The Arborist's Compass is about seeing your neighborhood differently. The trees on your block are more than background. They are part of the health, wealth, and future of your community. We get into the real conversations behind them: climate, heat, fire, drought, jobs, money, faith, science, and what it means to take care of the place you call home. No lectures. No talking down. Just real people, real questions, and a fresh look at how something as simple as a tree can help build a stronger, healthier, and more prosperous neighborhood.
Creation care isn't a slogan. It's a job with dirt under its fingernails.
Soil biology, water stress, fire ecology: the real mechanics of how trees live and die.
California's canopy is inherited. What we do with it is our decision.
Board Certified Master Arborist · Urban Forester
Kyle is a Board Certified Master Arborist, the highest credential the International Society of Arboriculture awards, held by a small fraction of certified arborists. He is an urban forester and natural resource management advisor with 22 years in the field. He currently serves as an Urban Forestry Advisor for the County of Santa Clara.
His work is policy, planning, and management rather than climbing: canopy assessments, species selection, wildfire and drought resilience, and helping public agencies and landowners make decisions that play out over decades. He hosts The Arborist's Compass because those questions about faith, responsibility, and what we owe the landscapes we inherit deserve a straight conversation with the students who inherit them next.
He is the author of the Faith Forest Initiative and of a booklet outlining the Faith Forest Framework, a blueprint for faith based community tree planting that builds reciprocity, grows tree bounty in neighborhoods, and increases social and canopy equity at the county level.
Built for middle school and high school listeners, and the adults in the room with them.
Real careers you've never heard of, gear that's genuinely cool, and questions nobody else is answering straight.
Every episode is family safe and ready for conversation. We flag heavier topics up front so nothing blindsides you.
Episode guides, discussion questions, and field trip ideas for teachers and homeschool groups.
Ready to print • Grades 7 to 12 • ~30 min discussion
A tree in your neighborhood was planted before anyone you know was born. Who does it belong to: the property owner, the neighborhood, or nobody?
Stewardship means caring for something you don't own. Where else in your life does that idea apply?
Scientists can measure a tree's water stress. Can they measure whether cutting it down is right? What tools do we use for that question?
California's fire ecology depends on some trees burning. When is removal or fire part of caring for a landscape rather than destroying it?
Arborists make decisions with consequences 50 years out. Name a decision you're making now with a long tail.
If faith and science disagreed about a land use decision, how would you work through it instead of picking a side?
What's one thing you could actually do this month for a tree near you, and what would stop you?
Start here • mix of science, story, and field reference
Peter Wohlleben
Accessible entry point on how trees communicate and share resources. Great for middle school readers.
Bruce M. Pavlik and others
Field guide style look at the oak woodlands that define much of the state's landscape.
Edited by van Wagtendonk, Sugihara and others
Denser and more technical, good for high schoolers digging into fire ecology.
Richard Powers
A novel, not a textbook. Fiction that raises the ethical questions we keep circling back to. Mature themes, so parents may want to read alongside.