Davey Tree Flipbooks

15 14 Growth Rings Chapter 1 retardant, which was used in great quantities wherever control of the growth of grass was a factor (e.g., highways, parks, airports, and golf courses). Chemical snow control was another service arena Davey briefly pursued as a means to keep the company's vast fleet of spray trucks and equipment generating revenue during winter months, when landscape work orders slowed, and trucks otherwise sat idle. Several airports around the U.S. used Davey's sprayer-outfitted trucks for deicing commercial airplanes. Despite a push to diversify services, tree work remained the primary profit driver. In 1961, crews in Kansas City removed more than 1,000 trees that had become infected with Dutch elm disease, a scourge continuing to march across the continent wiping out elm trees en masse. A crew in Jackson, Michigan, had to remove an elm tree measuring 19 feet in circumference, estimated to be over 100 years old, due to the elm bark beetle, the carrier of the disease. And in Millbrook, New York, eastern tree moving supervisor John Ploetz oversaw the relocating of 82 trees as much as 20 inches in diameter for a client with two large estates. One of Davey's more notable commercial landscape jobs at the time came in 1963 in landscaping the new headquarters for John Deere in Moline, Illinois. Davey planted various types of ground cover and about 800 shade trees, some of which were shipped by train in gondola cars from Marion, Ohio. Davey also pruned and fertilized all the trees in the construction area, cabled and braced trees where needed, removed 2,500 trees infected by Dutch elm disease, and removed about 2,000 stumps on the 300-acre site. Davey shaped two ponds, graded 30 acres of ground for lawn and then installed sod of Kentucky bluegrass. Numerous employees served integral roles on the project, including sales representative Ralph Carmichael, tree moving supervisor F.E. Hudson, and foremen Don Fritz and Terry Jay. Davey needed heavy equipment to do the grading, leveling and other soil move- ment to finish the plantings on a tight deadline. John Deere wanted Davey to finish the job in time for a dealers meeting scheduled at the new headquarters in 1964. But Davey's earth-moving machines were committed to other projects. To get the job done, executives at the agricultural implement manufacturer pledged several pieces of large equipment fresh from John Deere's own assembly line. e budding partnership ensured the new John Deere Administrative Center opened on schedule. Designed by famed architect Eero Saarinen, the building went on to win numerous architectural awards – thanks in no small part to its picturesque setting. Construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near the Utah state line, afforded Davey another chance to showcase the resolve and ingenuity of its field crews. e dam is wedged between two red, rocky walls of Navajo sandstone climbing high above the river in the desolate, barren landscape of the Colorado Plateau. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, the dam is "the key unit of one of the most extensive and complex river resource developments in the world." It is one of many dams on the mighty Colorado that harnessed the river's resources to provide irrigation for agriculture, hydroelectric power, and potable water for millions living in the West. In 1963, the Utah Power and Light Company tasked Davey with clearing the new right-of-way for construction of an electric transmission line. e new line would carry power from the new dam across south-central Utah. e path for the right- of-way crossed craggy terrain, much of which was un-surveyed, with little more to guide the crews than flags placed on hilltops miles apart. Bulldozers built roads for the Davey trucks, and in some places men and equipment had to be hauled up the sides of steep inclines. All in all, Davey crews cleared 170 miles of right-of-way – about three times the length of the Panama Canal – through the beautiful yet rugged country. e developing, long-time partnership with Utah Power and Light Company was akin to many Davey enjoyed with utility companies in the western states. Arnold "Gene" Riddle, who worked for Davey for 40 years from 1951 to 1991, much of that time as a utility account manager, was the one who oversaw the Utah Power and Light Company account and the Mountain Bell Telephone account, among others. Riddle described the work in the West as more independent due to the remote nature of the operations. "As account manager, I put on 50,000 miles a year just to get around to see the crews," Riddle said in a 2000 interview. "I had crews that were 900 miles apart from up in Montana clean down to southern Utah. We were a little bit more independent than you would have been if you were back in Ohio." Merle Talbot, whose career with Davey spanned 38 years from 1948 to 1987, from groundperson to vice president, was working as a foreman when he attended D.I.T.S. in 1961. He was appointed a general foreman in 1966, division manager in 1968, and area manager in 1976. Talbot ended his career with Davey as an area vice e Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona came online in 1964. One year earlier, Davey crews laid the groundwork so Utah Power and Light Company could build electric transmission lines connecting the dam to utility customers in south-central Utah. Davey's truck fleet rapidly expanded in the 1960s. Pictured are members of the Troy, Michigan, operations team with some pieces of their truck fleet. A residential crew transplants a large tree for a client in the late 1960s. A Davey utility line clearance crew works alongside a roadway in 1967.

• Cover