Davey Tree Flipbooks

22 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | September/October 2022 EXPERTISE CDL ENTRY-LEVEL DRIVER TRAINING NOW AVAILABLE The range training takes place in a secure parking lot behind the Kent Shop. The marked lanes are 12 feet wide, the same dimensions of a roadway. There are walk lanes and cones for safety. Davey now offers Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) for employees to earn their Commercial Driver's License (CDL). This program covers Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulatory requirements. ELDT's theory training is a 10-hour online course on the Davey Learning Management System (LMS). Employees have 30 days to complete this portion. Behind-the-wheel training takes about 15 hours in two parts: range, and driving on public roads. After earning a Commercial Learner's Permit (CLP) and completing the ELDT, employees are eligible to test for their Class A or B CDL in their home state. "Training through outside schools takes about a week, and our drivers don't necessarily receive training in the vehicle type they will be driving, nor will they receive the personalized training given by our in-house instructors," said Tim Cheever, manager, motor carrier safety support. "The behind the wheel ELDT takes two days, saving the company on lost production time. In addition, we get one-on-one time with employees to assess what they need to learn to pass the test when they get home and apply for their CDL." ELDT trainees use vehicles they will drive daily, including bucket and chip trucks with a trailer used for hauling off-road equipment, such as a chipper, to simulate on-the-job driving. Doug Trice, motor carrier safety specialist, is the primary trainer. The Davey Institute's Krystina Zeit, instructional designer, and Rachel Foot, manager of online education, worked to get the ELDT theory training on the LMS. "Krystina, Rachel, and the entire Motor Carrier Safety team, along with the equipment department, have been a vital part of this process," Cheever said. ASSESSING PUGET SOUND'S URBAN TREE CANOPY Davey formed a three-year partnership with The Nature Conservancy, American Forests, and City Forest Credits to assess land cover and priority planting locations, culminating in the creation of an Urban Tree Canopy Assessment Toolkit for the Puget Sound region. Scott Maco, director of research and development, Davey Institute, worked with Davey Resource Group's Geospatial and Software Support Services team, led by Deb Sheeler, production manager, to provide the prioritization and modeling of ecosystem services for the baseline canopy assessment for the project. "For the Puget Sound basin, we assessed water quality, heat stress, air quality and carbon fluxes – and the inequities in distribution of these benefits between populations – in an attempt to level the playing field for the entire area. Of particular importance to the local environment, we looked at where trees need to be planted to improve stormwater interception and the quality of local streams and rivers," Maco said. "The Urban Tree Canopy Assessment Toolkit has become the leading resource for the municipalities within the growth area of the Puget Sound basin to begin enacting urban forest management plans throughout the region that are complementary to each other." The Urban Tree Canopy Assessment Toolkit was created by studying 77 communities in the urban growth area of the Puget Sound and seven other unincorporated areas across Washington state's Snohomish, King, and Pierce counties.

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