Davey Tree Flipbooks

123 122 Growth Rings Co., Inc., headquarters in McLean, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. e media conglomerate owns USA Today and numerous other media properties. Davey handled landscaping for the entire 825,000-square-foot campus. e work included selectively thinning the site's trees, creating a jogging trail, installing a complete irrigation system, and building a fourth-floor terrace garden complete with trees. Davey Resource Group, under the direction of Roger Funk, also worked on several important projects, including a multiple-year contract that started in 2001 involving tree preservation and replanting at the construction site of the new, underground visitor center on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. e collaborative project for the Architect of the Capitol involved the resource group, residential and commercial offices. Crews transplanted eight memorial trees on the Capitol grounds to make room for the new visitor center. Fighting Insects and Other reats Meanwhile, Davey crews continued the traditional business of caring for North America's trees. In San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Davey arborists worked to combat Dutch elm disease. In San Francisco, Davey staved off the deadly disease by treating all the city's street trees. In the nation's capital, Davey partnered with Casey Trees to treat 100 elm trees along the city's streets. In Chicago and New York, crews battled the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB). e wood-boring insect has no natural predator in the U.S. It feeds on a wide variety of trees and ultimately proves deadly to the hosts. Significant ALB work commenced in Chicago in 2000, when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) worked with Davey's Northeast and South Chicago offices and the Davey Institute to find an environmentally friendly approach to manage the pest. Davey also worked with industry partners to test pesticides and other methods for treating against ALB. Previously, the only effective method of controlling or eradicating the pest was to wholly remove infested trees. After initial testing in 2000, Davey and the USDA partnered to inoculate 30,000 trees against ALB in the Chicago area. e use of injections helped reduce the number of trees that had to be cut down due to the pest. In Chicago, Davey arborists literally hunted for the pest. e beetles are so aggres- sive that, in 1998, 453 shade trees lining the streets of a single Chicago neighborhood were cut, chipped, and burned in an effort to eradicate the beetles. Jim Stief, then vice president of central, southern, and western operations for residential services, explained the magnitude of the Chicago ALB operations – which spanned roughly a decade – in a 2003 Bulletin article. e work "involves monitoring over 2,000 trees every week for any sign of the Asian longhorned beetle," Stief said. "Our association with the United States Department of Agriculture in Chicago has been rewarding at all levels. rough our combined efforts, the Asian longhorned beetle has not only been prevented from spreading, but in fact appears to be largely under control." In 2002, Davey treated more than 130,000 trees in New York City to ward off the pest. Two years later, Davey treated more than 68,000 trees in and around New York City for the Asian longhorned beetle. Crews rallied from 17 Davey residential territories and from DRG for the work. Stief, in a 2017 interview, recalled the USDA became his most memorable client of a 40-plus year career. "When working for federal agencies, you have to somewhat compete for projects on price," Stief said. "We were not the lowest price. And we competed against some of the big players in the Chicago arboriculture market. e deeper we got into the project and the more history we had with the USDA, it proved the service experience we provided was one of our most valuable attributes." Chapter 7 In 2000 Davey started unbundling grounds maintenance services from residential tree and lawn offices. Early, high-profile clients of the Commercial services group included the headquarters of Gannett, home to USA Today, in McLean, Virginia. A Davey employee (pictured to the left) searches wood debris for signs of ALB. e Asian Longhorned Beetle (inset) and the Emerald Ash Borer compared with a dime for perspective on size. ese two invasive species are responsible for killing millions of trees across North America starting in the early 2000s.

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