July/August 2016 |
5
DAY
ARBOR
A WILD ARBOR DAY IN FLORIDA
John Jaques of Davey's Naples, Florida, R/C
office greets visitors in an unexpected way
at the fun Arbor Day event at the Naples Zoo.
The village of Coal City, Illinois, unfortunately lost dozens
of trees after tragically being struck by two tornadoes –
once in 2013 and again in 2015.
Members of the Davey Resource Group Exelon-ComEd
Vegetation Management Team rallied around the city for
Arbor Day to add about 90 trees to the depleted canopy.
"It felt really great giving back to the community and to
reforest the area where so many trees fell," said Geoff
Watson, project coordinator for Davey.
A CITY IN NEED OF TREES
The city joined with Davey and the Spring Grove Nursery
through the Coal City Green program to design a community-
wide planting celebration, using i-Tree technology, to map
out a tree-planting plan.
On Arbor Day, Davey employees split into small groups and
traveled across the community to plant the trees. The team
ended its day at a local elementary school to plant two
more trees with the students.
"Everyone had a lot of fun giving back to the entire
community," Watson said.
The Davey Resource Group (DRG) Exelon utility crew for the Commonwealth Edison contract planted 90 trees throughout the Coal City, Illinois,
community. The volunteers included Nick Beloshapka, Sara Burns, Rachel Deskins, Sara Dreiser, Tonya Dunsmoor, Mark Essick, Delaney Garvin,
Patrick Glennon, Joseph Goratowski, Kourtney Harding, Adam Klein, Scott Kuyawa, Jim Maguffey, James Marok, John McGhee, Matt Millette,
Jeremy Mohr, John Pfalzgraf, Mike Priller, Ryan Quinn, August Ridder, Christy Wertz and Dakin Wright.
Lions, tigers, bears and trees made for one roaring good Arbor Day at the Naples
Zoo. For the fourth year, Dan Powell, district manager of Davey's
Naples R/C office, his team members and A.D. Ali, Davey Institute technical
advisor, got visitors excited about trees.
"We're incredibly fortunate to have participated in this event again – especially
because the zoo has been breaking attendance records recently," Powell
said. "This year we had one of our climbers hanging upside down at the
entrance, which really got people's attention. Then, we hooked them with tree
climbing demonstrations."
The team also shared information with zoo visitors about native tree species
and how to identify and care for trees. Amid the lion roars and coyote howls,
Powell and his crew had a blast fielding tree questions of all kinds and hearing
tree stories.
"It's incredibly gratifying to work with the Naples Zoo. We have the opportunity
to learn so much about animals while caring for the trees there. We were happy to
return the favor and share our tree knowledge with the zoo's visitors," Powell said.
