SEEDs for growth

April Helms

Akron Beacon Journal USA TODAY NETWORK

KENT − A former elementary school and golf course have been taking on a new life as a facility for flora research.

Across the street and a short distance from the Davey Tree Expert Co.’s main administration building on North Mantua Street, the longtime Kent company is putting the final touches on its Science, Employee Education and Development (SEED) Campus. The campus, on nearly 200 acres, includes a 70,000-square-foot indoor training facility that features a10,700-square-foot climbing center, classrooms and laboratories for diagnostics and research.

There also is a climate-controlled archival space for the company’s historical records and a reconstructed historic barn for events, according to Davey Tree. The property also includes greenhouses, an arboretum, bogs and nonenergized utility lines for training.

It features many glass windows that were designed to help prevent bird strikes.

The SEED Campus will be powered by a 2-acre solar array on the property, and the parking lot has several chargers for electric vehicles.

“It’s been years in the making, the planning and the building,” said Jill Rebuck, senior project manager of corporate communications. She added that Davey Tree purchased the land in 2016.

An interesting feature is that the wood used in several of the tables, one set of stairs and some of the wood trim was from trees that were removed from the property, Rebuck said.

The SEED Campus is growing where Oak Knolls Golf Club and Franklin Elementary School on State Route 43 operated.

Rebuck said the SEED Campus has four classrooms, which doubles the number of spaces it previously had. The classrooms are used for Davey’s educational and training programs, including the Davey Institute of Tree Sciences,

which is Davey’s flagship program in biological sciences, safety, tree and plant care and management techniques.

The four-week classes, Rebuck said, draw biologists, arborists and other professionals from across the nation and Canada. They first were offered by Davey Tree in 1909.

Indoor climbing classroom trains employees how to safely scale trees

A highlight of the indoor facility is the two-story climbing classroom, where newer employees can practice tree-climbing in a safer, climate-controlled environment. The facility also helps more experienced workers hone their skills.

“We are the only tree company that has this facility,” Rebuck said.

The climbing area includes a series of metal poles and scaffolding. This, too, was done for safety reasons, said Tim Bushnell, arborist skills trainer.

“It is very functional for training,” Bushnell said. “We’re able to see what they are doing with the metal poles. It’s good for training.” He added that the metal structure allowsinstructors to spot climbing mistakes and correct them. “With tree trunks, it’s not as visible.”

Arboretum, tree canopy among outdoor features that boost training opportunities

Practicing with trees and other flora isn’t restricted to the indoor areas. There are nearly 200 acres outdoors where research and training can take place.

Among them is a 50-foot tree canopy walk built near the tops of the campus’s many trees.

The property also includes four 600-foot greenhouses. Ashley Kloes, research coordinator for the Davey Institute, said having multiple greenhouses helps isolate different ones to prevent disease and pests.

“They allow us to do a lot of different types of research,” Kloes said. “This also allows us to do research year-round. Before, we were at the mercy of the weather.”

Trees falling into wires and telephone poles happens all too often in the field, so the Davey Tree SEED Campus has an area with numerous telephone poles, and nonenergized wires have been installed.

“We are teaching them how to safely remove the trees and release the wires,” said Autumn Dickerson, director of employee development in Eastern Utility Services. Thirty employees recently completed training in that area. “It’s one thing to do the training on PowerPoint. But it’s another thing to have the handson training.”

Davey Tree has left a trace of the property’s golf history on its campus, with a small three-hole golf course, complete with sand traps and manicured fairway. Employees are allowed, even encouraged, to practice their putts as a way to mix business with pleasure.

Zane Raudenbush, manager of research operations at the Davey Institute, said the golf holes also help the company work on creating grasses that need less water and maintenance, and are more disease-resistant.

“We built the golf course with research in mind,” Raudenbush said. “You can use this as a showpiece, that you can have these nice spaces while using less resources.”

Growing crops, driving away deer among research Davey Tree working on

A series of solar panels are set up near the golf course. They not only provide power to the SEED Campus but are a part of a study Davey Tree is conducting with Ohio State University, Raudenbush said. They are attempting to grow plants and crops underneath the solar panels.

“We are seeing how they can grow in low light and high heat,” Raudenbush said. “We’ve realized howhot it can get under there.”

A tree research area is on another part of the property. Eleven different species of trees are growing, said Dan Herms, vice president and general manager at the Davey Institute. The trees − including cherry, pine, oak, crabapple and spruce − represent different growth characteristics and water needs. He added that the first trees were planted in 2021. Here, Davey Tree can do studies on nutrition needs as well as pest and disease control.

Another research area for Davey Tree is an effort to deter deer from damaging trees, said Shawn Fitzgerald, curator for the Davey Arboretum.

Fitzgerald said it was a major issue when planting first started on the grounds.

“All the plant material got rubbed down,” Fitzgerald said. Damage not only comes from deer dining on leaves and shrubs, but from bucks rubbing their antlers along woody surfaces. The plants “were eaten down to the ground.”

The good news, Fitzgerald said, is that the company has found a product “that deer steer clear of.” It is only available for commercial properties now, but will be available to the public by next year.

Walking trail to come, after city improves North Mantua Street

Most of the campus is not open to the public, Rebuck said. However, Davey Tree is constructing a walking trail through the arboretum. The path will be available for public use in a couple of years, once upcoming improvements to North Mantua Street are completed.

According to Kent city officials, plans are underway to improve a nearly half-mile section of NorthMantua Street from Needham Avenue to just beyond the northern Kent City limits. This project will be a partnership between the city and Davey Tree. The project cost is estimated at $5 million, withmore than $2 million already secured in federal and state funding.

The work area will include Theodore Roosevelt High School and the River Bend residential development, as well as Davey Tree’s corporate headquarters, according to the city of Kent. This area also serves as the northern gateway into the city.

According to Kent officials, this section of North Mantua has a daily volume of 17,000 to 18,000 vehicles. Concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety, speeding and vehicular ingress/egress have been a concern in this area for more than 20 years.

Planned improvements include:

● A single lane roundabout at the relocated Davey Tree driveways and North Mantua intersection.

● Addition of a right turn lane exiting River Bend Boulevard.

● An upgraded traffic signal at the Roosevelt Drive intersection.

● Installation of a new median boulevard. ● Pavement resurfacing, curbing, driveways, sidewalk, shared use path, drainage, streetscaping, lighting, signing and pavement markings.

The improvements will integrate with a planned extension of the Lake Rockwell Trail on the school district campus and Davey Tree’s SEED Campus, according to the city.

Construction is expected to begin in late 2026 and take approximately one year to complete.

Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com.