27
March/April 2019
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR LEARNS
FROM DAVEY AT CLIMATE SUMMIT
Erika Teach, natural resource specialist, Davey Institute, demonstrated to several
public officials, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, how to use MyTree,
one of several i-Tree tools, at the Urban Forests for Climate Solutions event. This
event was an affiliate event of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.
"In any urban forestry conversation where there is a need for advocacy and
funding, the benefits i-Tree tools quantify can be used," Teach said. "Because
it was the Global Climate Action Summit, the focus was on how much carbon
trees store and sequester."
For Teach, having the opportunity to inform the public about trees and how
they are assets to us was the real reward.
"Seeing the wide range of people represented in the audience and knowing
they are going to walk away with information they didn't have before,
that's what is exciting to me," she said.
EXPERTISE
FOR THE LOVE OF CHAMPION TREES
When Shawn Bruzda drove up to his Atlanta area hotel
about 10 years ago, there was an incredibly large and
beautiful white oak (Quercus alba) there to greet him.
And, being the tree lover he is, he now stays in that same
hotel every time work brings him to this region of Georgia.
"It's pretty incredible since someone clearly went out of
their way to preserve this tree when the hotel was being
built," Bruzda said. "They lost significant parking because
of it and the area is surrounded by highway and urban
development, so it's shocking to see this big, beautiful tree."
Bruzda has admired the tree with each visit, but during his
This is Shawn Bruzda's third state champion tree certification.
He specializes in certifying trees in Ohio and is one of about 25
people certified as official American Forests' National Cadre of Tree
Measurers to certify champion trees.
VISION
most recent trip he and Mark McClellan, from the Georgia
Forestry Commission, measured the tree and found out
that it is in fact the largest of its species in the state.
The tree, estimated to be about 300 to 400 years old,
is officially a Georgia State Champion Tree. It has a trunk
circumference of 258 inches (21.5 feet), a height of 113
feet, and an average canopy spread of 116 feet.
Erika Teach had the opportunity to demonstrate MyTree, one of several i-Tree tools, to the
Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed.
