The final lecture of the 2025 Master Gardener Spring Series will be held at the Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library.

The lecture will be held at noon on June 5 in the auditorium of the library. It is free and open to the public.

Originally slated for May 1, the lecture was postponed due to inclement weather.

The speaker is Matt Nielson. The title of his presentation is “How to Kill A Tree – Stories from an Arborist.”

Nielson is a consulting arborist providing tree inventories, tree risk assessments, tree health assessments, tree appraisals, litigation support, tree care specifications, and training for tree care companies.

He frequently collaborates with various professionals, including engineers, landscape architects, architects, landscape contractors, grounds managers, and academics.

His ongoing projects include tree risk assessment, pruning prescriptions and soil improvement for the trees in the Grove/Circle and the rest of campus; working with Rain Bird in constructing networks of information and research regarding irrigation of trees and tree preservation plans for mature trees in Oxford, Birmingham, Memphis and the Mississippi Delta.

Recently, he’s been focused on root care with an AirSpade, learning more about soil biology, and working with contractors to improve tree planting methods.