Wyoming Groundskeepers & Growers Association, Inc.

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Speaker Biography & Lecture Detail
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Karen Panter 

Native Plants on the UW Berry Building Green Roof
 Wednesday, February 15th, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

We’ll talk about some of the 60+ species of native plants that were planted on the green roof of the University of Wyoming’s Berry Biodiversity Conservation Building. Some of the plants were bought in as liners from commercial producers, while others not available as liners were grown from seeds.

BIOGRAPHY:  I've been at the University of Wyoming since August of 1998. I teach one horticulture course each semester, except in the summer. Every fall I teach PLNT 2025 - Horticultural Science, on-line. The other two courses I teach are on campus. Even springs is PLNT 3300 or Horticultural Plant Propagation. Odd springs is PLNT 4180/5180 Horticultural Herbaceous Plant Production - aka greenhouse crop production.
    Half of my job is the state Extension Horticulture Specialist for the University of Wyoming. I answer questions and provide technical support for commercial horticulture - aka green industries - in Wyoming and elsewhere.
    I am a graduate of the University of Nebraska and Colorado State University. All three degrees (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.) and most of my work experience are in greenhouse crop production and greenhouse management.

"UW Horticulture All-Stars" :  Axle Garcia y Garcia -- Irrigation Specialist, Powell, Wyoming
              Christopher Hilger -- State Master Gardener Coordinator, UW Campus
              Sadanand Dhekney -- Horticulture Reasearcher/Instructor, Sheridan, WY

Sadanand:  I received my PhD in Horticulture from the University of Florida in 2004. My research is primarily focused on genetic improvement of tropical and sub-tropical fruits using contemporary approaches in breeding and biotechnology. I joined the University of Wyoming in January 2012. My program will utilize techniques in breeding and biotechnology along with improved management practices for expanding grapevine production in Wyoming. Screening Vitis germplasm for yield, quality and cold-hardiness, and evaluation of production systems for seedless grape cultivars in high tunnels will be a major focus area. Additionally, the program will also incorporate recent advances in grapevine genomics and biotechnology for improving abiotic stress tolerance of elite cultivars and rootstocks.

Cindy Fulton

Wednesday, February 16th, 8:00 am to 10:00 am:  WYPDES/NPDES

New requirements governing pesticide applications in, over, or near waters of the US require a new permit. This is overseen by Wyoming DEQ, but the Wyoming Department of Agriculture will aid in education to bring applicators into compliance. This was enacted 10-31-11. Questions and answers concerning thresholds for applications, preparation of the Notice of Intent, and the permit itself will be addressed.
     WYPDES: Wyoming Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
    NPDES: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

Wednesday, February 16th, 10:15 am to Noon: Pesticide Updates

New requirements have evolved for pesticide use. Worker Protection Standard continues to be the priority for EPA. Also label requirements for use guidelines have had some significant changes recently. Drift interpretation language continues to be of interest.
    PS If you would like the initial presentation repeated twice due to interest, I can do that. If you are going to have other presenters address the WYPDES issue, it may be redundant. It is up to you. If I do two separate presentations it allows more CEU’s to be earned.

BIOGRAPHY:  Cindy Fulton was born and raised in Powell, Wyoming. I graduated from Powell High School in 1974. I graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1978 with a degree in Microbiology.
    I taught Microbiology at Northwest College for two years.
    I worked at Cody Laboratories, a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm as a Quality Control Specialist. This involved oversight of production of pharmaceutical active ingredients to insure integrity of the product.
    I have worked as a pesticide compliance officer for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture for 6 years. I am based in Powell.
    I have been married to Pidge Fulton for 33 years. We have two grown sons, one a teacher and head wrestling coach in Lander and the other a small business owner in Powell.

Donna Cuin

Plant Selection Demonstration Garden
Thursday, February 16th 3:15 pm  to 4:15 pm 

Plant Select® has been providing plants for Demonstration Gardens to test over the past fifteen years.  The Agricultural Resource & Learning Center in Casper designed a xeric focused garden to assist local and regional Gardeners to select plants suitable for local drought conditions in 1999 and 2000.  Since attending ProGreen in 2003 I became interested in trialing Plant Select® plants and have had many successes with plants from the program in the gardens on our grounds here in Casper.  I will highlight some of the plants that are special favorites and talk about providing demonstration garden information to the public to use in their own landscape design processes.

BIOGRAPHY:  Donna Cuin is a Wyoming native who grew up in and around Casper. She attended the University of Wyoming where she received a Bachelor’s Degree from the Plant Sciences Department in the College of Agriculture. Donna worked part time and seasonally early in her career in the Green Industry, and has worked in Public Service as well as in the retail segments of the industry. Currently Donna is the Horticulturist and Master Gardener Coordinator at the UW Natrona County Extension Office, where she has been involved in the gardens at the ARLC since her hire in 2002. Donna has been a member of WGGA since 2007.

