18 | September/October 2014
Taking the
Classroom
Outside
M
id-Atlantic R/C Operations Manager
Chris Klimas and Recruiter/Trainer
Paul Herb dedicated an afternoon to teaching
high school students from the Frederick
County Schools' Career and Technology
Center in Maryland and the Future Farmers
of America (FFA) about the tree care industry.
"We talked about tree pruning and what we
inspect when we climb," Herb explains. Herb
and Klimas also assisted students who wanted
to participate in the tree climbing activity.
"This is a great program for us to further
our relationships with the FFA and similar
programs," Herb says. "It helps students get
excited about our fields."
Chris Klimas
(left) and Paul
Herb (right)
assist a student
into a tree at
Frederick
County School's
Career and
Technology
Center in
Maryland.
A
rborists can be teachers, too! When
Rochester R/C District Manager Jacob
Young noticed the trees standing on a clients'
property appeared vulnerable after prior
maintenance, he offered to demonstrate the
proper way to prune—and help educate seven
eager students.
Clients Gary and Lisa Passero's seven
school-aged children receive home schooling,
so Young's visit was an extra special lesson.
"They were doing a lot of their own pruning to
their landscape but with little understanding of
proper techniques," Young explains. His lesson
ended as the children performed all pruning on
the arborvitae along the clients' front driveway.
To his pleasant surprise, Young received
letters of appreciation from his new students:
"Thank you for teaching me how to prune,"
writes Stephen Passero. "I really like pruning."
Ta-da! Seven of Gary and Lisa
Passero's eight children show
off their pruning skills.
Boy Scouts Hunt for EAB
T
he Boy Scouts of America offers Scouts
the chance to investigate different topics.
One of more than 120 different areas of
interest is a forestry merit badge that requires
a scout to investigate the trees and nature and
ultimately identify at least 15 tree species.
Gordon Matthews, district manager at Dav-
ey's Akron R/C office, joined Boy Scout Troop
177 of Stow, Ohio, to lead them on a specific
tree-related mission: an emerald ash borer hunt.
"Some of these boys were pretty sharp," Mat-
thews says. "We got to show them new
tree identifications and saw the wheels turning."
Matthews spent the afternoon at Stow's
Silver Springs Park to teach the boys how to
identify EAB presence and what it looks like,
including a preserved sample of EAB larva and
a fully developed specimen. The group placed
tree tags throughout the park on ash trees to
identify them and showcase their benefits.
Several troop members earned their forestry
merit badge. "We need to form our next
generation of people interested in the
outdoors," Matthews says. "These are the type
of tree-lovers that grow up to love trees just
as much as we do here at Davey."
Pruning Pupils
The troop sets out to hunt for EAB
and identify the benefits of ash trees.
