Davey Tree Flipbooks

Davey Bulletin March-April 2017

The Davey Tree Expert Company provides residential and commercial tree service and landscape service throughout North America. Read our Flipbooks for helpful tips and information on proper tree and lawn care.

Issue link: https://daveytree.uberflip.com/i/807486

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 13 of 31

14 The Davey Bulletin | March/April 2017 MY DAVEY DRONES ADDED TO DRG FLEET Davey Resource Group (DRG) has added drones to its equipment fleet to offer a variety of aerial inspection services to Davey clients. DRG has two certified drone pilots based in two separate locations. Bill Sutley, geographic information system (GIS) technician, is based in Kent. And Chad Laskaris, survey manager, Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. (WSSI), a Davey company, is based in Gainesville, Virginia. Sutley and Laskaris have three DJI Phantom drones and one DJI Inspire drone at their disposal. Deborah Sheeler, production manager, said both Sutley and Laskaris are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to pilot the drones for commercial use. "Our main goal is to continue providing our clients with innovative solutions that meet their needs and exceed the quality they expect," Sheeler said. Sutley said the drones have numerous applications that include providing high-resolution images for inspection of utility rights-of-way clearances, imaging for GIS, wetland inspection and tree canopy quality control work. "Wherever aerial imagery can come in handy," Sutley said. He added that the high-resolution imagery provided by the drones is a vast improvement over the satellite imagery commonly used for such applications. Satellite views are lower resolution by comparison and can't offer as much detail. DRG has already used the drones to provide a fly-through video and aerial imagery for a bat habitat mitigation project that involves converting 131 acres of dense, invasive autumn olive shrub cover to forested habitat. Laskaris at WSSI has even used the drone to capture aerial images and video of several properties for a local realtor who is a WSSI client. "With a lake and large horse farms surrounding the properties we knew there would be a great backdrop for the setting," Laskaris said. "We post-processed the video to include music and a seamless slideshow that was provided to the client for their website." WSSI also plans to use drones to capture orthorectified imagery and certified aerial topography, which are new services WSSI has subcontracted out in the past. Left: Chad Laskaris of WSSI, Inc., a Davey company, takes his drone on a test flight. Below: This type of tree canopy aerial imagery is now available to Davey clients thanks to the introduction of aerial drones to the company equipment fleet.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Davey Tree Flipbooks - Davey Bulletin March-April 2017