Company type | Employee owned |
---|---|
Industry | Green Industry |
Founded | Kent, Ohio, United States 1880 (origins) 1909 (incorporated) |
Founder | John Davey |
Headquarters | Kent, Ohio, United States |
Key people | Patrick M. Covey (CEO), Joseph R. Paul (CFO) |
Services | Arboriculture, Horticulture, Utility Vegetation Management, Environmental and Consulting Services |
Revenue | US$1.693 billion (2023) |
US$72,140,000 (2023) | |
Owner | Employee owned (ESOP) |
Number of employees | 12,000 |
Website | www |
The Davey Tree Expert Company, also known as Davey Tree, is a North American employee-owned corporation. The company's main services are research driven tree services, grounds maintenance and environmental consulting services for residential, utility, commercial and environmental partners in the United States and Canada. Davey has employees throughout the United States and Canada.
Davey is the oldest tree care company in North America, with origins dating back to 1880. [1] [2] [3] John Davey, its founder, is considered the father of the science of tree surgery and the modern-day industry of arboriculture. [4] [5] [6] It has been employee owned since 1979 and is the 9th largest such company in the U.S. [7] Forbes named it as one of America's best employers in 2015 and U.S. News & World Report named it Best for Tree Care services in 2023. [8] [9]
Company headquarters are in Kent, Ohio. [10] It provides services to homeowners, small and large businesses, public utilities, and local, state, and federal agencies through its arboriculture, horticulture, and environmental and consulting services. [11]
In 1873 at age 27, John Davey traveled from his native England to the United States, first to Castle Garden, New York, and later to Warren, Ohio, where he worked as a janitor. He moved to Kent, Ohio, in 1881 to take a job at Standing Rock Cemetery. The cemetery let him experiment with the property's trees, shrubs and flowers. He planted hundreds of trees along the Kent streets and around homes in the community and performed some tree work. He wanted people to care about trees so wrote a book. [12]
That book was published in 1901 known as "The Tree Doctor". [13] John Davey was the President, and his son, Martin L. Davey, became the general manager and treasurer eight years later when The Davey Tree Expert Company was incorporated in 1909. [14] By 1915, Davey Tree was growing and expanding; during the period from 1915 to 1920, the company expanded more than fivefold. [15] Today, its sales are more than $1.5 billion.
The Davey Tree Expert Company has been employee-owned since 1979 and is the 9th largest employee-owned company in the U.S., according to data from the National Center for Employee Ownership. [16] (The 2023 Employee Ownership 100 list includes the nation's largest companies that are at least 50 percent owned by an employee stock ownership plan or other broad-based employee ownership plan. [17] ) The list also names Davey as the largest employee-owned company in Ohio.
John Davey established the Davey Institute of Tree Surgery in 1908. [18] A training facility was staffed by experts and also provided employees with the skills and tools needed to advance tree science. Today, the company still provides basic tree science as the educational foundation for its employees. [19] According to the company, scientists and technical advisers guide field service teams in diagnosing and prescribing products, application procedure, and pest and disease cultural practices. [20]
Davey is building a new research and training facility, known as the Davey Science, Employee Education and Development (SEED) Campus, at its home headquarters in Kent, Ohio. The campus covers approximately 190 acres (77 ha) and will be used for a variety of research and training programs. [21] Some areas it plans to research are water management and pollinator habitat as well as ways to test how to build more sustainable landscapes as the world faces climate change. [22]
The campus mainly occupies the former Oak Knolls East Golf Course, and Davey also made a deal with the Kent City School District to exchange the closed Franklin Elementary School, which was adjacent to the golf course property, for some other property adjacent to the district's middle and high school campus. Construction began in 2022 and will feature a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) training facility and a 10,700 square feet (990 m2) indoor climbing center. The SEED campus is expected to open in early 2025. [23]
The company partners with other organizations to promote the benefits of trees, such as the Arbor Day Foundation, American Forests, International Society of Arboriculture and the Tree Care Industry Association and programs like the National Register of Big Trees and fundraisers like Tour des Trees. [24] [25] It also partners with universities such as Kent State. [26]
