Join Jim Mancini, Mike Nusser, and Dionisio Roman on the Rooted in Innovation podcast, where we meet with Arborists, Developers, Municipalities Workers, and other industry experts each month to explore their best tips and practices, industry insights, and current projects.
Sponsored by Tree Staple, we dig deep into the tree care and landscape development industries to get all the dirt on how these experts have successfully transformed both cities and forests.
Whether you want to catch up on industry news, or you’re looking for the latest landscape development tools and methods, we’ve got you covered.
So, what are you waiting for? Tune in and get ready to be inspired, informed, and entertained by the voices shaping the green landscapes we love.
Drought-Tolerant Landscapes: Lessons From California’s Central Coast with Greg Ross
California keeps getting hotter and drier, and the rules for how much water a landscape can use are changing with it. For landscape architects, that means recalculating water budgets, rethinking turf and finding plants that hold up to the climate while still feeling lush and inviting to the people who use the space.
Dionisio Roman and Ethan Hartzel sit down with Greg Ross, founder of Contour Landscape Architecture and a lecturer at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, to talk about how he balances code, water and beauty on projects ranging from backyard gardens to 92-unit townhome developments. Greg shares how California’s updated evapotranspiration numbers caught him by surprise, why artificial turf rarely solves the problem it promises to, and how he uses “rings of influence” to blend pure natives with hybrids on sensitive coastal sites.
The conversation also takes an honest look at what native planting really means today, how to design for color in every season and what the next generation of landscape architects needs to learn in the field. If you design, install or care for landscapes and want a smarter way to think about native species and water use, this episode is for you.
Timecodes:
00:00 – 01:40 | Welcome and Meet Greg Ross
01:40 – 04:44 | Early Roots: Nurseries, Palms and Cal Poly
04:44 – 07:22 | Why a Small Firm Shaped His Career
07:22 – 08:58 | Opening a Firm and Teaching During COVID
08:58 – 13:02 | California’s ETo Update and the New Appendix C
13:02 – 15:02 | Code Expertise and Using AI to Sort the Fine Print
15:02 – 18:22 | Spending Water Where People Actually Gather
18:22 – 21:03 | Nonfunctional Turf and the Artificial Turf Problem
21:03 – 24:42 | Resilient Lawns and the Barefoot Test
24:42 – 28:48 | Right Plant, Right Place Over Native-Only Design
28:48 – 32:42 | Hybrids, Cultivars and Summer Dormancy
32:42 – 35:31 | Rings of Influence on a 22-Acre Coastal Site
35:31 – 39:02 | Planning Color Across Every Season
39:02 – 43:23 | Design as a Lifelong Practice and Starting by Hand
43:23 – 50:49 | Teaching Over Zoom and Getting Students Into the Field
50:49 – 52:39 | Wrap-Up and How to Reach Greg
Resources:
Have an upcoming landscaping project? Contact Tree Staple for a quote treestaple.com (http://treestaple.com)
Connect with Jim Mancini (mailto:jim.mancini@treestaple.com) on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mancini-743b386/)
Connect with Dionisio Roman III (mailto:dionisio@mozaic-collective.com) on LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionisio-roman-iii-6a228590/)Connect with Greg Ross on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-ross-pla-4716821a3/)
Contact Greg at Contour Landscape Architecture: greg@contourlandscapearchitecture.com (mailto:greg@contourlandscapearchitecture.com)
Follow Tree Staple on LinkedIn: [LinkedIn URL: add before publishing]
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18 Sept 2026
Why AI Won't Replace the Landscape Designer with Jake Lott of Land F/X
Most CAD software wasn't built with landscape architects in mind. In this episode of Rooted in Innovation, host Dionisio Roman, joined by Ethan Hartzel, sits down with Jake Lott, an 11-year member of the Land F/X team who now also teaches AutoCAD for Environmental Design at Utah State, to unpack Land F/X's origin story (built by a landscape architect and his programmer son, now CEO), how a user-driven "wish list" process turns trade-show feedback into shipped features within weeks, where 2D and 3D workflows are headed as Revit still lacks real irrigation functionality, and where AI genuinely fits into landscape design software, from Land F/X's new support assistant Leah and AI-generated plant imagery to why Jake argues AI can speed up a designer's workflow but can't replace the judgment at the center of the job.
