Davey Tree Flipbooks

20 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | March/April 2022 PERSEVERANCE WILDFIRE DESTROYS CLIENTS' HOMES, TREES IN COLORADO When the historic Marshall Fire swept through Colorado in December, it carved a devastating path between Denver and Boulder and wiped entire neighborhoods off the map. Close to 1,000 structures burned to ash in the fire. Many Davey clients lost their homes – and their trees. Steve Schopp, district manager, North Denver Residential/Commercial (R/C) office, said 100 clients of his office, close to 70 of whom were active clients, sustained some level of damage from the fire. to know and helped for decades in some cases lose everything like that." "The calls I'm getting now are people asking to look at the trees to see if they are salvageable, and a lot of the times they're just too damaged," he said. "The whole cambium is just burned." Schopp said he heard a recent estimate that as many as 2,000 trees were lost in the fire. Davey clients Elizabeth and Scott Hafer lost their house "The wind was just crazy," Schopp said. "All this heat was going sideways, and you'd get these focused fingers of flames. But there were also general areas where the fire would take out a whole neighborhood." Winds gusted over 100 mph in some areas, whipping wildfires fed by dry grasses across open areas and into neighborhoods. The town of Superior, Colorado, sustained some of the heaviest losses. "One client, her house was gone," Schopp said. "And across the street, three houses were still standing. An entire neighborhood of about 75 homes burned, and there were six clients there I remembered. We had a strong presence there. The part of town where it actually burned we had a really high density there. It's been difficult seeing so many clients who we've gotten What can we do? We will assess their landscape, see if anything can come back, and put plans together then to see what we can do to keep any trees that can be kept or that they want to keep." For Schopp, he anticipates the North Denver office will be performing a lot of tree removal work – and hopefully new plantings as people rebuild – to help the community recover. "Andy Freise, our regional skills trainer, has worked in California fire areas and has experience with that type of removal work," Schopp said. "So, through the network of Davey we'll be utilizing that resource. For me, this is just the very beginning. For some people, the fire is still so fresh and significant that they may not even be thinking about their trees yet." in Louisville, Colorado, and they're hopeful they won't also lose their beloved maple tree. The tree still stands. "We don't have many details, yet, about what will happen to our plot with the clean-up," Elizabeth Hafer said. "I am still very determined to keep my favorite tree, though, if at all possible." Jeff Jackson, sales arborist, Boulder R/C office, said clients and arborists alike will have a better sense in the spring of which trees will survive and recover based on which ones start to leaf out. "My first question to clients is always, is everybody safe? Once that's been established, hey, how can we help? My first question to clients is always, is everybody safe? Jeff Jackson sales arborist, Boulder R/C office

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