Dr Greg McPherson
 Dr Greg McPherson, project leader for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Centre for Urban Forest Research.
In his role, Greg conducts research that measures and models the benefits and costs of urban forests. He teaches urban forestry courses at UC Davis and is a faculty member of the Graduate Group in Geography and the Horticulture Graduate Group.
Greg received a Bachelor's of General Studies from the University of Michigan in 1975, a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture from Utah State University in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Forestry from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse in 1986.
After completing his Ph.D., Greg was an Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Arizona's School of Renewable Resources for six years. He then joined the Forest Service as the lead scientist on the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project in 1991. Greg has been at the Centre since 1993.
Greg will be discussing research regarding urban forestry in relation to carbon, water and heater island effect.
Research in the USA has identified the benefits or urban planting in relation to:
• Control of water flow after rain events
• Reduced temperatures in car parks with reduced fuel volatisation etc
• Shading of bitumen on roads reduces damage
• Community pride
• Carbon sequestration that can be of benefit to local councils
USDA has developed tools to support this research and provide local government with real $ values to justify increased expenditure.
Adam Schwerner
 Adam Schwerner – Chicago Park District, Director – Department of Natural Resources.
The Department of Natural Resources (CDNR) was created in 2001 and is responsible for ensuring the quality of the districts 7,300 acres of land. Through enhanced landscape management, staff training and constant high quality maintenance, the department is quickly becoming a benchmark by which many muncipal organisations measure the quality of their landscape and gardening.
CDNR manages the district's citywide floral beds, enhanced maintenance sites, holiday lighting initiatives, Arboretum in the Park sites, forestry operations, nature areas, lagoon restorations, athletic fields and two worlds-class conservatories.
The Department has won numerous awards including the Gold Award for the 2003 Nations in Bloom competition.
Adam is also on the Board of Growing Home which provides job training for homeless and low-income people in Chicago through a social enterprise business based on organic agriculture. All of the proceeds made from sales of organic produce are used to improve the training programme and pay for upkeep of the farm sites.
At the Urban GreenScapes Symposium, Adam will discuss getting regulatory approval for increased urban greening.
He will talk about how Chicago embraced green space as a key component of its image and the driving factors behind the city going green. He will discuss what barriers were faced and how they were overcome, what the costs are for beautifying streetscapes with major plantings and what the economic paybacks are.
Professor Tony Hall
Professor Tony Hall, Griffith University will discuss Australian backyards and how development space is being limited by building regulations.
In Australia, many legislators are looking to increase population densities at the expense of environmental aspects considered by some to be the essence of the Australian lifestyle.
Plants are now competing for space with paved hard surfaces, home theatres and other developer led “must haves”.
Tony will present a summary of Griffith University research into the loss of backyards and the impact this has on space for planting.
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