July/August 2016 |
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Davey's Detroit Commercial Landscape Services (CLS) office was particularly
motivated this Arbor Day to take a small seedling of an idea and turn it into a
25-plus tree planting project.
In early February, Jeff Kecskes, branch manager for the Detroit South/West CLS
office, was approached by Don Huston from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a
client of the office, to come up with a tree planting project for the airport grounds.
The plan started as a simple day of planting four small trees but quickly became
a much larger project.
"The airport had to mitigate marshland during an expansion," Kecskes said. Due
to the loss of land on airport grounds, airport officials invested in adding more
land to the nearby 1,000-acre Crosswinds Marsh Wetlands Interpretive Preserve,
which would later host the Arbor Day celebration.
Airport officials asked Kecskes and his crew to plant 10 trees 25 feet tall each on
the grounds prior to the event for a quick boost to Detroit's canopy. On Arbor Day,
more than 30 ninth and tenth graders from Allen Academy in Detroit and Airport
High School in Carleton, Michigan, joined Davey volunteers and airport staff to
plant 20 smaller trees on the wetlands grounds.
Students participated in four educational stations at the event to learn about trees,
wildlife, water conservation and the local parks district.
Kecskes talked to the high schoolers about trees and the job opportunities the
tree care industry has to offer. His volunteer Davey crew included: account
managers Mike Latzko and Aaron Dowen; Thomas Malin Fry, production manager;
Becca Ellis, client experience coordinator; Steve Copciac, landscape crew leader;
and Daniel Crawford, landscape technician.
"To be out there in the marsh planting trees with a client was very memorable,"
Kecskes said. "We are never wearing jeans and boots together."
AIRPORT CANOPY TAKES OFF IN DETROIT
Davey's Steve Copciac (pictured third from the left) helped students
fill a newly planted tree hole to secure it for future growth.
Davey's Thomas Malin Fry helped high school
students plant a tree at Crosswinds Marsh
Wetlands Interpretive Preserve for Arbor Day.
