DEEPLY DISTURBED: THE HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FORESTS

Tuesday January 13, 2026 

11:00 am - 12:00 NOON

The northeastern United States is a naturally forested landscape and has been so for thousands of years before European settlement. Dr. Del Tredici will present an overview of the recent history of the New England landscape as impacted by natural disasters, agriculture, logging, shifting land-use patterns (urbanization and suburban sprawl), introduced pests and diseases, invasive species, and climate change. He will speculate on how the “emergent” ecology that has develop in response to these factors differs from that of the past and what the implications are for future landscapes.

CEU Credits: ISA, AOLCP

Peter Del Tredici, Ph.D.

Research Scientist Emeritus
Arnold Arboretum

Peter Del Tredici, Ph.D., is a botanist and urban ecologist renowned for his research on woody plants and the ecology of the Ginkgo tree. He holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Boston University. For 35 years, he worked at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, serving as Plant Propagator, Curator of the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection, Editor of Arnoldia, Director of Living Collections, and Senior Research Scientist. His extensive fieldwork in China, Japan, and Korea has contributed to understanding plant resilience and urban ecology. Dr. Del Tredici has published over a hundred articles and authored Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast (Cornell University Press, 2010; 2nd ed. 2020). He has taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and MIT, and in 2013 received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Veitch Gold Medal for his contributions to horticultural science and practice.