Timecodes:
00:00 – 01:10 | Cold Open and Introducing Jake Lott
01:10 – 01:43 | Episode Roadmap: Land F/X, Feedback Loops, and AI
01:43 – 03:48 | Jake's Path From a Landscaping Family to Utah State
03:48 – 05:07 | What Land F/X Actually Is
05:07 – 06:41 | The Workflow Gaps Standard CAD Leaves for Landscape Architects
06:41 – 08:53 | Built By a Landscape Architect and His Son: The Land F/X Origin Story
08:53 – 10:42 | Turning User Requests Into Custom Symbols and a 56,000-Plant Database
10:42 – 12:31 | Scaling to 9,000 Licenses on the Back of Support
12:31 – 14:02 | From Trade-Show Ask to Shipped Feature in Two Weeks
14:02 – 15:14 | Inside the Feature Wish List Process
15:14 – 19:28 | Teaching AutoCAD and the Origin of "Genius Hour"
19:28 – 22:46 | Why Understanding Tools Under the Hood Still Matters
22:46 – 24:51 | Land F/X as a Lead Source and Using the Right Tool for the Job
24:51 – 26:16 | Teaching the Math Before You Teach the Calculator
26:16 – 30:36 | 2D, 3D, and Where Revit Falls Short for Irrigation Design
30:36 – 36:49 | Jake's Many Hats: Support, Training Videos, and the Excel Analogy
36:49 – 40:19 | Why AI Won't Replace the Designer
40:19 – 42:50 | Meet Leah and AI-Generated Plant Imagery With Nano Banana
42:50 – 44:45 | AI as a Design Assistant, Not an Artist
44:45 – 47:47 | Manufacturer Partnerships and What's Next for Landscape Tech
47:47 – 48:50 | Closing and Where to Find Land F/X
Resources:
Have an upcoming landscaping project? Contact Tree Staple for a quote treestaple.com (http://treestaple.com)
Connect with Jim Mancini (mailto:jim.mancini@treestaple.com) on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mancini-743b386/)
Connect with Dionisio Roman III (mailto:dionisio@mozaic-collective.com) on LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionisio-roman-iii-6a228590/)Connect with Jake Lott on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-lott-52007234/)
Connect with Land F/X on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/landfx/home/)
Learn more about LandFX: https://www.landfx.com/ (https://www.landfx.com/)
Listen to the Land F/X CEO's podcast episode on AI: https://www.landfx.com/news/podcasts/7821-tool-or-takeover-ai-in-landscape-architecture (https://www.landfx.com/news/podcasts/7821-tool-or-takeover-ai-in-landscape-architecture)
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10 Aug 2026
How Smart Tree Inventories Turn Guesswork Into 20-Year Urban Forest Plans
Most cities manage their urban forests on gut instinct and aging data, and on this episode of Rooted in Innovation, presented by Tree Staple, host Dionisio Roman talks with Josh Behounek, a 25-year consulting arborist at Davey Tree Expert Company, about how that's changing. Josh explains how Davey's partnership with tech company Greehill uses LiDAR scanning and AI to build a full digital twin of a city's tree canopy, why leaf area index and percent dieback have become the strongest predictors of a tree's health, and how a two-year rescan cycle is finally giving city foresters a closed feedback loop on their removal and pruning decisions. The conversation also covers what it takes to build a 20-year urban forest master plan that survives a change in city administration, with real examples from Pittsburgh, Knoxville, Louisville, and Atlanta. If you manage green infrastructure for a city or just want to understand the strategy behind the trees lining your streets, this episode lays it out.
Timecodes:
00:01 – 02:10 | Meet Josh Behounek: 25 Years at Davey Tree's Consulting Division
02:10 – 04:30 | From Pen and Paper to GIS Maps: A Brief History of Tree Inventories
04:30 – 07:41 | Building Smart Tree Inventory: The Microsoft Grant That Started It All
07:41 – 11:31 | The Real Cost of Outdated Data for City Foresters
11:31 – 14:40 | Inside the Scan: LiDAR Hardware, the Greehill Partnership, and Scanning Atlanta
14:40 – 18:19 | What AI Extracts From Every Tree, and Atlanta vs. Louisville's Approach
18:19 – 22:05 | The Metrics That Matter: Leaf Area Index, Dieback, Lean Angle, and Trunk Stability
22:05 – 26:21 | Comparing Cities and Closing the Two-Year Feedback Loop
26:21 – 28:40 | Why Trees Actually Fail: Debunking the Included Bark Myth
28:40 – 31:49 | Who Owns the Urban Forest? Jurisdiction and Private Land Challenges
31:49 – 33:42 | Building a 20-Year Master Plan: Lessons From Pittsburgh and Knoxville
33:42 – 36:44 | Getting Developers to the Table on Tree Preservation
36:44 – 40:12 | Surviving Administration Turnover, Equity, and Rising Heat Priorities
40:12 – 42:06 | The Industry's Storytelling Problem
42:06 – 44:18 | Closing Thoughts and Where to Learn More
Resources:
Connect with Dionisio Roman (Host) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionisio-roman-iii-6a228590/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionisio-roman-iii-6a228590/)
Connect with Jim Mancini on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mancini-743b386/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mancini-743b386/)
Connect with Josh Behounek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbehounek/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbehounek/)
Learn more about Davey Tree Expert Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-davey-tree-expert-company/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-davey-tree-expert-company/)
Follow Tree Staple on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tree-staple-inc (https://www.linkedin.com/company/tree-staple-inc)
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1 ratings
Spotify
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4 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 10 / 100
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7
Social presence
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YouTube
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Engagement
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