15
January/February 2020
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
Managers, sales arborists, sales and service coordinators
and technicians from various Residential/Commercial
(R/C) offices in Texas gathered in San Antonio for the 2019
Texas Soil Care Workshop. Topics included assessing soil
compaction and organic matter content, as well as applying
compost and Biochar
®
to soils. Hands-on workshops
SOIL SEMINARS HELD ACROSS NORTH AMERICA
DAVEY SPONSORS UTILITY ARBORISTS SAFETY SUMMIT
Attendees of the Texas seminar included Wyatt Bilby, North Houston; Tom Chaky, North Austin; Brian Cox, Dallas; Heath Gober, South Austin;
Lewis Heye, West San Antonio; Tim Jackson, West San Antonio; William Johnston, South Austin; Kevin Lamb, Dallas; Dave Madden, South Austin;
Kevin Martin, North Austin; Amaury Martinez, South Houston; Matt Petty, South Houston; Mike Presta, East San Antonio; Gerrit Sampson, South
Austin; Charles Scibana, North Austin; Chuck Shouse, East San Antonio; Alex Singeltary, South Houston; Curt Smith, North Houston; Ted Sonnier,
South Houston; Jerry Weatherred, South Austin. Facilitators included Andy Ferguson, vice president, Western Residential/Commercial operations;
A.D. Ali, manager of technical services, Davey Institute; Chris Fields-Johnson, technical advisor, the Davey Institute; and Sarah Ruark, technical
advisor, the Davey Institute.
Davey sponsored and helped facilitate
the 2019 Utility Arborists Association
Indianapolis Safety Summit, which
brought together utility vegetation
management professionals to promote
the constructive exchange of ideas
with the goal of helping organizations
develop a more measurable safety
culture by reducing on-site incidents.
Topics discussed included job briefings,
drop zones, various state and federal
transportation department safety
issues, ergonomics, emerald ash borer
and electrical hazards. Geoff Watson
and Jim Neeser, UVM Upper Midwest
account, worked with Chad Tinkle
and TK Christie from AEP and Duke
Energy to organize the event.
"The goal of the summit was to
develop safety champions within the
tree care industry who have the ability
to positively impact their companies'
safety culture at the crew level and
beyond," said Tim Walsh, corporate
safety director.
Tim Walsh discusses safety at the
Indianapolis summit. Other Davey attendees
included Rick Bellers, UVM Midwest;
Sara Dreiser, UVM Upper Midwest;
David Gamble, AEP account; Cody Melega,
Duke Indiana account; Jim Neeser, UVM
Upper Midwest; Jared Simoneaux, Duke
Indiana account; Geoff Watson, UVM Upper
Midwest; and Mitch White, AEP account.
included using hydraulic soil injections, vertical mulching,
soil renovations and topdressing using air tools. The Texas
workshop was part of a series of soil care seminars also
conducted by the Institute in Detroit, Toronto, Boston,
Kent, Atlanta, Greensboro, and Livermore.
