, displaying Fall color in the morning light.

Pictured below is one of the larger Sawtooth Oaks in the park. I had to get in the picture, another of my favorite trees. I like the fact that they have retained many of the cool, low limbs-perfect for kids to climb on or easy access up into the tree for 50 year old Arborists. I am compelled to climb up into
these trees every time I am in this park.

Here is  wide shot of the same Sawtooth Oak from the East side, without my mug in the photo.

 Pictured below- a few of the Oaks in the Oak Grove

Pictured below are two giant Tuliptree, old survivors just outside of the Oak Grove.
It is unusual to see Tulip trees this large in our area-being a soft wooded species, most of them don't make it due to our extreme wind and ice storms-large, old soft -wooded trees are an anomaly in Kansas City.These trees are covered in tulip-like flowers in late Spring/early Summer.

Pictured below is a shot of one of the larger Bald cypress trees in the park,
from the inside of the canopy.
.

 Pictured below is a shot of the Bald cypress grove, close to the lagoon.

 Giant Horse chestnut on East side of park, close to tennis courts is pictured below-
This is a cool old tree, another of my favorites!

Pictured below is an English Oak we pruned in 2012-this picture was taken after pruning was completed. This magnificent tree was one of the largest English Oaks in Kansas City.
In the late Summer of 2012 we had a terrible drought, this Oak ultimately did not survive it, it died out a year later.
I went looking for it to get a picture of the tree fully leafed out and saw the spot where it used to be.
It's like losing an old friend- you tend to get deeply invested in the well being of these trees.

Pictured below is a Willow Oak-these are a  true Southern Oak and are evergreen in the deep South.
Fairly rare in our area, I only know of a few others around town. This is a really interesting looking Oak.

Pictured below is a shameless plug for our company-our bucket truck in the Oak grove.
We are nearly finished pruning in this part of the park.It has been a genuine pleasure to care for these trees. I will post more pictures of interesting trees as the work continues. Stop by Loose Park and enjoy these trees.