About Kansas Tree Guide
Who writes this, and how it gets checked
Who runs this site, how content is researched and reviewed, our sourcing standards, our corrections process, and a plain-language disclosure of our relationship with Kohnen's Tree Service.
All of it is meant to be checkable. Where a claim rests on published research, the source is listed on the page that makes the claim. Where a page has been reviewed by a named professional, the name, the date, and the credential number are on it — and the credential is verifiable in a public directory this site does not control.
Mission
Why this site exists
Kansas Tree Guide exists because most tree advice online is written for nowhere in particular. Kansas trees live with clay and alkaline soil, hard wind, hail, ice storms, drought cycles, and a specific set of pests — and good guidance has to start from those realities.
The site is educational and independent. Guidance is developed from university extension research, state forestry resources, and arboriculture organizations, then pressure-tested against what working Kansas tree professionals see in the field every week. Every species, pest, and symptom profile lists its sources beside the guide, and where a page has been reviewed by a named professional, the reviewer and review date appear on that page.
What the site will not do is pad an answer to keep you reading, or turn a question into a sales funnel. A good page here often ends early. When the honest answer is that somebody has to stand next to the tree, that is what it says, and then it stops.
Who it is written for
- Homeowners with one specific tree they are worried about
- Property and facility managers triaging trees across several sites
- Real estate professionals who need to read a tree before a closing
- Gardeners and landscapers who have to stand behind a recommendation
Statewide, with the most depth for Wichita and the surrounding region, where the field experience behind the site is concentrated.
Sourcing standards
Where the guidance comes from
Nothing here is written from memory or rewritten from another tree-care blog. Five bodies of published work carry almost all of it, and each is used for the thing it is actually authoritative about.
K-State Research and Extension
The Kansas-calibrated half of almost everything here: pest emergence and treatment windows, watering and pruning guidance for this climate, and which species are worth recommending in this soil. When a Kansas source and a national one disagree, the Kansas one wins.
Kansas Forest Service
State forestry programmes, windbreak and community-tree guidance, and the invasive-species work — including the Callery pear buyback we point Kansas readers to.
USDA PLANTS Database
Names, native and introduced status, and range. It is the reference we use to be certain a species is the one we say it is, and that it genuinely grows where we say it grows.
NC State Extension Plant Toolbox
Detailed, well-illustrated species characteristics. It is not a Kansas source, so we use it for what a tree is — leaf, bark, fruit, mature form — and never for what to do about one here.
International Society of Arboriculture
Arboricultural practice — how trees actually respond to cutting, and why topping is never on the list — plus the public directory where a Certified Arborist's credential can be checked by anyone.
Sources sit on the page, not in a bibliography
Every species profile, pest profile, and symptom guide carries its citations in the rail beside the guide, so you can check a claim against its source without leaving the page or trusting us about what the source said. Where a fact is local — a city rule, a utility policy, a phone number — the page names the body that publishes it and links straight there.
Nobody pays to appear here
No company buys a place in a list, no product is recommended in exchange for money, and no page on this site is sponsored or written by an advertiser. Species and treatments are included on the evidence, which is why several widely sold trees are on the list of ones to think twice about. The one commercial relationship this site has is disclosed in full below.
Expert review
What a review credit means here
Plenty of sites decorate a page with a headshot and the words 'medically reviewed' or 'expert reviewed' and leave it at that. A credit is only worth something if you can check it, so ours is built to be checked.
A page that has been professionally reviewed shows three things together: the reviewer’s name, the date the review happened, and the credential — with its number. All three appear on the page itself, not on a general policy page like this one, and the same three go into the page’s structured data so a search engine sees exactly what a reader sees.
The named reviewer for this site is Joe Kohnen, an ISA Certified Arborist, certification number MW-389993A. ISA certification is not a licence and not a guarantee of a good job; it means somebody has passed an examination on how trees respond to cutting and has to keep earning continuing education to hold it. It is verifiable by name in ISA’s public directory, which is run by ISA rather than by us — so you never have to take this page’s word for it.
Look up a Certified Arborist in the ISA directory(opens in a new tab)
Where the review programme stands
No page on this site currently carries a review credit. The reviews are being worked through profile by profile, and the credit is added to a page only after that page has genuinely been read.
That order matters more than the badge does. A review credit on a page nobody reviewed is worth less than no credit at all — it spends the reviewer’s credibility and ours to buy nothing.
Corrections
When we get something wrong
Tree advice ages. Ordinances change, a utility reorganises its website, a pest arrives in a new county, and a page that was accurate in March is misleading by autumn. The policy below is what we do about it.
What gets fixed, and how fast
Factual errors are corrected as soon as they are confirmed, not at the next content refresh. That covers a wrong treatment window, a species characteristic that does not hold, a dead link to an agency, and a local rule that has since changed.
Material corrections are noted, not buried
If a correction changes what a reader would actually do — the month to spray, the distance to plant, who to call — the page says so and carries the date. Typos, dead links, and clarifications that do not change the advice are fixed quietly.
Every page shows its vintage
Guidance here is dated so you can judge how fresh it is; the current content was last reviewed August 2026. An undated tree-care page is asking you to assume it is still true.
How to report one
Name the page, quote the sentence, and say what is wrong with it — a published source we should have used is the single most useful thing you can send. A dedicated corrections address is not published on this site yet; when one is, it will be listed in this section.
Disclosure
The one relationship worth disclosing
A site that recommends calling a professional, and has a professional behind it, has to say so out loud. Burying that inside neutral-sounding advice would undermine everything above it, so it is stated here in full and referenced in the footer of every page.
Our relationship with Kohnen's Tree Service
In practice that means referrals appear where a professional visit is the honest next step — storm response, hazardous removals, work that needs a rope — and nowhere else. They never change what a guide recommends. Where the right answer is that you can do this yourself on a Saturday, the page says that instead.
The disclaimers, in full
These three appear in the footer of every page. They are here in one place because they describe the limits of everything else on this site.
- Educational resource
- Kansas Tree Guide is an independent educational resource. Nothing on this site replaces an on-site assessment by a qualified arborist or tree-care professional.
- Interactive tools
- Our tools provide general education based on your answers. They are not a diagnosis, a safety inspection, or professional advice.
- Laws, ordinances, and insurance
- Information about laws, city ordinances, insurance, and property responsibilities is general in nature and can change. Confirm details with your city, utility, insurer, or attorney before acting.
Content last reviewed August 2026.