In this Minnesota Star Tribune article, Jacob McMains talks about new lidar mapping technology to tend to damaged trees in Plymouth and Bloomington. 

Posted: September 03, 2025

A man in PPE and a hard hat looking at a tablet with another man in front of a truck.Eric Akers spends his days driving around cities in a truck with a machine on top snapping photos and sending out invisible pulses of light. 

Occasionally, someone strikes a pose, mistaking him for the car that makes Google Maps. But Akers is creating something different: a "smart tree inventory" that logs the height, diameter, branch patterns and other data on trees along the roadside. 

"It's the creme de the creme" in new tree technology, said Plymouth City Forester Paul Buck, who has been working with Davey Resource Group and Greehill to create a database for the city. Plymouth and Bloomington are the first two cities in Minnesota to use the new tool. 

Forestry teams throughout the Twin Cities metro area have been especially busy in recent years, as a combination of drought, severe storms and the emerald ash borer toppled scores of trees that gave many suburbs their character. Now, some teams are turning to new technology in hopes it will speed up their work and improve their efforts to increase the diversity and resilience of their tree canopy. 

To continue reading this article, click here. 

The Davey Tree Expert Company, headquartered in Kent, Ohio, provides research-driven tree services, grounds maintenance and environmental and utility infrastructure consulting for residential, utility, commercial and environmental partners in the U.S. and Canada. As one of the top ten largest employee-owned companies in the U.S., Davey's 12,000 employees have been dedicated to creating and delivering sustainable solutions since 1880. Apply today to join the Davey legacy, and learn about how we're growing with our new SEED Campus

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