2024 Winter
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Matt Edmundson, President of Arbor Valley Nursery in Brighton, Colorado, is a second-generation nurseryman and third generation business owner of Arbor Valley Nursery. Arbor Valley Nursery is a hybrid supplier growing balled and burlapped shade and ornamental trees as well as container grown woody shrubs, western natives, perennials, and ornamental grasses. Their facility offers the latest technology in irrigation and water quality management as well as scale for producing, holding, and shipping products to markets including landscape projects and retail garden centers.

Matt is a graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder and has served in various leadership roles with the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association, the Colorado Nursery Research and Education Foundation and the GreenCo legislative committee.

Rick Spurgeon joined PlantRight in April 2021 with the responsibility of educating customers and internal team members about how PlantRight products can help grow healthier trees, shrubs, and plants.  As a graduate of the University of Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in forest management, Rick recognizes that much of his education came from his own hands-on experience.

Rick is a Board-Certified Master Arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).  He is a former president of the Midwestern Chapter of ISA, former president of the Kansas Arborist Association, and has received the Kansas State Forester Award.  He earned the ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification. Most recently, Rick created and managed an urban forestry program for the City of Olathe which entailed planting as many as 2,000 trees per year.  He also was responsible for overseeing all removal and pruning operations, insect and disease control, and landscape/irrigation maintenance of city medians.  Prior to working with the City of Olathe, he spent a few years consulting and managing private lands for timber production and operated a logging crew.

Without a doubt, trees are Rick’s passion in life.  He enjoys researching state champion trees and recognizes that trees create cooling shade, raise property values, and reduce stress levels. Rick is an advocate for the entire PlantRight system and sees the benefits it provides all plants, including trees.  Installing plants is the first step, and using the proper products is vital.  When those things are done right, landscapers save money, improve their own reputation, and gain referrals and additional jobs.

Vince lives in Grand Junction, Colorado, and retired as the Urban and Community Forestry program manager for the Colorado State Forest Service in 2020.  He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).  In addition, Vince has been an ISA Certified Arborist since 1999, and in 2013 he became a qualified tree risk assessor and completed certification to be an instructor for the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ). As a Colorado State University(CSU) Master Gardener, he works closely with the CSU Tri-River Extension program on the western slope as a volunteer and master gardener instructor.

Vince graduated with a degree in forestry from CSU in 1973. His first tree job began in 1974 on the CSFS Fort Collins District with the Dutch Elm Disease Control Project. After five years of working in the urban forests of the northern Front Range, he left Fort Collins to try his hand at growing peaches and sweet cherries in Western Colorado.   For two and a half years he did everything there is to do in an orchard.  Returning to Fort Collins to fulfill a life-long dream of working in a plant nursery, he was hired by Fort Collins Nursery Wholesale Nursery and for ten years worked as their Field Tree Production Foreman and Plant Propagator.  During that time, he became a CNA Certified Nurseryman.  In 1994 he returned to the Colorado State Forest Service working out of the Grand Junction Office.