Davey Tree Flipbooks

121 120 Growth Rings passenger jets hijacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, crashed into an empty field in rural Pennsylvania as passengers fought to regain control of the plane. Forty passengers and crew members perished aboard. Over the next nearly two decades, Davey employees would take part in fundraising efforts for the memorial, surveying the 2,200-acre tract of land to become the national park, planting trees to create 40 groves of 40 trees on the site, and providing volunteer support and technical expertise as the memorial grounds took shape. Davey's tie to the memorial came about serendipitously. Sandra Reid, vice president of corporate communications and strategic planning administration, had been attending a tree planting in Washington, D.C., shortly after Sept. 11 when she was introduced to a member of the National Park Foundation who was fundraising for the Flight 93 memorial. "Flight 93 flew over Northeast Ohio, where we're head- quartered. We had many Davey employees flying that day who were displaced. We had always wanted to give back," Reid recalled in a 2019 interview. Soon, employees of the Davey Institute and Davey Resource Group would be involved in providing support to the effort to establish the memorial and national park. e Davey Institute conducted a survey of trees within a hemlock grove, considered sacred ground, of the memorial crash site. In 2009, Davey supported a fundraiser at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, where the event raised $250,000 for the memorial. In 2010 Davey employees conducted a vegetation survey of the 2,200-acre tract of land to evaluate the health of the existing plants and soil. In 2012, Davey employees took part in a planned 150,000-tree reforestation effort, which was part of the overall landscape design of the memorial. Davey provided and planted 1,300 trees and shrubs along 3 miles of the park entry road. In 2013, similar work was conducted, with Davey volunteers, as part of the second phase of a multi-year reforestation project for the site. Davey constructed, provided soil amendments, and planted bioswales for the Tower of Voices parking area, where more than 15,000 bare-root plants and shrubs were installed in 2014. From 2012 to 2014, Davey provided plant health care services to the large and stately hemlocks surrounding the memorial crash site. In addition, Davey planted more than 50 new hemlock trees to serve as a buffer around the crash site. In 2015, Davey volunteers helped prune trees and teach volunteers the proper way to prune newly planted trees at the memorial. Reid said Davey has cherished its relationships with the Friends of Flight 93, Families of Flight 93, the National Park Service, and other partners in the memorial. "We were proud we were able to play a role in helping [the plan of the memorial] come to fruition," she said. "e Flight 93 Memorial, having been an old strip mine, was unique. It […] is offering a peaceful space to reflect on, and remember, the events of Sept. 11." Davey served a plethora of other high-profile clients in the early 2000s – particularly in commercial services. Starting in 2000, Davey began unbundling grounds main- tenance services from residential tree and lawn services. By the end of 2001 Davey had 18 stand-alone commercial grounds management offices as the newly realigned Commercial Grounds Maintenance group, led by vice president and general manager George Gaumer. at year Davey also introduced the Davey Institute of Grounds Management to train commercial employees. Some of the customers served by Davey's commercial crews included the head- quarters of Progressive Insurance, which occupied a 535,000-square-foot facility in the Cleveland area. In 2001 Davey assisted in the construction of the new Gannett Chapter 7 Davey Resource Group, Davey Residential/ Commercial offices and Commercial services employees worked to preserve trees transplanted for construction of the new underground vistors' center on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., starting in 2001. Davey helped transplant this large tree as part of a $37 million expansion project at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens in 2000.

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