9
March/April 2022
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD WITH 'TREESILIENCE'
Tom Beshoar, district manager, is pictured at far left. Representatives
from Forest ReLeaf, Beyond Housing, The Nature Conservancy and a
homeowner and her daughter assisted with planting a tree.
The Nature Conservancy partnered with Davey Resource
Group with funding from the USDA Forest Service to initiate
Treesilience in Chicago in 2020. Treesilience works with
non-profits to tackle the issue of providing equitable
distribution of the benefits of healthy trees.
Josh Behounek, business development manager, DRG
Environmental Consulting, helped pilot the original Chicago
project and then expanded Treesilience to St. Louis late
last year, working with Forest ReLeaf of Missouri and
Beyond Housing.
"Forest ReLeaf of Missouri brings in their Canopy Crew
to identify properties with dead, dying, and hazardous
trees in need of removal. Those trees are discussed with
homeowners and are added to a list for potential removals
through a grant. The homeowners selected get their tree
taken care of. From there, Davey comes in and takes the tree
down," Tom Beshoar, district manager, St. Louis office, said.
Davey will remove approximately 120 trees in 2022. For
each tree removed, two trees are then planted by Forest
ReLeaf. The program has also expanded to Orlando, an area
that is affected by hurricanes.
"A goal of the program is to work with and prioritize
communities that are disproportionately affected by heat
islands, poor air quality, poor human health outcomes, and
insect and disease pressures," Behounek said.
i-Tree
®
and its logo have been
trademarked.
i-Tree
®
is a suite of software tools
for urban and community forestry
assessment and is used to estimate
the benefits that trees provide. i-Tree
®
grew out of a partnership between
Davey, the U.S. Forest Service, Arbor
Day Foundation, Society of Municipal
Arborists, International Society of
Arboriculture and Casey Trees. The
I-TREE GETS TRADEMARK STATUS
Davey Institute is the sole developer
of i-Tree software.
"We want to avoid other entities
co-opting the name and putting out
questionable science or claims," said
Mike Binkley, technology development
manager, Davey Institute. "Beyond
keeping the science up to date, we
must maintain i-Tree's integrity in
order for it to remain useful."
Whenever the term
i-Tree
®
is used it
should be followed
by the registered
trademark symbol.
"Over the past
16 years, i-Tree
has spread around the world and has
become a global 'currency' in terms
of quantifying and talking about the
benefits of trees," Binkley said.
YOU SHOULD KNOW
