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November/December 2020
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
Davey Resource Group (DRG) and the South Detroit
Residential/Commercial (R/C) office are working on contracts
for a mutual client, the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Lee Mueller, market manager, DRG, said historically DRG
and the R/C offices in this market have a strong relationship.
"There is a lot of trust and willingness to work together to
find opportunities," Mueller said. "Even though we are not
in the same management structure, we are assisting the
same client. The client feels like there is a family taking
care of them."
DRG completed an update to a tree inventory they
conducted for the city of Ann Arbor over a decade ago.
Over 55,000 trees were part of the inventory update,
performed in 2020.
"The city uses their inventory data on a regular basis,"
Mueller said. "The city was looking to update their inventory
information as they plan future pruning and maintenance
and bid out pruning contracts."
With the inventory data, the city can give contractors an
idea of the scope of these pruning contracts, so they can
easily provide accurate, competitive bids, Mueller said.
The South Detroit R/C office currently holds the pruning
Top left: Josh Affholter, landscaper, prunes trees at Island Park
in Ann Arbor for the park tree care contract.
Top middle: Eddie Bennett Jr., sales and service technician,
assists with tree pruning at Island Park in Ann Arbor.
Top right: The city has a nice species variety in its tree canopy.
The crews are given areas of the city to prune and they wait on
pruning the oak trees until the dormant season, which creates
an efficient cycle of year-round work.
DRG TREE INVENTORY LEADS TO R/C
PRUNING CONTRACTS IN ANN ARBOR
contract for the street trees and the pruning/removal
contract for the city parks.
"The city is trying to get all of the trees pruned in a 10-year
pruning cycle," said Bob Paris, district manager. "Between
the two contracts we are pruning all of the municipal owned
trees for the city of Ann Arbor between the parks and the
street trees."
Paris said his crews are pruning 4,000 to 5,000 trees a
year for the city, and these contracts have rounded out
his office's year.
"We are bringing in revenue during what would normally
be our 'off season,' and we can keep our employees working
all year," Paris said. "We've even brought employees in from
other offices to help us out at times. It has been a win-win
for everybody."
