19
January/February 2021
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
Meg and Jason Hibinger stand in front of their son's transplanted memorial
tree. The late 2020 move coincided with the time their young son would have
graduated high school.
MAPPING TREE ROOTS WITH RADAR
EXPERTISE
PERSEVERANCE
After 7-year-old Tyler Hibinger lost his battle with cancer in 2009,
his school in Cleveland, Ohio, had a sapling memorial tree planted.
With the school set to be demolished in 2020, Meg and Jason
Hibinger, Tyler's parents, reached out to Davey's West Cleveland
R/C office for information about possibly transplanting the now-
mature tree to their home several miles away. With cost being an
issue, Mike Dawes, district manager, reached out to the family,
listened to their story, and offered to transplant the tree himself,
for free, and on his own time.
"It was a very emotional day for the family. I have a young son,
so I put myself in their shoes and knew I had to act," Dawes said.
"They had started fundraisers to move the tree but couldn't get
enough, so we volunteered. It was the right thing to do."
Dennis Claus, maintenance mechanic, the Wooster Nursery,
helped operate the tree spade to transplant the tree, and Dawes
applied fertilizer and mulch to the tree after it was replanted.
MOVING A MEMORIAL TREE
The Urban Forestry team at Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. (WSSI)
has acquired a Tree Radar Unit® (TRU), a ground penetrating radar (GPR)
device specifically designed for detecting tree roots without disturbing
landscaping, pavement or soil. A noninvasive process, the unit is pushed
along the designated area, sending electromagnetic waves into the ground
and bouncing them back. The TRU is designed to interpret
those signals and present a picture of what lies below.
"Mapping the roots and underground utilities allows us to
work more closely with clients to ensure the integrity and
safety of both the utility infrastructure and tree system,"
said Chris Fields-Johnson, technical advisor, the Davey
Institute. "It also gives us the unique ability to understand
parts of a site that used to be unreachable or unknown."
The device is being used with utility clients looking
to understand tree roots without disturbing the soil
around their assets. The TRU would also support tree
preservation and development planning projects
for significant trees where root mapping without
disturbance to the existing site is desired to expedite
project approval and improve root protection efforts.
Right: WSSI employee Cene
Ketcham walks the TRU across
the ground to map a tree's roots.
Above: Imagery results of the
root scan.
