Davey Tree Flipbooks

January/February 2016 | 15 Some Davey crews are beginning to think cats do have nine lives. After rescuing a feral kitten from the street, a Toronto resident was about to transport the kitten to Toronto Animal Services to be spayed when it bolted from its carrier and ran up a tall tree. Area residents tried to encourage the kitten to climb down with no luck. Then Davey's Mike Arico received a call for help and the rescue efforts took a positive turn. NINE LIVES Steve Karas meets the ground safely after rescuing a kitten stuck in a tree. Davey's Canton R/C employees were stumped when local homeowners called with an unusual request – to help them keep a 12-foot Native American sculpture on their property. The oversized wooden sculpture, known as Chief Pin Oak, is not only beloved by its homeowners, but it also acts as a popular landmark to bicyclists, joggers and walkers that frequent the nearby Towpath trail along the Ohio & Erie Canal. "Everyone on the Towpath trail could see the sculpture in the property and recognized it as the one-mile marker," says Brohn Amstutz, sales arborist at the Canton R/C office. Homeowners noticed Chief Pin Oak's original stump base – which was carved by chain-saw artist Michael Blaine five years ago – started to rot and become unsafe to Towpath trail visitors. Worried about the sculpture toppling over, the homeowners called Amstutz for solutions. "I knew if we couldn't do it, nobody else could," Amstutz says. In the spirit of a challenge, Amstutz and foremen Frank Gibson and Dave Prochnow agreed to take on this unique request. After three days of hard work, the crew chain-sawed the sculpture off its original stump base, inserted steel rods four feet into Chief Pin Oak's feet, suspended the sculpture into the air and secured it into its new concrete base. "The sculpture should now last at least double the lifespan than if we left it on its original trunk base," Amstutz says. STUMPED BY THE CHIEF PIN OAK Frank Gibson uses a chainsaw to trim a 12-foot Native American sculpture off its original stump base. "It was an act of humanity and caring that renewed our faith in human nature. Sometimes we just need a reminder that people are good; that companies, like yours, have a heart and a deep commitment to helping in their community." – an email to Arico from Sydney Day, the woman who initially called Davey to help with the rescue after she witnessed the kitten escape. Arico, sales arborist at the Toronto West office, asked crewmembers including foreman Steve Karas and groundmen Nam Nghiem and Matt Vesprey to save the kitten. Karas and his crew agreed to help and drove their Davey bucket truck to the scene, where many community members accumulated throughout the day to help out. It took Karas only a few minutes to safely ride the bucket truck 25 feet in the air to secure the kitten in its carrier. "There was a lot of applause and a lot of hugs when I got down," Karas says. "It made many people's day."

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