Davey Tree Flipbooks

3 July/August 2025 | THE DAVEY BULLETIN A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON SAFETY & TRAINING Perching high up in a tree canopy, relying on a harness, carabiner and rope for your safety, can give you a whole new perspective and appreciation for what our employees do every day. I recently had the incredible opportunity to explore the canopy walk at the Davey SEED (Science, Employee Education and Development) Campus. The canopy walk has several fixed platforms connected by walkways, including a cable suspension bridge that spans the main campus roadway. The canopy walk is over 50 feet above ground, amidst the upper canopy limbs and leaves of a majestic oak grove outside the campus climbing center. The educational opportunities it provides include: The potential for climbing instructors to communicate at-height with employees learning to climb in trees; and canopy-level research projects conducted by the Davey Institute. The canopy walk also will give Davey employees whose jobs don't involve climbing trees or working in bucket trucks the chance to experience what it feels like high up in the treetops. Using fall-arrest harnesses, we clipped into safety cables stretched throughout the canopy walk, which had not yet had its railings installed. The experience is likely as close as I will ever come to seeing firsthand what our employees are exposed to each day, relying on their Davey equipment and training for their livelihood. Matt Fredmonsky ROOT OF THE ISSUE Our Mission We exceed client expectations. Leadership We take purposeful action toward our collective success. Perseverance We create solutions to overcome challenges. Integrity We are honest and truthful in all we do. Safety We protect and care for each other. Expertise We use science and knowledge to master our craft. Our Vision We create and deliver sustainable solutions. Stewardship We make the world around us better. The upper canopy of these beautiful oak trees is a peaceful place, but it's equally nerve-racking. Not only did it re-emphasize the incredible amount of expertise our employees have to accumulate in order to climb and use bucket trucks at such a height, but the experience also illuminated the central, essential role safety plays in putting someone high up in the air with sharp tools and heavy equipment. Safety and training go hand-in-hand. A wonderful aspect of the SEED Campus is that its facilities are designed to do both – train employees while reinforcing safe practices. My canopy walk experience also shed light on the decisions managers must make every day when putting their crews up in the trees. Managers bear an incredible amount of responsibility when assigning their crews each day, and they assume an immense amount of accountability to the employees who they put in those positions, those employees' coworkers, and their families. My limited at-height experience reinforced the crucial role safety plays in our employees' daily work and how safety is indeed a shared responsibility. I hope many Davey employees will enjoy a similar learning opportunity at the SEED Campus, especially on the canopy walk after it opens later this summer. I'm hopeful the campus will give many more employees a fresh perspective on safety and training.

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