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September/October 2019
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
Every three years, biomechanics researchers from around
the world gather at Davey's Shalersville Research Station
in Ohio for a week of collaboration and scientific inquiry
that could lead to real-world applications for the
arboriculture industry.
This year, a dozen research teams of scientists and arborists
conducted more than 14 experiments including long-term
phosphite injection studies, strength testing on red maples,
3D acoustic mapping to determine crown load capacity, and
tree canopy twisting of honey locusts.
Tree biomechanics research applies engineering principles
and tests to trees and their behavior to forces in the natural
world, said Anand Persad, Ph.D., director of arboriculture
and energy client programs at the Davey Institute.
"Biomechanics Week is a creative partnership of scientists
and industry working together in advancing tree science,"
he said. "These teams conduct practical research that
produces results directly applicable to the arboriculture
industry. It's a lot of fun, hard work, but the research bears
immeasurable value to the future of arboriculture."
TESTING FOR THE FUTURE
OF ARBORICULTURE
Researchers rig up an oscillation experiment at the Shalersville
Research Station during Biomechanics Week.
i-TREE SYMPOSIUM TAILORED TO THE EVERYDAY USER
i-Tree users from 13 countries attended
the Global i-Tree Science & Users
Symposium: Discovering the Value of
Your Forest held at the SUNY College
of Environmental Science and Forestry
in Syracuse, New York.
Scott Maco, director, research and
development, Davey Institute, said this
symposium was catered to daily users
of i-Tree tools.
"We wanted to bring our power users
together to learn about the cool stuff
they are doing with these tools,"
Maco said.
Part of the symposium was dedicated
to training on the suite of i-Tree tools
and web-based applications. The i-Tree
team also used the symposium as an
opportunity to find out how they can
adapt the tools to better serve their
professional users through the future
development of the tools.
i-Tree started 12 years ago with a couple hundred users in the U.S. There are now over 320,000
individual users in 132 countries. Scott Maco hoped those that attended the symposium would
have a solid understanding of how i-Tree has changed and how accessible it is to a broad
spectrum of needs. Photo Credit: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Teams at Biomechanics Week Represented:
• Czech Republic • Croatia • Mexico
• Caribbean • Canada • U.S.
