Davey Tree Flipbooks

4 | March/April 2015 P riorities change. In early 2014, Davey crews from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) had to help decide which tree service requests to first address in the aftermath of the previous December's ice storm. After all, Toronto city staff estimated 20 percent of the city's tree canopy was damaged. But safe, efficient cleanup was crucial to Davey operations. Although storm cleanup ended in June 2014, hundreds of thousands of trees continue to suffer ice storm damage. Risks such as hanging limbs and broken branches still exist within affected trees. They're liabilities crews did not address before priority hazards, such as felled trees on power lines and roads. But, fortunately they're liabilities Davey also has the capability to resolve. THINKING FAST. Davey Canada has established a solid working relationship with the City of Toronto over several decades, but Davey has been the city's full-time contractor for the past 10 years. "We have always been able to come through with the city's demands, no matter how many crews they needed to complete their tree care needs," says James Doyle, executive vice president and general manager of the Davey Tree Expert Company of Canada, Ltd. More recently, Davey Resource Group (DRG) was able to provide the same response the City of Toronto is familiar with in terms of Davey's capabilities; DRG completed the inventory of 603,492 street tree sites and 45,818 park sites affected by the late 2013 ice storm. And they finished it within only five months. "Davey has experts that can mobilize quickly," says Emily Spillett, project manager. From bid submission to the contract agreement, planning for the inventory took less than one month. Then, more than 45 DRG team members from DRG Canada, Asian Longhorned Beetle field staff, Eastern urban forestry, Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc., and Western Region urban forestry traveled to the area to contribute to the project. The main objective of the project was to prioritize and inventory trees for storm risks but also assess their overall condition. To best meet project goals and objectives, DRG conducted a slightly more comprehensive inventory than a normal storm assessment. The inventory determined the location of each tree, its diameter, species, condition and identified the three most prevalent defects. Arborists then prioritized follow-up care for each tree. Most risks the team discovered included broken branches, but there were some severe structural issues identified, which otherwise may not have been resolved by the city for quite a while. TEAM EFFORT. "It was exciting to collaborate with other DRG service lines and work with Davey employees from all over," Spillett explains. "It was an experience that the team will never forget." At full staffing, 45 employees from the U.S. and Canada were working together to assess damage to Toronto's trees. U.S. employees with similar work experience trained the Canada staff members throughout the inventory. "Everyone put their resources together to get it done," Spillett explains. "This project was a huge collaboration among multiple departments and divisions of Davey and everything came together." Ice storm damage continues to threaten the health of Toronto-area trees more than one year after cleanup. Alex Varela and Phil Crosbie lead an inventory training session at the Seneca College Toronto campus. Dan Marina performs a tree inventory for Toronto Parks.

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