Guy Sternberg is a landscape architect, arborist, tree consultant, writer, lecturer, and photographer from Illinois. He has propagated and grown hundreds of species of trees, both native and nonnative, and maintains his own research arboretum, Starhill Forest, with his wife, Edie. He was the first president of the International Oak Society and is a life member of the International Dendrology Society, the International Society of Arboriculture, and American Forests. Sternberg gives classes and presentations all over the country. A frequent lecturer for horticultural and natural resource organizations, Sternberg is listed in the Web directory of the Garden Writers Association of America. He has provided many magazine articles and photographs for publications including American Nurseryman, Arborist News, Garden Gate, American Horticulturist, Oak News and Notes, Weedpatch Gazette, American Gardener, Fine Gardening, and the French Bulletin de l'Association des Parcs Botaniques. When asked how long he worked on Native Trees for North American Landscapes, Sternberg replies that he began research in 1952 when he planted his first tree seed in his childhood sandbox. Now he holds the official oak genus Quercus living reference collection for North America, recognized by the North American Plant Preservation Council. His sandbox experience served him well. Guy Sternberg states, "Native trees are important because they have evolved with local flora and fauna, so they will help support the web of life without being overwhelmed by it. They will not become the next exotic-weed problem species because they have already colonized their niche long before we arrived and began tinkering with the landscape. Finally, they convey a sense of place that exotic species never can.
Wilson is director of Data and Decision.
