Davey Tree Flipbooks

12 | July/August 2015 New Neighbors at Garfield Park T he competition started as a relaxing Arbor Day planting celebration that morphed into a friendly, competitive, timed event." Matthew Petty, Davey's team captain and sales arborist at the South Houston R/C office, has participated in the Houston Area Urban Forestry Council (HAUFC) tree planting competition since 2011. The event challenged each team to plant 100 five-gallon trees by hand—using no powered equipment. "The goal is to perform as quickly as possible," Petty says, adding, "and also to teach and demonstrate the proper way to plant trees following the recommendations of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA)." Each team consists of 10 planting members and is assigned a judge, sanctioned by the HAUFC, to point out deficiencies and to track the starting and finishing time of each team. After two hours of hard work, volunteers planted a total of 1,600 trees. Davey has participated or sponsored the competition since its inception in 2007. This year, Davey received second place—planting 100 trees in 47 minutes with no disqualifying trees. Employee participants included: Eddie Hernandez, Carlos Andrade, Juan Jaimes, Antonio Jaimes, Leo Enriquez, Onesimo Benavides, Jonathan Raleigh, Teo Garcia, Juan Estrada and Wyatt Bilby. "This event establishes friendship and unity with people from the common bond of love for our environment," Petty says, adding no matter which team wins, it's important to come together and use shared expertise to make a difference in the environment. '' Fast, Friendly Planting Idea submitted by: Debbie Long, client experience coordinator, South Houston R/C When communities engage in the quality and coverage of their urban tree canopies, great things happen. For example, residential properties along Garfield Park, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, gain new neighbors; 87, in fact. Lee Mueller, project developer for Davey Resource Group (DRG), volunteered to demonstrate proper tree plantings for the Friends of Grand Rapids Parks (FGRP) Arbor Day event in April. Within two days, more than 150 volunteers planted 87 trees in support of FGRP's community grant program for neighborhoods interested in applying for new trees. While volunteers planted a handful of trees in Garfield Park, most other specimens found new homes along the residential streets in the surrounding neighborhood. The tree species volunteers planted included hawthorn, service berry, hackberry, Kentucky coffee and linden. "The program hosts tree plantings in the spring and fall, as well as training sessions," Mueller says, adding the program also has some involvement with city parks. Prior to joining Davey, Mueller helped develop FGRP's urban forestry outreach volunteer program. This year he volunteered to demonstrate proper planting for volunteers, as well as monitor plantings throughout the event. "It was great to see a lot of neighborhood engagement," Mueller says, reflecting on the experience.

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