The Davey Tree Expert Company
P.O. Box 5193
Kent, Ohio 44240-5193
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Left: The original "indoor forest" at Davey, assembled in 1926.
Those pictured include Davey foremen "Ham" Morrison,
George Cotton, Wesley Carle, Lee Conway and "Pop" Caldwell.
Bob McIver, assistant chief expert, conceived the idea.
Right: Students in the original indoor forest.
Soon, 100 students filled both floors practicing cavity repair,
cabling and bracing and other techniques amidst the indoor
forest. McIver's ingenuity had birthed a tradition that continues
each winter during the Davey Institute of Tree Sciences.
"It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the
instruction which has been given the Institute students
this winter in this unusual laboratory," the February 1926
Bulletin states. "This special instruction is bound to have
a far-reaching effect in improving still further the quality of
our service. Bob certainly deserves a lot of credit for his
ingenuity in contriving this unique plan of giving thorough
practical instruction to the students of the Institute."
The idea of training Davey arborists on real trees, indoors,
during the bleak winter months is nearly 100 years old.
Bob McIver, an instructor in "practical tree surgery" at the
Davey Institute of Tree Surgery in 1926, lamented the idea
of teaching his classes outside in a freshly fallen 2 feet of
snow. For as it is today, Davey's premiere training program
was taught during the winter months, and that often
brought weather-related challenges.
So McIver, being an inventive problem-solver, came up
with the idea of building an indoor forest to use for his
class instruction.
In February 1926, Davey rented the first floor and basement
of a building on River Street in Kent, a few doors down
from the Institute, and proceeded to erect four rows of
trees with a dozen trees to each row. Each tree was
fastened rigidly to the floor and linked together by an
interlocking system of braces.
INDOOR FOREST CONCEPT ORIGINATED IN 1926