Michael J Swassing

Michael J Swassing is a writer and editor of wikipedia articles who is best known for his work as a tree surgeon and sustainable landscaper in the Puget Sound region. Before returning to university life, his early career involved hazardous materials emergency response, pesticide manufacturing and transportation safety, and three contracts working onboard the Bering Sea factory trawler F/T Snow King.

Michael J Swassing

Early Life of Michael J Swassing

Born during the summer of 1962 in Hanford, California to Mary and William Swassing, Michael is the youngest of six siblings.

Michael J Swassing at UCSB

After graduating from the Hanford Joint Union High School District in 1980, Swassing studied chemistry at the University of California at Santa Barbara, (UCSB). During his first year, 1980-81, Swassing lived on the first floor of San Nicolas residence hall where he distinguished himself as a rakish bohemian as well as a gentleman and a scholar.

During his second year, Swassing joined a protest group which came to be known as the Cheadle 57, named for the administration building, Cheadle Hall, which was the site of a non-violent protest against the University of California's association with the weapons labs at Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos. The attorney for the defense of the Cheadle 57 prepared a legal argument using the defense of necessity, on the argument that the act of trespassing on the administration building was critical to averting a nuclear holocaust and preventing the end of the world as we know it. The prosecutor, wisely, declined to bring the matter to trial.

Swassing's studies at UCSB included Anthropology, Psychology, English Literature and Composition, Asian Art History, History of Native Americans on the Western Frontier, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Chemistry of Environmental Problems, Computer Science: Fortran 77, Computer Science: Pascal, and Boolean Logic.

As a result of cuts to Social Security survivor's benefits by Ronald Reagan, Mr. Swassing left the university in his third year, with a solid B grade point average (3.01, major: Chemistry).

Early career of Michael J Swassing

Finding employment with a pesticide manufacturing firm, FMC Corporation in Fresno, California, Swassing soon found an opportunity for training in hazardous materials emergency preparedness and response with the methyl isocyanate transportation safety task force during the months following the incident at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, in 1984.

During the same period, he took one course with California State University at Fresno, a chemistry class covering Instrumental Methods of Analysis. He also took a series of classes at the University of California at Davis, Extension, in the Hazardous Materials Management program.

Rapid early career advancement

A series of career advancements had Swassing moving from Fresno to Bakersfield, to take a position as a Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Technician for a contractor to CalTrans. And then to open and manage the Stockton field office. Then, a sub-contract to manage all non-nuclear hazardous wastes at the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor, Washington, brought Swassing to the Puget Sound region in 1987. Changing employers as the contractor to the Navy changed with each new Navy contract, Swassing soon found himself in the untenable position of not being qualified for the position he held after the contract went to Flight Safety International.

Dogged by his non-completion of a university degree, he was replaced in this capacity.

Sudden career reversal

For the next several years Swassing foundered both in his career and in his cups, frequenting dive bars in Bremerton. He worked then at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a Safety Inspector aboard inactive ships. Among his duties he inspected workplace asbestos removal operations and lead paint removal, and conducted removal operations of low level radioactive source materials such as radium dials, beta buttons, and alpha source contamination.

From the spring of 1990 until the summer of 1991 Swassing worked intermittently aboard the Factory Trawler Snow King in the Bering Sea pollock and cod fishery. There he was known only by the moniker "Bluto." During this time he set forth to alter the course of his life, as the trend did not appear promising. He marked the date that the rusting trawler pitched fore and aft and rolled side to side on the dark, storm-blown waves; having departed from Crowley Dock in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, with a hangover he has not forgotten, as the ship steamed through the night of July 31 - August 1, 1990 toward the schools of pollack and cod near the Pribilof Islands.

Back to school

In the fall of 1991 Swassing returned to university studies, this time at Washington State University in Pullman. Here he gained his Baccalaureate in Environmental Science in 1994. His academic advisor was William Budd, Ph. D. Among the undergraduate classes taken, some of the more interesting were: Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Policy Law, Microbiology, Soil Science, General Ecology, Soil Microbial Ecology, Wildlife Toxicology, The Ecosystem, and Human Ecology.

In his final semester, Swassing considered graduate school, and took two graduate level electives as well as the Graduate Record Examination. The electives were Principles of Toxicology and Hazardous Waste Remediation. His combined score on the GRE was 1960, a high enough value that it gained him membership in American Mensa.

He has not gone on to graduate school, yet, although he has considered at various times the Restoration Ecology program at the University of Washington, Law School, or becoming a roller derby announcer and color commentator.

Michael J Swassing, Certified Arborist

After graduating WSU, Swassing took a job with King County in the Parks department at Lake Wilderness in Maple Valley, Washington. Soon he started an organic landscaping firm, doing business as "A Natural Gardener," with the stated mission "to enhance the natural health and beauty of exceptional places and to create new places of beauty and solace."

