Colin Conner
Colin Conner has been Hoover’s city forester since 1998 and recently was made a manager in the Hoover Public Works Department.
Q: How long have you been the city forester?
A: I started in 1998, so I tipped over 25 years in December.
Q: What do you do in a nutshell?
A: I manage the horticulture and urban forestry division of the Public Works Department. That ranges from tree care and landscape care to turf care (including sports fields). We even do vegetative maintenance on public right-of-way, and sadly, I have reached now into the world of litter control, so I’m helping keep the city clean. But a highlight still today with our urban forestry program is consultation with residents. I field calls all the time from residents who have concerns about trees. We’ll talk things through over the phone and even make house calls and put hands on trees and kind of try to identify risk characteristics or species ID.
Q: Why did you decide to go into forestry?
A: I always was drawn to the outdoors. … I wanted a career in forestry, maybe managing parks like in state park settings or working as a veterinarian, and I quickly realized I didn’t have the brain capacity to go through vet school, so I just chose forestry.
Q: What’s your favorite tree and why?
A: That’s an unfair question for a forester. If I had to pick one, it would be quercus alba, which is white oak. Oaks just have a really unique ability to live a long time. I just appreciate an older, larger tree — a tree that’s been around the block a time or two.
Q: If you weren’t doing this, what would you like to do?
A: I think it would be cool to travel but earn an income at the same time, so having a transport service and delivering unique items around the country is something that appeals to me.
