Davey Tree Flipbooks

8 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | July/August 2020 EXPERTISE 3. AERIAL RESCUE TRAINING In April, the Fort Collins R/C office held an aerial rescue training for its crews. Instead of the standard training methods, Natalie McNeill, district manager, wanted something more realistic, so, using a rescue dummy, the crews worked together as a team to perform the rescue. It was a real-world scenario that could happen on the jobsite, McNeill said. Participating in the training was the local fire department's High Angle Rescue team, as well as Jeremy Lewis, senior regional safety specialist, and Don Roppolo, manager, Arborist Skills Training. 2. CHAINSAW TRAINING Three regional safety trainers (Matt Krause, Damon Wojciechowski and Jose Herrera, Jr.) conducted a chainsaw training session with 30 crew members on the City of Santa Clara account. The purpose of the training was to educate and train individuals on safely performing work while using chainsaws, both on the ground and aloft, including sessions on proper chainsaw maintenance, safe operation and work practices. 1. HOUSTON CLS RODEO Commercial Landscape Services crews in the Houston area completed an educational rodeo in February. Learning stations includied mowing skills, basic maintenance, bed detail, weed management, mulching and plant installation. Katherine Leary, branch manager, Houston territory, said the team made progress on the Career Development Program, and six employees were also certified for UTV use by Chad Tyson, project manager, Plano territory. 6. OAK WILT SPEAKER In March, Kodi Riedel, diagnostic laboratory supervisor, Davey Institute, presented to the 2020 North Coast Urban Forestry Conference on oak wilt, touching on topics ranging from the signs and symptoms to the biology of the disease, and management practices. Riedel also talked on sample collection and culture procedures, different testing facilities, and how to submit oak wilt samples to labs. The conference was held at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. 4. PHC WORKSHOP In February, 26 Davey employees from the Houston and Dallas CLS territories, as well as various Texas R/C offices around the state, gathered for a plant health care training workshop. The 3-day event consisted of two days of classroom instruction, learning plant physiology, fertilization practices, pesticide use and tree/shrub identification with both R/C and CLS crews, followed by a day of hands-on training, including planting techniques and safe equipment handling at the Landscape Management Services, Inc., facility. All sessions were taught in both Spanish and English. 5. SAFETY LEADERSHIP Titled "Becoming a Proactive Leader," 90 Eastern Utility services employees gathered in Asheville, North Carolina, in February for a safety leadership program. Led by Tim Walsh, corporate safety director, and Rex Houze, founder and CEO of Improving Performance & Results, Inc., the workshop included topics ranging from the importance of paying attention to the little things, a review of 2018 incident data, and the Davey Circle of Safety, as well as sessions on hazard identification, job observation processes, close-call communication and all stop procedures. 1 2 3 Before the COVID-19 pandemic changed lives around the world, Davey's crews were busy conducting training sessions and learning new skills as they do year-round. Here is a roundup of some notable events that happened before social distancing and shutdowns were implemented. 1 4 6 5 BEFORE COVID-19

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