Davey Tree Flipbooks

125 124 Growth Rings Chapter 7 In Canada, Davey also fought ALB. Canadian regulations called for any tree infested with ALB to be removed. us, Davey crews had to cut down 15,000 trees showing signs of the beetle. At about the same time, another tree-killing pest emerged in the United States: the emerald ash borer. In July 2002 the Michigan Department of Agriculture sent out official word. e shiny green beetle, smaller than a dime, was first discovered in the Great Lakes region in Detroit. Davey crews served on the front lines treating ash trees to prevent them from becoming infested with the ash borer, the larvae of which hatches inside the tree, devours its cambium and phloem layers, disrupts the tree's ability to distribute nutrients, and ultimately kills it. e emerald ash borer would eventually become responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of ash trees across North America. While pests were killing millions of trees across the U.S., on a hazy, late summer day in 2003 lax utility line clearance led to a massive power outage affecting millions. On Aug. 14, 2003, more than 50 million people across the northeastern U.S. and Canada, in big cities including New York, were thrust into the dark ages during one of North America's largest blackouts. e famous billboards in Times Square fell dark. Hundreds of subway trains became stranded. Stalled elevators trapped countless New Yorkers. e city's eerily unlit skyline would fill the next day's cover of magazines and newspapers. e blackout drew a finer level of scrutiny from regulatory agencies tasked with managing electric infrastructure and preventing another outage of the same magni- tude. Although there were myriad causes, the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force noted a failure "to manage adequately tree growth in […] transmission rights-of-way" as a contributing cause to the outage in its 2004 final report on the blackout. Steve Marshall, who at the time of the blackout was vice president and general manager, eastern utility services, recalled in a 2016 interview that Davey's response to the outage was extensive and involved numerous utility clients. "All of a sudden the importance of maintaining clear rights-of-way came to the forefront," Marshall said. "e public was now aware of the fact that one tree could knock out power to 50 million people. […] Davey became involved in helping utility companies set obtainable goals and budgets for the future." is is how Davey Resource Group got involved in conducting surveys of rights- of-way for utility companies. In one example, the resource group worked with FirstEnergy to survey all its transmission lines and inventory every tree within the right-of-way. Such work helped establish the resource group's East Coast market. On the heels of the East Coast blackout, one of Davey's largest West coast utility clients, PG&E, emerged from a three-year regulatory bankruptcy connected to California's deregulation of its utility market. PG&E had filed bankruptcy in 2001 and tied up $13.3 million owed to the Davey Company for previous contracts. Dave Adante, retired chief financial officer, executive vice president and secretary, was asked to participate in PG&E's creditor committee, which was an important component of the bankruptcy proceedings. Representing the Davey Company, Adante worked extra hours and provided a unique opportunity for the company to know firsthand what was happening and why. His work also raised the level of respect PG&E and others gave the Davey Company. "I knew we were going to get paid," Adante recalled in a 2016 interview. "It was just a question of when." at payday came in 2004. At the same time, the cyclical utility market started to see a recovery in production as "both customers and compet- itors are beginning to understand the costly, mid- to long-term effects of irresponsible pricing, sub-standard performance and improperly designed and administered vegetation management programs," the Davey Company's 2004 annual report notes. e changes in the utility market were immediately noticeable. Davey's total annual revenue in 2004 increased by 15 percent over the 2003 total to $400 million. Other service lines also contributed greatly to the increase. Just six months into the year, Residential/Commercial services were $11 million ahead of projections for sales. And Canadian operations had an excellent year with 34 percent growth in revenues and 80 percent growth in operating profit. In 2005, the Davey Company was celebrating more than 125 years of growth while employing more than 5,000 across the U.S. and Canada. is incredible high point, however, was juxtaposed with a sad event. Evangeline Davey Smith died in May 2004 at the age of 93. Smith was the daughter of Martin L. Davey, Sr., and granddaughter of John Davey. Her grandfather, father, husband, and brother all served as presidents of the Davey Company. She led a more subdued life, opting for civic involvement and serving on various boards and commissions throughout the Kent, Ohio, area, and she only served briefly on the Davey board of directors. Following the blackout of August 2003 utility companies developed more aggressive line clearance maintenance plans. Here a "brontosaurus" is used to clear undergrowth in a right-of-way.

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