Ideas, Innovation, and Industry Connections at Trees & Utilities 2026
The 2026 Trees & Utilities Conference brought utility vegetation management (UVM) professionals together in Portland, Ore., for conversations around the challenges, opportunities, and innovations shaping the industry. Representatives from across the ACRT Services family of companies, including ACRT, ACRT Pacific, Bermex, and EnviroScience, joined industry peers to exchange ideas, share expertise, and explore solutions supporting utilities and the communities they serve.
From workforce and community engagement to technology and data-driven decision-making, the conference provided an opportunity to explore many of the issues shaping the future of UVM.
Sharing Perspectives Across Utility Vegetation Management
Several members of the ACRT and ACRT Pacific teams contributed to sessions throughout the conference, sharing perspectives and practical approaches from their work across the industry.
Carly Harrower, senior operations manager, ACRT Pacific, participated in “Women in Utility Vegetation Management: Supporting Diversity Through Allyship and Advocacy,” contributing to a discussion around creating opportunities, strengthening support, and fostering a more inclusive industry.
Patrick Geraghty, business development manager, ACRT, presented “Community Engagement Through the Saluting Branches Day of Service,” highlighting how service can bring industry professionals together while giving back to the communities where we live and work.
Zach Wilder, contract vegetation program manager, ACRT Pacific, presented “Leveraging Free Digital Tools to Improve Vegetation Management Scheduling Workflow,” sharing practical ways vegetation management teams can use readily available technology to improve planning and workflows.
Together, these sessions reflected the range of issues influencing utility vegetation management today, from developing people and strengthening communities to finding practical ways to improve how programs are planned and managed.
Introducing Arborcision™
Trees & Utilities also marked the official introduction of Arborcision™, ACRT’s vegetation management intelligence solution.
Powered by Kanopy AI, Arborcision combines advanced computer vision with ACRT’s independent UVM expertise to turn standard patrol video into precise, tree-level intelligence. That intelligence helps utilities better understand right-of-way conditions, identify and prioritize risk, optimize maintenance planning, and make faster, more precise, scalable, and cost-efficient vegetation management decisions.
Conference attendees had the opportunity to see Arborcision in action and learn how ACRT combines decades of UVM experience with advanced technology to turn field data into actionable work priorities and more informed, defensible vegetation management plans.
