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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>I would also mention that the late Willem (Bill Morsink) also worked with Mike and Dr. Martin Hubbes towards a vaccine for DED that was tested in Manitoba / Winnipeg area.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Jack Radecki RCA 342<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces@list.web.net> <b>On Behalf Of </b>PHILIP WASSENAER via CANUFNET<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, July 1, 2025 5:15 PM<br><b>To:</b> Mike Rosen via CANUFNET <canufnet@list.web.net><br><b>Cc:</b> PHILIP WASSENAER <pwassenaer1022@rogers.com><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [CANUFNET] Remembering Mike Allen<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Thank you so Much Michael for this written eulogy fir Mike. He was a great freind, colleague and mentor to me and always a gracious host.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>His imprint on Winnipeg urban forestry will not fade for a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>May he rest in peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Sad news but thanks for sharing it.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Philip<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Philip van Wassenaer, B.SC., MFC<br>1331 Northaven Drive<br>Mississauga, Ontario<br>Canada, L5G 4E8<br>Tel: (905) 274-1022 <br>Cell: (647) 221 3046<br>Fax: (905) 274 2170</span><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div id="ydpf814d018yahoo_quoted_1437457272"><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#26282A'>On Tuesday, July 1, 2025 at 11:25:36 a.m. EDT, Mike Rosen via CANUFNET <<a href="mailto:canufnet@list.web.net">canufnet@list.web.net</a>> wrote: <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#26282A'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#26282A'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div id=ydpf814d018yiv2790612668><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><img border=0 width=297 height=385 style='width:3.0937in;height:4.0104in' id="ydpf814d018yiv2790612668image_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01DBEB2E.18020490"><img border=0 width=150 height=195 style='width:1.5625in;height:2.0312in' id="ydpf814d018yiv2790612668image_0" src="cid:image002.png@01DBEB2E.18020490"></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#26282A'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Mike Allen<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Mike Allen was part of the “first wave” of professional urban foresters in Canada. He passed away on June 8th in Kelowna, B.C. at the age of 79.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Born in England, he came to Canada with his family at an early age, graduating from high school in Scarborough, ON. He received a B.Sc. Forestry from the University of Toronto in 1970 and then worked for two years in Nigeria, teaching about sustainable tree practices and directing reforestation efforts there. He received his Master’s in Forestry in 1975 and was a part of the <i>Shade Tree Laboratory</i>; established by the grandfather of urban forestry - U of T forestry professor Erik Jorgensen in 1962. Jorgensen oversaw Mike’s Master’s thesis which used sociological principles to study the effect of trees on property values in the Beaches area of Toronto – a concept very much ahead of its time.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>While at U of T, Mike met his wife, Susan, who was a sociology student at the time. He married her in1973 and they were lifelong partners for 52 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Upon graduation he worked for Ecoplans Ltd. In Kitchener, ON and for Centre Gas in Edmonton, AB. Mike eventually was recruited to be the City of Winnipeg’s urban forester by John Hreno in 1988. He stayed in that position until 2001, building an urban forestry program that is known as one of the best in Canada for its successes in maintaining canopy cover in a city that was a natural prairie.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>He instinctively understood the crucial role that city council played in maintaining canopy cover. He was fearless in contacting the media to seek their support to preserve Winnipeg’s trees. Indeed, when media “gag orders” were issued by municipal managers, Mike was often an exception – his natural media skills being that good. He was a regular columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, on Dorothy Dobbie’s gardening show on CJOB and in the Canadian Gardener magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>One of his proudest career achievements was his steadfast refusal to a request by the actor Brad Pitt to cut the trees in the Exchange District for the 1994 film, “Legends of the Fall”, filmed in Winnipeg because of its resemblance to midwestern American cities of another era.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>He understood the power of citizen support and cultivated relationships with the <i>Coalition to Save the Elms,</i> a group of concerned citizens who came together in 1992 to preserve North America’s largest remaining urban elm forest from the devastation of Dutch Elm Disease. The Coalition developed into <i>Trees Winnipeg</i> in which he maintained close relationships with Gerry Engel, Matt Vinet and Richard Westwood among others. Martha Barwinsky, herself once the Director of the Coalition, learned much from Mike, eventually becoming the city’s urban forester.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>In 2001, after leaving the City of Winnipeg, he developed an urban forestry consulting company, <i>Viburnum Tree Experts</i>. He provided consulting services to universities, residents, developers, legal cases, and others as “Dr. Tree”. Mike authored books including, “Dr. Tree’s Guide to the Common Diseases of Urban Prairie Trees”. He collaborated in the <i>International Society of Arboriculture</i>’s Certified Arborist course. He was, until 2019, a Registered Professional Forester with the Ontario Professional Foresters Association. He was a judge for <i>Communities-in-Bloom</i> which influenced his decision to move to Kelowna, B.C. in 2021, along with the fact that his son, James, and daughter-in-law, Sarah, had moved there previously.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>In 2022, his son James scrawled the words “Grandma & Grandpa” on his (favourite) Starbucks coffee cup, indicating that there was a grandchild on the way – a life changing experience for the family.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Mike had a vast knowledge of trees and our connections with nature, and was a champion of the arboriculture and urban forestry discipline. He loved to share his knowledge and experiences with others, and he mentored many. To those who knew him, Mike exemplified not only the very best in an urban forester, but was also a person whose passion, kindness and honesty can never be forgotten.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Michael Rosen, Cert. Arb., R.P.F.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Former President, Tree Canada<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>