Mark "Oly" Ellison, Wyoming State Forestry Division

Tree Species of Wyoming
Thursday, February 16th, 10:30 am to Noon

Trees for Wyoming- We really can grow more than cottonwood and spruce!

Oly will review a recently completed guide called Trees for Wyoming, which is considered the most comprehensive list of deciduous and coniferous trees for Wyoming and includes several newly developed varieties and cultivars.  He will also discuss several elm tree trials which are being conducted around the country and will recommend which elms are the best suited for WY.  His presentation will include pictures of several of the recommended trees growing in WY and surrounding states.  Please bring your questions and find out which of these trees could be planted in your community.

 Planting and Care of Young Trees
Thursday, February 16th, 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Young Tree Planting and Care- You can’t plant it and walk away in Wyoming! 

Oly’s presentation will focus how to plant and care for young trees with the goal of growing a healthy and strong tree that will become established quickly and grow rapidly.  The latest research on proper tree planting techniques will be discussed and examples of mistakes that are often made will be highlighted.  Topics such as watering, mulching, tree protection, fertilizing and pruning will be covered in detail.          

BIOGRAPHY:  Mark “Oly” Ellison is a graduate of Colorado State’s Forestry School.  He got his start in community forestry working for the forestry divisions of Longmont and Ft. Collins, Colorado.  He started working for the Wyoming State Forestry Division in 1998 and was stationed in Riverton for 10 years before moving to Minnesota to work for the Department of Natural Resources.  He returned to Wyoming in 2009 and currently is a community resource forester for the Wyoming State Forestry Division.  Oly is a certified arborist and is involved with community forestry training and management activities throughout the state.   

Kelli Belden

Soil Fertility and Nutrition
Thursday, February 16th, 10:30 pm to Noon

BIOGRAPHY:  Kelli has run the Soil Testing Laboratory at the University of Wyoming since 1982.  In 2008 she added managing the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Laramie R and E Center Greenhouse Facility to her responsibilities.  She also teaches a soils class for the UW Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program.

R.P. Kelli Belden
University of Wyoming
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Soils Testing Laboratory and Laramie R&E Center Greenhouses
962 N 30th St.
Laramie, WY  82072
307 745 4825

Keith Worley

Firewise Communities, Ready! Set! Go!
Wednesday, February 15th, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

This session will cover Firewise Communities, and the Ready! Set! Go! program as tools for creating fire adapted communities. Learn how public/private partnerships can be established to create safer communities where wildfires are less destructive.

BIOGRAPHY:  Keith Worley is the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Firewise Advisor for Region SW-2 covering Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Utah and Texas.  He has enjoyed 30+ years of experience as a forester, arborist, wildfire mitigation specialist and land development consultant in the Rocky Mountain Region.  He has been dubbed the “fire wiseguy” by his fellow arborists and NFPA associates.  Some of you may recall his presentations last year on “Wildfire in the Greenbelt” and “Humor in the Woo-eee!”

Scott Schell

New and Old Tree Pests
 Thursday, February 16th, 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

BIOGRAPHY: 

Leah Coleman

WYPDES Pesticide Permitting
 Wednesday, February 15th, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

This lecture will provide an update on the status of the WYPDES Pesticides General Permits. In addition, it will provide a detailed summary of the application and permit requirements. 

BIOGRAPHY:  My Name is Leah Coleman and I have been working for the DEQ for the last 19 years. Initially, I was a data entry clerk and compliance officer. Later in my career I began drafting WYPDES Permits and currently I am the supervisor of the WYPDES Permitting Program.

Pam Jones

Muddy Boots on White Carpets Customer Service Solutions
 Wednesday, February 15th, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

It is the customer who drives your business and have high demands especially in this economy. Providing outstanding service ensures repeat business, networking and referrals along with a less stressful business environment. The lecture will touch upon points of professionalism such as mediation and negotiation, dress code, verbal and body language and observing the "customer is always right" rule. Customer service training is a mandatory skill for organizations to be successful.

BIOGRAPHY:  Pam Jones is the Workforce Advisor for the Education and Training for Self Sufficiency (ETSS) and Dads Making a Difference programs at Casper College. Pam’s life-long passion for customer service, etiquette and ethics started with her career as a STAR at McDonald’s and continued over the years through customer service management positions in retail, credit banking and college and university work. She is currently completing her Master of Science in Management with an emphasis in Change Leadership & Ethics. Pam is an experienced speaker and has offered classes in Customer Service, Business Etiquette, Manners for Children through Aesop’s Fables, Resume’ & Interviewing Skills, Dress for Success and many other topics. Outside of work, Pam is married and has a 14 year old son. Together, the family enjoys cooking, reading and serving their community through many volunteer activities.

