aerial view of evergreen forest with a dirt road down the middle
Course

Forest and Urban Tree Pathology and Disease Management for Practitioners and Curious People

Self-paced

Sorry! The enrollment period is currently closed. Please check back soon.

Full course description

This course is currently being updated and will be available again in May 2025. 

This is a single course offering, based on the pathology component of a regular OSU class (PLNTPTH/ENTMLGY 5110) aimed primarily to professionals in the tree care industry, including arborists, landscapers, forest managers, and extension educators, but also curious and interested people in the community at large, including master gardeners and private citizens. Purpose of the course. The course is designed to provide the basic knowledge necessary to recognize major diseases of forest and urban trees, and to apply the foundations of the discipline to new and unknown diseases of trees.

Course Structure

THERE ARE NO START AND END DATES. THAT MEANS THAT YOU CAN START THE COURSE AT ANY TIME OF YOUR CHOOSING AND END IT AT ANY TIME OF YOUR CHOOSING.  The material is offered on an extremely flexible, continuous basis as a SELF-PACED, SELF-CONTAINED online course. The course consists of 7 modules roughly equivalent to 7 in-class weeks of instruction.

Upon completion of the course, students should have acquired information necessary to:

  1. Understand the fundamental importance of diseases in forest and urban environments, including their roles as agents of ecosystem disturbance and key elements of ecosystem functioning and dynamics.
  2. Identify several common, indigenous and invasive forest and shade tree diseases of North America on the basis of symptoms and signs. Several examples will be provided.
  3. Understand how and why tree diseases occur and develop in forests, nurseries, plantations, and urban environments, and how they affect ecosystem services.
  4. Apply principles of integrated pest management, including a fundamental understanding of disease life cycles, to the management of diseases and their economic and ecological impacts.

A certificate is provided after completion of all online course modules and 75% or greater proficiency on online quizzes.  

ISA CEUs

Because this is a self-paced course, you will use the CEU Post-Approval Portal under ISA Quicklinks at the bottom of your ISA dashboard to report your attendance. Please note that you are required to have proof of attendance (the completion certificate should suffice) and supporting documentation of the content and details (title, date, instructor). If you have any questions regarding your ISA dashboard, please contact ISA directly.

If you have questions about the course content please contact Enrico Bonello at bonello.2@osu.edu.

For technical assistance with the ScarletCanvas platform, including logging in and password concerns, please contact CFAES Online Outreach team at faes-onlineoutreach@osu.edu. Please allow at least 24 hours for a reply during business hours, 72 hours over holidays and weekends.

To request a credit card receipt please fill out the ScarletCanvas receipt request form. Please allow 3 business days to process your request.