Attendees received a morning of expert shade tree care instruction from noted arborists Bill Spiewak, Dan Condon, George Jimenez, Dougal House, and Ken Knight. For the first time this year, Norm Beard was present to show how to prune fruit trees. Attendees planted a Chinese Flame Tree on the campus as part of the instruction process. In the afternoon, under the supervision of the expert arborists, the attendees split into groups to provide structural pruning to more than 125 young trees planted throughout the San Marcos campus.
In addition to general members of the public attending from as far away as San Luis Obispo, groups represented included San Marcos and Dos Pueblos High students, Los Prietos Boys Camp, and UCSB Devereux Greenhouse and Growing Grounds interns.
Sponsors for this event included Vice Principal Dan Garske and San Marcos High PTA which provided lunch, Central Coast Urban Forest Council supported stipends for several arborists, California ReLeaf provided tools, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection provided educational materials, the Santa Barbara Unified School District provided the Cafeteria where the workshop was located, West Covina Nurseries provided a discount on the Chinese Flame tree, Goleta Valley Beautiful Board members Zea Bauer and Phebe Mansur donated their time to assist in registration and picking up supplies, and hundreds of Goleta Valley Beautiful donor members for supporting the preparation and implementation of this annual event.