In 1998 he achieved Certified Arborist status with the International Society of Arboriculture, (ISA).^[1] The ISA certification requires continuing education to re-certify at the end of each three year term of certification. Swassing has earned his fourth certification, as of 2007 (valid to June 2010).

Among the continuing education units he has taken to re-certify are the topics: Basic Woody Plant Biology, Tree Physiology, Flow in the Phloem, Tree Failure Risk Evaluations, Plant Health Care and the Diagnostic Process, Surefire Rules of Diagnosis, Want to Be A Better Plant Diagnostician?, Diagnosing Disease Problems on Trees, Understanding Tree Responses to Abiotic and Biotic Stress, Diagnosing Abiotic Disorders, Back to Basics: Tree Fertilization, Analyze Before You Fertilize, Slow or Controlled-Release Fertilizers, Flood-Damaged Trees, A Plant By Any Other Name, Installation and Establishment of Trees & Shrubs, Ten Keys to Plant and Site Selection, Right Tree - Right Location, Training Young Trees for Structure & Form, Pruning Trees: A Professional Approach Part 1, Pruning Trees: A Professional Approach Part 2, Why Utilities "V-Out" Trees, Pollarding: What Was Old Is New Again, Plant Health Care, The Resource Allocation Trade-Off, Maintaining Tree & Turf Associations, Trees Vs. Turf, Innovations in Climbing Equipment, Chain Saw Cutting Techniques, Basic Chain Saw Maintenance, Felling Techniques, Engineering Concepts for Arborists, Tree Appraisal Workshop, The Resource Allocation Trade-Off, Mulch 1: Too Much of a Good Thing, Mulch 2: Go Wide - Not Deep, Pruning Trees, Conifers and Yews, American Mistletoe: Kissing Under a Parasite, Problems Related to pH, Trees - People & Ecosystems, Managing Risk in the Urban Forest, Cabling, Taxonomy, Getting to the Root of the Problem - Seminar on Urban Soils - Phytophthera - & Sustainability.

Among the continuing education activities without credit, he has attended multiple seminars each year at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show since 1994.

Michael Swassing is a Plant Amnesty approved gardener; and has been a member of the Society for Organic Urban Land Care,^[2] (2006), the American Society of Consulting Arborists (2003), and the Washington Native Plant Society^[3] (2006-present) He was also Vice President of the Coalition of Organic Landscapers^[4] (2008-2009).

Working throughout the Puget Sound region, Swassing provides educational consultations about tree health care, tree health and hazard evaluations, consults about landscape ecology, provides natural land care services, and helps private property owners implement the principles of restoration ecology and land stewardship.

Volunteer activity within the Women's Flat Track Derby Association

During the 2009 and 2010 Roller Derby seasons, Mr. Swassing trained and worked as a Non-Skating Official within the Rat City Rollergirls League, and at WFTDA sanctioned inter-league bouts, using the derby name "I. Gore." For the 2011 derby season he has changed his nom de plume to "SWASS."

Published Works

Mr. Swassing has informed and/or enthusiastic opinions on a wide array of topics.

A number of his letters to editors have been published:

[Letters,] The Stranger, August 29, 2002 in rebuttal to a critical review of the landscape architecture of Freeway Park in Seattle, written by Charles Mudede: ["Topography of Terror,"] The Stranger, August 22, 2002).

[Letters,] Pacific Northwest Magazine, February 6, 2005 in support of an article by Valerie Easton on the role of landscaping on real estate value, and the role of an informed public on market forces, ["Growing Assets,"] December 19, 2004.

He has commented favorably about Barack Obama on various internet forums ever since the summer of 2004.^[5]

Recently he has contributed content to the Wikiversity project.

He has created the following articles on the Wikipedia:

and he has contributed significantly to these articles:

As a writer of articles for the wikipedia project, he is a volunteer.

And as such he works on articles of interest to him during time when he really ought to be doing something else. His participation here is considered by his employer (himself) to be goofing off. As such, his interests here rarely include matters about which he has studied exhaustively or for which he is commonly paid for an expert opinion. Those are the matters he ought to be working on elsewhere, while he does this instead.

Interests and goals

He enjoys composing sentences and paragraphs of narrative prose non-fiction, about interesting stuff, and attaching citations to them. He also enjoys poetry, especially when set to music as verse. Examples of extraordinary poetry set to music include the words and melody of Antonio Carlos Jobim's The Waters of March, as translated from Portuguese and sung by Susannah McCorkle. He hates the sing-songy way that poets read their own words in earnest at open microphones. He has never felt compelled to express himself in rhyme; however he does find that the most compelling oration has structural cadence. He fully intends to write fiction, but hasn't gotten around to it, yet. He recognizes that the supply of political opinion and social commentary already exceeds the demand.

About the author

For the purpose of composing this page he has chosen to write about himself using the artifice of the third person narrative, because, well, you know how he is.