FOREST SHOW LEAVING CAPE

That's good news for St. Charles, but bad news for Cape Girardeau.

The show, one of the nation's largest showcases of sawmill, logging, pallet and related manufacturing equipment, supplies and services, is a two-day event which has been held in Cape Girardeau over the past decade.

The biannual show has drawn a large audience of the forest products industry's key personnel and customers, along with thousands of spectators for each show in Cape Girardeau.

As many as 5,000 to 6,000 to people attend the event.

The Missouri Forest Products Association (MFPA) expects the new location at St. Charles the Family Arena will better accommodate the growing number of exhibitors and visitors. The arena is just a few minutes from Lambert International Airport.

"We look forward to moving to the Family Arena in St. Charles to provide more exhibit space," said Cory Ridenhour, executive director of the MFPA.

The Family Arena provides more than a quarter million square feet for exhibits, displays and demonstrations.

The show features more than 150 exhibitions of new machinery, supplies, services and equipment used in the forest industry, with exhibitors from 32 states and Canada.

The first forestry show was held here in September 1988, marking the first giant trade show to be booked for Show Me Center on Southeast Missouri State University campus.

The show is the largest forestry industry exhibition in the Midwest and attracts customers and visitors from long distances. During the most recent show, people were here form Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Japan, France and Brazil.

The show has been held every two years since the early 1960s. The first Missouri show was held in Rolla.

Tree man becomes a certified arborist'

Keith Wright has been trimming shrubs and trees since he was 15 years old.

"My grandfather and an uncle were in that type of business," said Wright recently. "I became interested."

And his interest in arboriculture never waned.

He participated in seminars on trees, pruning, safety/climbing, identification, and tree care. He founded Wright's Tree Service in Cape Girardeau about 14 years ago.

And recently Wright became the only "certified arborist" in the immediate Southeast Missouri area. Wright's certification, by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), recognized his knowledge in the field of arboriculture.

The International Society of Arboriculture has served the tree care industry for over seventy years as a scientific and educational organization.

ISA was founded in 1924 when a group of 40 individuals were called together by the Connecticut Tree Protection Examining Board to discuss shade tree problems. The National Shade Tree Conference was founded.

The group eventually changed its name in 1968 to the International Shade Tree Conference (ISTC).

Eight years later, the ISTC became the International Society of Arboriculture.

The ISA continued to be a medium through which arborists around the world share their experience and knowledge to foster a better understanding of trees and tree care through research and the education of professionals.

Wright had to complete the Arborist Certification Examination, which included testing on 10 subjects, from nutrition/fertilization of trees to diagnostic and treatment of trees. Also included in the testing were topics concerning safety in working with trees and tree identification.

An arborist is a specialist in the care of individual trees. He is knowledgeable about the needs of trees, and are trained and equipped to provide proper care pruning, removal of trees, emergency tree care (removing storm-damaged trees), planting and a variety of other tree care measures.