At the SEED Campus, employees will have a space to learn about work related to Davey’s utility operations at our non-energized right-of-way. We’ve built multiple spans of utility poles fixed with non-energized power lines and equipment to provide a controlled environment for training and other educational opportunities.
“It’s a tremendous resource to have,” said Retired Executive Vice President Dan Joy, who oversaw the SEED Campus master plan, on a 2024 Talking Trees podcast. “We think it will have a huge impact on our safety and quality of our work, the efficiency of our work.”
Educational opportunities for both our Utility and Davey Resource Group service lines will take place at the training site.
SEED Campus: A Place for Employee Education
One such training program is “Securing and Releasing Tensioned Utility Lines (Trees on Wires),” developed by Davey’s Utility service line and Health and Safety department. On June 24-25, 2025,16 Davey employees – ranging from foremen to senior supervisors – attended this training, the first to take place at the SEED Campus’s non-energized right-of-way.
In this program, trainees were presented with information, techniques, tools, gear, and equipment that can be used to safely remove storm-damaged trees off tensioned utility lines. The understanding of stored energy, and limbs or logs under compression or tension, is vitally important in preventing struck-by incidents from occurring. Employees learned about securing and releasing tensioned utility lines using rigging gear and techniques, industry best practices, and Davey policy, all backed by scientific data related to Davey’s utility operations.
Autumn Dickerson, Director of Employee Development, Eastern Utility Services, thanked the dozens of individuals across Davey who collaborated to make this first training at the SEED Campus’s non-energized right-of-way happen. Beginning in 2026, Davey will host this training program three or four times each year at the SEED Campus.
