Jimmy Miller | Lawn & Landscape
From the classroom to the climbing center, The Davey Tree Expert Co. has officially planted its roots at an all-new training facility.
The Davey Tree Science, Employee Education and Development Campus is now open to employees, and Lawn & Landscape toured the 200-acre property earlier this month. Between its new laboratories, greenhouses, research plots, canopy walk, climbing center and even three-green golf course – Davey Tree designed the SEED Campus to fit the needs of each of the company’s service lines and trainings.
“The SEED Campus was designed to ensure Davey continues to attract and retain the most qualified, well-trained and engaged employees possible,” said Pat Covey, chairman, president and CEO at Davey. “We are beyond excited to bring Davey employees to Kent and begin this new chapter of training and research.”
Davey Tree purchased the land to build its SEED Campus back in 2017, repurposing the Oak Knolls Golf Course and old school into a new home for the Davey Institute. Previously, the Institute was housed in the company’s corporate office headquartered across the street in Kent, Ohio.
“Now, they have this huge playground of land,” says Jill Rebuck, senior project manager at Davey Tree.
As Davey Tree employees finalize curriculum and move in the last of the SEED Campus furniture, here’s what Lawn & Landscape magazine saw during an afternoon visiting with the company that ranks No. 2 on the Lawn & Landscape Top 100 list.
A PLACE FOR LEARNING
Four training center classrooms with customizable, open-space layouts for collaboration aren't the star of the show – that’d be Davey’s new 10,700-square-foot climbing training center. It includes a metal structure with nine different poles that can be arranged in different styles to customize what aspect of climbing instructors are trying to teach. So, whether it’s throw line testing or it’s practicing common safety measures, the trainees can learn with experience.
Additionally, the metal structure offers educators some transparency as they watch trainees climb that a tree would not. Instructors can also watch from down below or go to the second level and get a higher vantage point as trainees climb, meeting them more eye-to-eye rather than just coaching from down below.
Of course, the aforementioned classrooms each host roughly 60 desks and double the size of the educational spaces located in the former Davey Institute building across the street. And there’s space for hands-on learning outside the building, too: A 50-foot-tall canopy walk also lets climbers and trainers meet at equal height as the climbers train.
Elsewhere on the campus, Davey Tree kept three greens for a six-tee-par golf course that allows Davey’s golf division and turf management programs to learn (and get a few holes of golf in, too). There are also 15 spans of non-energized utility lines that Davey employees have already been training with since June.
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
The campus is also a spot for research and development. With the Cuyahoga River and a bog on campus, there’s lots of natural resources the company can tap into out in the field. But inside, there are two new laboratories, each about 1,320 square feet: There’s the diagnostic laboratory where Davey Tree can send samples to the lab to be tested. The scientists can confirm a diagnosis and suggest tree treatment plans. There’s also a second research lab for researching and sampling different products. Previously at the Davey Institute, these two laboratories were combined, sharing a smaller lab together.
But there’s also lots of learning that’s done beyond the labs. Four, 600-square-foot greenhouses and a container nursery, plus a pollinator habitat research site, helps Davey better study plant health. There’s also a compacted soil research site for studying how trees grow in disturbed urban soils, and there’s vegetation 26 acres of plots with irrigation systems helps with tree, shrub and turf research.
AN EYE ON SUSTAINABILITY
Rebuck led a media tour of Davey Tree’s expanded corporate offices back in 2022 and pointed out then that Davey makes it a habit to repurpose trees cleared for construction. That’s the case at the new SEED Campus as well: In the lobby of the SEED Campus is a staircase constructed entirely from unhealthy trees they removed from the property and on other local properties.
This sustainability is reflected in how the SEED Campus operates. A two-acre plot of solar panels powers the facility, and the company created a three-acre stormwater retention pond right beside the front entrance. Smaller features like EV charging and water refill stations scattered across the campus help reinforce Davey’s goal to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.
RECOGNIZING DAVEY TREE HISTORY
The lobby doesn’t just feature historic trees – it’s got historic trucks, too. Elsewhere in the building is an archival space for Davey that goes back to 1880, with trucks in the front of the lobby. It features a rolling shelving system that contains original Davey tools like chainsaws, worn uniforms, oil paintings used in advertising, letters and paperwork.
Davey Tree also repurposed a barn that was on the original property into an event center, reconstructing timbers cut in 1890 for the barn and creating a spot for employee celebrations.
SmithGroup, an architecture company, designed the SEED Campus in collaboration with Davey Tree, and The Ruhlin Company constructed it after the company broke ground in November 2022.