In 2012, the company published its first corporate social responsibility report. [27] The company has been involved in many projects to help care for the environment with initiatives such as i-Tree, [28] software created by Davey and the USDA Forest Service used to quantify the benefit of trees, [29] as well as helping the National Park Service care for the trees at the Flight 93 National Memorial. [30] It also assists and helps clean up from natural disasters, such as Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina. [31] [32] Hurricane Katrina created widespread tree damage prompting the International Society of Arboriculture, Davey Tree, and Urban Forest Strike Teams to deploy certified arborists into at least nine communities along the Mississippi/Louisiana Gulf Coast. [33] Throughout September and October 2017, thousands of federal, state, and private agencies were deployed to areas that were impacted by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate. These first responders are there to help the people in the storm's path. However, Davey is part of another group of responders that go into storm-ravaged towns to aid the trees. [34]
According to Davey Tree, it operates in two segments, residential/commercial, and utility. It has research, technical support, and laboratory diagnostic facilities. [35] The residential/commercial segment is involved in the treatment, preservation, maintenance, removal, and planting of trees, shrubs, and other plant life. The segment's services also include landscaping, grounds maintenance, tree surgery, as well as the application of fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides. The utility services segment engages vegetation management around power lines, rights-of-way, and chemical brush control services; and natural resource management and consulting, forestry research and development, and environmental planning services.
About half the company growth in this century has come from mergers and acquisitions. The biggest was Illinois-based The Care of Trees in 2008. [36] Recently it has purchased Mickman Brothers, Inc., [37] Restoration Systems LLC [38] and TGC Engineering [39]
Arboriculture is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment. The practice of arboriculture includes cultural techniques such as selection, planting, training, fertilization, pest and pathogen control, pruning, shaping, and removal.
An arborist, or arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants in dendrology and horticulture.
Martin Luther Davey was an American Democratic politician from Ohio. After serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, he served as the 53rd governor of Ohio.
The International Society of Arboriculture, commonly known as ISA, is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The ISA serves the tree care industry as a paid membership association and a credentialing organization that promotes the professional practice of arboriculture. ISA focuses on providing research, technology, and education opportunities for tree care professionals to develop their arboricultural expertise. ISA also works to educate the general public about the benefits of trees and the need for proper tree care.
Alex L. Shigo was a biologist, plant pathologist with the United States Forest Service whose studies of tree decay resulted in many improvements to standard arboricultural practices. He travelled and lectured widely to promote understanding of tree biology among arborists and foresters. His large body of primary research serves as a broad foundation for further research in tree biology.
Ulmus 'Frontier' is an American hybrid cultivar, a United States National Arboretum introduction derived from a crossing of the European Field Elm Ulmus minor with the Chinese Elm Ulmus parvifolia in 1971. Released in 1990, the tree is a rare example of the hybridization of spring- and autumn-flowering elms. Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, 'Frontier' averaged a survival rate of 74% after 10 years.
Ulmus 'Homestead' is an American hybrid elm cultivar raised by Alden Townsend of the United States National Arboretum at the Nursery Crops Laboratory in Delaware, Ohio. The cultivar arose from a 1970 crossing of the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila with the hybrid N 215, the latter grown from seed sent in 1960 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison elm breeding team by Hans Heybroek of the De Dorschkamp Research Institute in the Netherlands. Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, 'Homestead' averaged a survival rate of 85% after 10 years in the US National Elm Trial. However, planting of the tree was not recommended, owing principally to its 'ugly' shape and susceptibility to Southwest injury. 'Homestead' was released to commerce without patent restrictions in 1984.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Pioneer' is an American clone arising from the crossing of two European species, Wych Elm U. glabra and Field Elm U. minor. Raised by the USDA station at Delaware, Ohio, in 1971, 'Pioneer' was released to commerce in 1983.
