Class Description
Class will be held in downtown historic Easton. Our classroom will be in the beautiful new Eastern Shore Conservancy building, which features all-native landscaping. Our outdoor component will be a stroll along historic neighborhood streets lined with big, beautiful trees, and it’s no coincidence that we will get to see them at the peak of fall color!

We'll spend the morning in the classroom working on our tree identification skills. We'll use a combination of lecture, individual study, and team activities to build our powers of observation and comparison on fresh samples of tree twigs and leaves. We'll spend the afternoon outside honing our identification skills on Easton’s venerable old street trees.

This is a beginners’ class, designed to help people who've either never studied woody plant identification, or who have studied it and it "didn't stick." Accordingly, we'll limit our focus to a dozen species. However, the booklet you use in class, combined with the skills you acquire in class, will allow you to identify the majority of Maryland's trees.

Note: We will be using the Tree Finder booklet to practice keying out tree species. If you don't have a copy of Tree Finder, don't worry, they'll be available for purchase before class.

Tentative Class Schedule
9:30-10:00am | Attendees check-in and enjoy light refreshments
10:00am-12:00pm | Classroom lecture, individual study, and team activities to facilitate tree identification skills
12:00-12:30pm | Lunch break (bring your own lunch)
12:30-3:30pm | Identification practice on outdoor trees

Rain Date
Monday, November 6th

Required Book
Watts, M. T. (1963, 1991, Rev 1998). Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees by their Leaves. Nature Study Guild Publishers, Rochester, NY. (ISBN 978-0912550015)

Cost if purchased through the Master Gardener Advanced Training Program: $5.00 plus Eventbrite fee

Registrants of the class may either purchase the book on this site while registering for the class, or may purchase the book from another vendor of their choosing (e.g., Amazon). Alternatively, registrants may choose to purchase or rent/borrow the books from a different source (e.g., their local library).

Continuing Education Credits
This class will count as 5.5 hours of UME MG or UME MN continuing education and also towards the Advanced Training: Native Plants Certificate.

Refund Policy
Before October 26th, registrants can receive a full monetary refund. After October 26th, registrants can receive full credit towards a different advanced training event.

Instructor
Dr. Sara Tangren (Agent Associate, Home & Garden Information Center) is a specialist in sustainable landscaping and native plants. Sara worked for many years as a certified forest stand delineator, and has surveyed and developed conservation plans for hundreds of acres of Maryland forest. She sits on the advisory board of the University of Maryland Arboretum & Botanical Garden.