Reading Takes Root

Davey Plants the 1st Reading Tree
in New Orleans

Many leaders say people with a passion are the ones who make the most difference. At Davey, our passion for trees drives everything we do and we are proud to honor the 25-year legacy of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the power of reading with a new program we call “Reading Takes Root.”

As part of the program, Davey will donate trees at 25 locations across the U.S. in conjunction with school library renovations carried out by Target and The Heart of America Foundation.

The initial live oak tree planting took place on May 16 at the KIPP Believe School in New Orleans. The planting video with children enjoying reading underneath the great tree was shown as a surprise to Winfrey on one of her penultimate episodes, airing May 23.

Davey Resource Group Landscape Architect Dan Howse chose the 72-inch box tree from the Glen Flora Farms nursery in Glen Flora, Texas. On Sunday, May 15, the tree was driven on a tractor-trailer from Texas to its final home in New Orleans.

When Environmental Design/Davey experts brought the tree to the site on May 16, KIPP school children were enthusiastic. “They asked us all kinds of questions about the type of tree we were planting,” Howse says. “They were inquisitive, and you could tell they must have been recently learning about tree benefits because they commented a few times about how they thought the air should feel cleaner almost instantly with the addition of the new tree.”

Crews planted the tree in a previously unused space near the school’s music room where they expect it to get lots of use and attention.

The city of New Orleans is known for the live oaks that reach out over its roads creating an iconic shaded and sun-speckled street scene. “The school is just down the street from one of these movie-scene images, and that makes this live oak fit in perfectly,” Howse says.

Click here for more photos of the first reading tree planting.