Ulmus 'Regal' is an American hybrid elm cultivar developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and released in 1983. 'Regal' was derived from seeds arising from the crossing of the Dutch hybrid clones 'Commelin' and '215' sent in 1960 by Hans M. Heybroek of the Dorschkamp Research Institute for Forestry & Landscape Planning, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Ulmus 'Morton Glossy' is a hybrid cultivar raised by the Morton Arboretum, Illinois. Originally named 'Charisma' until it was realized that name had already been registered for another plant, the tree was derived from a crossing of two other hybrid cultivars grown at the Morton: Accolade and Vanguard. Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, Triumph averaged a survival rate of 86% after 10 years. Triumph was introduced to the UK in 2006 by the Frank P. Matthews nursery in Worcestershire.
Ulmus 'Morton Plainsman' is a hybrid cultivar raised by the Morton Arboretum from a crossing of Siberian Elm and a Japanese Elm grown from openly pollinated seed donated by the Agriculture Canada Research Station at Morden, Manitoba. Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, Vanguard averaged a survival rate of 78% after 10 years.
The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'New Harmony' was raised by the Maryland Agricultural Research Service and released by the United States National Arboretum in 1995, along with 'Valley Forge'. 'New Harmony' proved the most successful U. americana cultivar in the US National Elm Trial, averaging a survival rate of 85.5% overall.
Ulmus 'Patriot' is a hybrid cultivar raised by the United States National Arboretum in 1980. Derived from a crossing of the American hybrid 'Urban' with the Wilson's Elm cultivar 'Prospector', 'Patriot' was released to commerce, free of patent restrictions, in 1993. Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, 'Patriot' averaged a survival rate of 85% after 10 years.
John Davey was an English-American landscape architect, considered the father of the science of tree surgery.
Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 28,215 at the 2020 Census. The city is counted as part of the Akron metropolitan area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton combined statistical area.
The European Arboricultural Council (EAC) based in Bad Honnef, Germany is a forum where delegates from a wide range of arboricultural organizations throughout Europe meet. The goal of the EAC is to elevate the status and to raise the professional level of competence within arboriculture. This objective is carried out by liaising on matters ranging from research and education to successful tree establishment and the improvement of safe working practices.
The Master Arborist or Board Certified Master Arborist credential identifies professional arborists who have attained the highest level of arboriculture offered by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and one of the two top levels in the field. There are several paths to the Board Certified Master Arborist, but typically on average each has been an ISA Certified Arborist a minimum of three to five years before qualifying for the exam. The certification began as a result of the need to distinguish the top few arborists and allow others to identify those with superior credentials. The ISA added specialty certifications of Utility Specialist, for those maintaining vegetation around electric utility wires, Municipal Specialist, for those with additional experience managing public urban trees.
The Arboricultural Association is an organisation United Kingdom for amenity tree care professionals (arboriculturalists). It is located in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. It is registered as a charity with the United Kingdom Government.
A tree fork is a bifurcation in the trunk of a tree giving rise to two roughly equal diameter branches. These forks are a common feature of tree crowns. The wood grain orientation at the top of a tree fork is such that the wood's grain pattern most often interlocks to provide sufficient mechanical support. A common "malformation" of a tree fork is where bark has formed within the join, often caused by natural bracing occurring higher up in the crown of the tree, and these bark-included junctions often have a heightened risk of failure, especially when bracing branches are pruned out or are shaded out from the tree's crown.
Tree care is the application of arboricultural methods like pruning, trimming, and felling/thinning in built environments. Road verge, greenways, backyard and park woody vegetation are at the center of attention for the tree care industry. Landscape architecture and urban forestry also set high demands on professional tree care. High safety standards against the dangers of tree care have helped the industry evolve. Especially felling in space-limited environments poses significant risks: the vicinity of power or telephone lines, insufficient protective gear and narrow felling zones with endangered nearby buildings, parking cars, etc.. The required equipment and experience usually transcends private means and is often considered too costly as a permanent part of the public infrastructure. In singular cases, traditional tools like handsaws may suffice, but large-scale tree care usually calls for heavy machinery like cranes, bucket trucks, harvesters, and woodchippers.