Tom Heald

Herbicides, Weeds, and Active Ingredients
 Wednesday, February 17th, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Participants will learn about native and adapted plants that can tolerate the realities of living in Wyoming conditions with minimal irrigation.  These are extraordinary plants that exhibit the beauty we've all come to love and appreciate from living in Wyoming.

BIOGRAPHY:  I personally hate serious bio's! A little tongue in cheek is more my style. Tom is unquestionably the least interesting man in the world. Fewer than 1% of the 30,000 people he's helped make landscape decisions actually followed up on his advice. When writing a weekly gardening article for Wyoming's largest newspaper, most subscribers tuned in not to be informed but to laugh.. Like Rodney Dangerfield, Tom gets no respect.

How about this. Tom worked for the University of Wyoming Extension Service for 26 years. In that time he was called upon to teach and advise nearly 30,000 Wyoming residents on the best management practices for their landscapes. Tom developed a weekly gardening TV segment called 'From the Ground Up' and further championed a weekly gardening article for the largest newspaper in Wyoming, the Casper Star Tribune.

Tom's passion is to rethink plants in the landscape. Beginning in 2000, at the beginning of the Drought, he came to the conclusion that as a western society, we were choosing the wrong plant materials for the conditions. Tom began serious inquiries into native and adapted plant species that can handle limited moisture, poor soils, high wind and serious cold conditions. What he found was compelling and he resigned from UW in 2011 and started the Wyoming Plant Company which features many of the plants Tom will present in today's class.

Craig Florence

Polyfussion Pike
 Thursday, February 16th, 10:30 am to 12 Noon

Introduction to HDPE

1.  Basics of Polyethylene
    A.  Resin Types
        1.  MDPE 2406
        2.  HDPE 3408
        3.  UHDPE 4710
    B.  Properties
        1.  Density
        2.  Wall Thickness
            a.  SDR
            B.  SIDR

2.  Features & Benefits of Polyethylene
    A.  Flexible - longer lengths
    B.  UV Resistant
    C.  Minimal Thrust Blocking
    D.  Joints are Strongest Part of System
    E.   Quick Joint Make-UP
    F.  Simple Choice of Fittings - Transition to other material
    G.  System Life Span

3.  Types of Fusion
    A. Butt
    B.  Socket
    C.  Electrofusion

4.  Approvals
    A.  NSF
    B.  AWWA

5.  Fusion Process - Demonstration
    A.  Butt
    B.  Electrofusion

www.polyfittings.com
www.electrofusionfittings.com
www.hdpefab.com

BIOGRAPHY: Craig has been with The Dillon Company, an independent rep firm, in Denver for 25 years and in the industry for over 30 years.  He is a graduate of the University of Colorado. 

Craig has been involved with many manufactures and their wide variety of products in his technical and sales endeavors.

Craig has taught educational seminars on Backflow Preventions, Confined Space Alternatives, Control Valves, and Plastic Pipe and Fittings for the Wyoming Groundskeepers Growers Association, Water Well Association, Rocky Mountain Turf Grass, Colorado Rural Water, Wyoming Rural Water, Wyoming Water Quality Association,  Colorado Backflow Prevention Association, as well as many training seminars for contractors, engineers, and wholesalers.

Steve Cole

Playgrounds
 Wednesday, February 15th, 8:00 am to 10:00 am

BIOGRAPHY

Mark Patceg

Cemetery Round Table
 Wednesday, February 15th, 10:25 am to 12 Noon

Cemeterians from around Wyoming! Bring your ideas, concerns, questions, but especially bring yourselves to a round table discussion of everything cemetery related. We’ll talk grounds, funerals, suppliers, customer relations and opportunities that are part of operating cemeteries today.

BIOGRAPHY:  Mark Patceg manages Highland Cemetery in Casper Wyoming. He has worked for the City of Casper for 31 years and is ISA and Wyoming Pesticide certified. He has been a member of the WGGA board, Colorado Association of Cemeteries, the International Cemetery and Funeral Association, and is a member of the Converse County Parks and Recreation Board.

Carl Thuesen

Building a Community Park:  Involving Everyone from Kids to Retirees, Laymen to Professionals and Engineers to Artists
 Thursday, February 16th, 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

This talk will present the story of a multi-year process to build a small community park in Billings, Montana on a volunteer labor, donated materials and pay-as-you-go basis. With pro-bono assistance from Carl Thuesen, and by working together, this group of ordinary people has created an extraordinary gift to their community. Along the way we learned that the journey can be as rewarding as reaching the goal.

