Davey Tree Flipbooks

13 January/February 2020 | THE DAVEY BULLETIN VISION GIVING NEW LIFE TO TREES CLEARED FOR GEORGIA SITE In the heart of urban Vinings, Georgia, a patch of rugged terrain with dense tree coverage recently became an apartment complex. But unlike sites where cleared trees are commonly chipped, most of the trees at the site were carefully cut down, milled and repurposed. All thanks to David Dechant, senior consulting arborist for construction and development, Arborguard Tree Specialists, a Davey company. Dechant, who is an International Society of Arboriculture Board Certified Master Arborist, and a LEED and Sustainable SITES Accredited Professional, worked with the developer and local boutique sawmill Eutree to conduct a specimen tree survey, then tagged, harvested, measured and even cut more than 25 of the biggest trees for reuse. Working with furniture maker Madera Arts, Dechant helped determine which lumber would become tables, chairs, benches, flooring and wall panels, and timber beams in the new building. "Projects like this show Davey is interested in sustainability. We have to continually think creatively about our wood waste stream and how we can turn that into an asset," Dechant said. "Arborists and others in the tree care industry should always look to protect trees and work with developers to design around them if possible. When that's not possible, the least we can do is give those trees a second life." Gables Residential, the developer, is 100 percent green- certified and takes a holistic approach to maintaining local environments, especially urban forests. Dechant connected Gables with Eutree through the Urban Wood Reutilization program through the Georgia Arborist Association. This project received recognition from the Georgia Tree Council, including two Excellence in Urban Forestry Awards. PLANTING A TREE FOR EVERY EMPLOYEE Davey has committed to plant one tree for each of our 10,500 employees with the Arbor Day Foundation through a donation to the #TeamTrees global reforestation effort. In 2019 Davey celebrated 40 years of employee ownership. To mark this milestone, the company committed $10,500 To celebrate 40 years of employee ownership in 2019 Davey committed to planting 10,500 trees. to the Arbor Day #TeamTrees campaign. For every $1 donated Arbor Day will plant one tree in forests of high need in California, India and Kenya. "During a year of celebrations and milestones, it seemed appropriate to honor our employees by planting a tree for each of them," said Sandra Reid, vice president of corporate communications and strategic planning administration. "When we needed to pick an organization to do the planting, the Arbor Day Foundation was the natural choice for us, due to our long partnership with them." The #TeamTrees campaign started when a popular YouTube content creator asked his audience how he should celebrate achieving an audience of 20 million followers, and his audience suggested they plant 20 million trees by 2020. Celebrities and other large organizations followed suit, with donors including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. (And Davey, of course!) Arborguard Tree Specialists ensured trees removed for a new apartment complex in Georgia were repurposed as furniture and in other elements of the project. Arborguard's David Dechant worked closely with the developer to survey and harvest the trees.

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