Davey Tree Expert Company

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 8th largest employee-owned company in the U.S., according to data from the National Center for Employee Ownership.[16] (The 2021 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 late 2024.[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 2013, 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 S&S Tree and Landscaping Specialists,[37] LMS[38] and TGC Engineering[39]

• Pfleger, Robert E. (1977). Green Leaves: A History of The Davey Tree Expert Company. Chester, Connecticut, USA: Pequot Press. ISBN 978-0-87106-081-5.
• International Directory of Company Histories. The Davey Tree Expert Company. Vol. 11. St. James Press. 1995. Retrieved 15 June 2010.