User:Michael J Swassing

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The writer and editor of wikipedia articles Michael J Swassing, is best known for his work as a tree surgeon and landscape ecologist in the Puget Sound region. However his early career involved hazardous materials emergency response, pesticide manufacturing safety and quality assurance, transportation safety, hazardous waste management, and environmental toxicology.

1 Michael J Swassing
2 Published Works
3 Notes and citations
4 External Links

[edit] Michael J Swassing

[edit] Genealogy of the Swassing family

The surname "Swassing" is derived from the name of an ancient celtic tribe, Suessiones. The Suessiones were a tribe of Belgae, who's primary hillfort, Noviodunum, estabished the present city of Soissons, France. The best days for the Suessiones ended when Julius Ceasar made them subjects of the Roman empire, in 57 bc. As it turns out, they are the sort to hold a grudge.

Ceasar wrote of them: "... Among them [the Suessiones], even within living memory, Diviciacus had been king, the most powerful man in the whole of Gaul, who had exercised sovereignty alike over a great part of these districts, and even over Britain. ..." (Caesar De Bello Gallico ii.4)

Roman-Britain.org posts: "The coins now known as Gallo-Belgic C, issued between c.90 and 60BC, have been tentatively identified with King Diviciacus of the Suessiones. This coin is less common in Britain than previous issues, but has a wider distribution, from the coast of Sussex to the Wash, with finds being concentrated around Kent. The uninscribed coins known as Gallo-Belgic F, which were issued between 60 and 50 BC, have a marked concentration of finds to the east of Paris, in the lands of the Suessiones, and are also found in many coastal areas of southern Britain. This coinage issue was the first to bear the design of a triple-tailed horse on the reverse, which became the standard motif of many issues in southern Britain over the next few decades. This has led scholars to believe that the Suessiones represented a considerable proportion of the Belgic peoples which had migrated to Britain during the second and first centuries BC."^[1]

Ceasar describes them as going to England looking for booty: "The inland part of Britain is inhabited by tribes declared in their own tradition to be indigenous to the island, the maritime part by tribes that migrated at an earlier time from Belgium to seek booty by invasion. ..." (Caesar De Bello Gallico v.12)

The city of Soissons has remained the regional capital of the contemporary provence of Aisne, north of the region of Champaign. It was the capital city of the Merovingian Kingdom of Soissons, 511-613, and holds the bishopry of the Diocese of Soissons.

Josif Leon Swassing, born about 1845, immigrated to the United States, from Soissons, about 1858. He was listed in the 1870 federal census as living near where his older brother Peter settled with his wife and children in Missouri after Peter Swassing completed his service in the Union Army during the Civil War. By the 1880 federal census he used the spelling "Joseph," had married Mary Hein, and had moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. There he worked as a restauranteur.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Michael J Swassing at UCSB

After graduating from the Hanford Joint Union High School District in 1980, Mr. Swassing studied chemistry at the University of California at Santa Barbara, UCSB. During his first year, 1980-81, Mr. Swassing resided 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, Mr. 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.

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

[edit] Early career of Michael J Swassing

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

During his time in Fresno, Mr. Swassing became affiliated with a shadowy association of students under the cult-like leadership of then President of the California State University, Fresno Associated Student Body, John Love. This group, which continues to hold nefarious gatherings, came to be known as the "Loosedogs^[2]." The Loosedogs were known to frequent the Breadline tavern, where John Love had a regular friday night musical gig, and then continue after closing time at various locations. Among the members of this group, Mr. Swassing was variously known as "Swaz," or "The Ax-Man."

A series of career advancements found Mr. Swassing responsible for all non-nuclear hazardous wastes at the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor, Washington, by 1988. Dogged by his non-completion of a university degree, he was replaced in this capacity.

For the next several years Mr. Swassing foundered both in his career and in his cups,^[3] frequenting a dive bar in Bremerton called the Dug-Out Tavern, where he was known as "Smiling Mike." His apartment in Navy Yard City was above a crack house across from the bus barn on Wycoff, next door to the muffler shop, and about mid-way between Pops Inn and the White Pig Tavern.

From the spring of 1990 until the summer of 1991 Mr. Swassing worked aboard the Factory Trawler Snow King in the Bering Sea pollock and cod fishery; where he was known only by the moniker "Bluto." During this time he made a commitment to alter the course of his life, as the trend did not appear promising.

[edit] Back to school

In the fall of 1991 Swassing returned to university studies, this time at Washington State University at Pullman. Here he gained his Baccalaureate in Environmental Science in 1994. Upon first meeting his academic advisor, William Budd, Ph. D., Mr. Swassing nearly got off to a rocky start by almost asking "is Billy Budd really your name?" Other former students of Dr. Budd would recognize that such a lapse would have produced a dire situation.

In his final semester Mr. Swassing considered graduate school, and took two graduate level electives as well as the Graduate Record Examination. The electives were Wildlife 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 either the Restoration Ecology program at the University of Washington, Law School, or becoming a roller derby announcer and color commentator.

[edit] Michael J Swassing, Organic Landscaper and Certified Arborist

After graduating WSU, Mr. Swassing took a job with King County in the Parks department. 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).^[4] The ISA certification requires continuing education to re-certify at the end of each three year term of certification. Mr. Swassing has earned his fourth certification.

Michael Swassing is a member of Plant Amnesty, and is a Plant Amnesty approved gardener.

He is a member of the Society for Organic Urban Land Care,^[5] and the Washington Native Plant Society^[6] He is Vice President of the Coalition of Organic Landscapers.^[7]

Working throughout the Puget Sound region, Mr. Swassing provides educational consultations about tree health care, landscape ecology, natural land care, restoration ecology, and land stewardship. He often works with Diana Esperas, an independent partner and Native Plant Steward.

[edit] Published Works

[edit] 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.

At least two anonymous letters he has written have been run in Savage Love.

[edit] He has created the following articles on the wikipedia:

[edit] and he has contributed significantly to these articles:

[edit] 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.

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, especially 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.

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.

[edit] Notes and citations

^ http://www.roman-britain.org/tribes/belgae.htm
^ http://www.loosedog.org/
^ "in his cups" - "Drunk. Long ago the phrase meant both drunk and participating in a drunken bout. It appears in one of the Apocyrphal books of the Bible (I Esdras 3:22): 'And when they are in their cups, they forget their loue(love) both to friends and brethren.' The Romans had similar expressions, such as Cicero's 'in thy cups, in the midst of thy revels' (in ipsis tuis immanibus poculis), suggesting the great age of the association of 'cup' (poculum) and 'carousal.'" "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985)
^ Verify a Certified Arborist
^ Society of Organic Urban Land Care: Seattle
^ Native Plant Professionals List Washington Native Plant Society.
^ http://www.organiclandscapers.org/about.html