Davey Chairman, President and CEO
Karl Warnke and Nursery Foreman
Tim Kelling discuss Kent State's new
pin oak "Partnership Tree" as
a Davey crew plants it.
found some items that would help him teach
younger children to identify trees and then
measure how old the particular tree they identi-
fied may be. With so many beautiful trees, the
children in this program should learn how to
care for them."
Receiving a request from Alaska is not usual
for Davey, so Skilton was thrilled to be able
to work with the garden. "It is important for
Davey to be the 'experts' people go to for edu-
cational material because we are leaders in our
industry," Skilton says. "It is good to educate
people, especially children, on what we do best
to help care for trees."
Skilton hopes to continue a good relation-
ship with the garden and hopes it will open
doors for more educational opportunities
in the future. "I think it is great to share the
knowledge Davey has on such a beautiful state
as Alaska," Skilton says. "I hope Patrick and
the Alaska Botanical Garden have learned the
Davey way—'Do it right or not at all'—and to
teach the young children that trees are good."
T
he Davey Institute thrives on training
certified arborists and educating commu-
nity members. Recently, one of the Institute's
very own continued this trend with a unique
opportunity to provide materials to the Alaska
Botanical Garden.
Shawn Skilton, administrator of training ser-
vices, was contacted by Patrick Ryan, education
specialist for the garden, to obtain information
for the "Garden in the Schools" field trips
he coordinates every year. This educational
program includes a lesson called "The Old
One," which is about tree rings and measuring
the height and circumference of a tree. Ryan
wanted to improve the program by including
champion trees and records for big trees.
Skilton has received requests like this several
times a year but mostly from nearby schools
in the Kent, Ohio, area. "Davey has many
materials on hand that we provide to our own
workforce in order to help them do their jobs
more efficiently," he says. "When I saw Patrick's
request, I looked through our resources and
Botanical Improvements
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