nance worker in Fairmount Park and then moving into higher-level roles as she gained experience and took civil service exams to advance. She is a certified arborist, sometimes known as a tree surgeon. She says her curiosity about trees was nurtured by a coworker during her early career at Fairmount Park. “There was a man who knew every tree in the park. We used to walk around at lunchtime and he’d say, ‘Look up. Look down. Look all around.’” Ms. Hayes’ current job requires her to be on call 24 hours a day. A tree emergency can happen at any time, and she has to send out crews to help. She has worked through hurricanes, ice storms, and snowstorms, making sure fallen trees and branches are moved if they are blocking streets. The most dif- ficult emergencies Ms. Hayes has encountered were two cases in which a tree fell and killed someone. On an everyday basis, she oversees care of all of the trees on city streets and parks, sending out crews to rake, trim, and plant, depending on the season. Another of her duties is overseeing the TreePhilly Program, which distributes free trees to city resi- dents during special giveaways twice a year. She and her staff work along with other organizations, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the Fairmount Park Conservatory. Lori M. Hayes Caring for trees as an investment in the future 12 Lori M. Hayes loves trees. As director of urban forestry for the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation depart- ment, she oversees everything related to trees, from planting to trimming to removal of trees knocked over by storms. The one thing she doesn’t do is climb trees. “I must confess I am not a climber,” says Ms. Hayes. Her connection to trees began by chance when she was a little girl and a tree fell on her grandfa- ther’s car in their Germantown neighborhood. “In reality that was my first tree job,” she says. “I was seven, and I never knew my work would involve the removal of downed trees.” Her interest in trees took hold while she was a student at what was then known as the Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia. She went on to earn a degree in horticulture (“it has to do with plants,” she says) from Temple University. Ms. Hayes began a long career with Parks & Recreation in 1981, starting as a ground mainte-