BIOGRAPHY:  Carl Thuesen is a consulting landscape architect with offices in Billings, Montana. He is licensed in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and Idaho. Carl also holds nationally recognized CLARB certification as a landscape architect. His business provides complete design services for golf courses, parks, athletic facilities, and cemeteries, as well as complex large-scale irrigation systems and traditional site planning and landscape architecture. Carl enjoys playing bluegrass and old time fiddle music with his wife Irene and children. He spends as much time as possible in the outdoors hunting, fishing and backpacking.

Mark Ferrel

The Pesticide Label
 Thursday, February 16th, 3:15 pm to 4:15 pm

By law, certain kinds of information must appear on a pesticide label. People who use pesticides have the LEGAL responsibility to read, understand and follow the label directions. Protection of people and the environment from harmful effects of pesticides is based primarily on three factors.

  • Pesticides must be registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before they can be sold or applied.
  • Pesticide labels provide necessary information to pesticide users for safe handling.
  • Pesticides must be used according to label instructions to achieve effective pest control and safe handling.

The pesticide registration process requires extensive testing for potential adverse health and environmental effects for each pesticide. The registration process takes many years and costs millions of dollars. Pesticide labels are developed to inform applicators about safe and proper use of the product, to warn about potential risks, and to recommend methods to avoid risks.

Read and understand the pesticide label before you buy the product. Read the label before mixing, applying, or storing the pesticide, or before disposing of the container. Anyone possessing, handling, or applying a pesticide is responsible and can be held liable for any damage, loss, or unintended consequences that the pesticide may cause.

Handling and applying pesticides requires knowledge, care, and good judgment. Every applicator must read, understand, and follow the pesticide label instructions.

BIOGRAPHY:  Mark was born and raised in Wyoming. He grew up in Sundance, a small town in northeastern Wyoming where his father was the county extension agent. Mark is an extension educator at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. He received his B.S. in biology, M.S. in soil science and Ph.D. in weed science from the University of Wyoming. Mark began his career at the University of Wyoming in soils in 1978. He began his weed science career in 1983, also with the University of Wyoming. His current activities include research and demonstration work with perennial weeds in range and pasture. He is also the extension pesticide specialist, pest management coordinator, and IR-4 (minor use of pesticides) coordinator for Wyoming. His interests focus on training private and commercial pesticide applicators in the safe and proper use of pesticides.

Rob Meyers

Introduction to Tree Climbing - Closed system techniques
Thursday, February 16th, 3:15 pm to 4:15 pm

This class will introduce students to the equipment, knots, and techniques used in closed system tree climbing.   Participants will have the opportunity to practice what they learn with hands on practical climbing exercises.

BIOGRAPHY:   Rob Meyers is an ISA Certified Arborist.  His career has included work as a climbing arborist for the City of Casper from 1994-98, as well as Wyoming Trees Inc. From 1998 to the present.  In addition to actively promoting safe climbing techniques, he works occasionally as an instructor teaching beginning and intermediate climbing, most notably for Arboriculture Education Associates, a Wyoming based Arboricultural  Education firm.

Benjamin Coffey

HydroPoint Product Specialist & Certified Water Manager

Weather-Based Irrigation by WeatherTRAK Pro2 Central
Wednesday, February 15th, 8:00 am to 12 noon

This training will cover each factors used of scientifically calculated irrigation and the principles of Water Management.  We will cover Science of Evapotranspiration, the landscape variables (i.e. plant type, soil type, etc.) that determine how much irrigation a station will need and tools the WeatherTRAK provides to help maximize conservation and Water Management principles.

BIOGRAPHY:  I have been in the irrigation profession since 1993; I have provided design, install, and maintenance services for both residential and commercial irrigation systems.  For the past five years I have been a HydroPoint Product Specialist where I serve as a Product Specialist responsible for field support and training for WeatherTRAK ET series controllers.  I earned my Certified Water Manager credentials through the California Landscape Contractors Association Certified Water Manager program in 2009.

Jeremy Buhl

Weed Control Issues in Turf and in Landscape Beds
Wednesday, February 15th, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

I will talk about the major weed problems of rocky mountain/great plains region turfgrasses, and some of the control options. Also, I will speak about some of the key weed control issues pertaining to landscape/ornamental bed

BIOGRAPHY:  Jeremy grew up on a large, family farm in northeast Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Since graduation; Jeremy has gained 15 years experience as an agronomist and sales/marketing specialist.  He has broad experience in the turf/ornamental, agricultural, and range/pasture fields. Jeremy is currently a territory manager and agronomist with PBI/Gordon and he has been CCA certified with the American Society of Agronomy since 1998. He currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife, Jenny; and son, Christian.