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Ms. Ren Davidson 2295 Riverside Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97403 SUBJECT: Urban Forester Selection Process Thank you for your call last week. From our conversation, I understand you are concerned that the selection process for the Urban Forester position may over focus on managerial and administrative skills at the expense of specific urban forestry vision and technical knowledge, and that the educational aspects of the position may not be adequately addressed. After our conversa- tion, I reviewed the full recruitment and selection process for this posi- tion. This is what I found. The posting for the Urban Forester position defines its basic purpose as "to plan, organize, and coordinate the the activities of the City's urban forest- ry program." The examples of specific job duties clearly define this posi- tion as the city organization's lead professional in the field of urban forestry. Duties such as coordinating all issues regarding urban forestry with other agencies and throughout the city organization; instructing city employees on urban forestry issues; advising the public and developers on tree care; developing educational programs, working with community groups on tree related issues are listed. I have attached the entire posting, rather that restate all of the examples of duties. From this I conclude that the recruitment was initially focused on the broad urban forestry skills you mentioned. The position was advertised in Oregon newspapers and in Arbor Age, a forestry trade journal. Our recruitment attracted 45 candidates. Applicants were asked to submit an employment application and, if they wished, a resume. Each was also required to respond to a supplemental ques- tionnaire. This was used to assist the selecting manager to evaluate each candidate beyond the contents of the resume and application. Among the supplemental questions asked each candidate were the following: * Describe in detail what steps you would take in developing a comprehen- sive street tree maintenance plan. * Please state your philosophy on what the mission of an urban forestry program should be. Within this philosophy, what is the role of the urban forester? * A lot has been said about the importance of species diversity with re- spect to a forest's health. What would you consider as a threshold population for any one species in the ideal urban forest? Why? The entire questionnaire is attached to the posting. I believe that this portion of the selection was directed toward the broad urban forestry skills that you had mentioned.