Planning the Urban Forest Trainers

Robert J. Laverne

Robert J. Laverne serves as the Manager of Education and Training for the Davey Tree Expert Company. Laverne is responsible for keeping Davey's 6,000 employees knowledgeable in all aspects of arboriculture and the plant health care sciences. He also conducts research on the benefits of urban trees, particularly on the impact of trees to residential energy use through shading and reduction of wind speed, and of the economic impacts of trees on commercial properties.

Laverne is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Studies at Cleveland State University where his focus is on integrating natural resources into urban planning. Laverne's background includes degrees in biology (University of Michigan) and forestry (Michigan Technological University), and a master's degree in remote sensing (University of Michigan).

He is a Board Certified Master Arborist (ISA) and a Registered Consulting Arborist (ASCA). He also serves on the Advisory Board for the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at Michigan Technological University.

David C. Rouse, AICP

David Rouse is a certified planner and registered landscape architect with 30 years of experience in community planning, design, and implementation. As a principal of Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC (WRT), he leads the firm's national city and regional planning practice.

Rouse has a special interest in and unique perspective on issues related to urban forestry and green infrastructure derived from his background in both planning and landscape architecture. He has addressed these issues in many comprehensive plan elements (current clients include Albany, New York; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Austin, Texas), in stand-alone plans (e.g., the Atlanta Greenspace Plan and Lancaster County Green Infrastructure Plan), and in implementing ordinances (current projects include a Tree Protection Ordinance review for Atlanta and landscaping and tree protection regulations for the new Philadelphia Zoning Code).

Rouse's work has been recognized with numerous awards, such as the Overall Excellence in Smart Growth Award awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for Envision Lancaster County. In addition to the Green Infrastructure Plan, Rouse led WRT's work on the Growth Management Plan, two multi-municipal comprehensive plans, and several other projects in Lancaster County.