Asplundh Helps Salt Lake City Prepare for Winter Olympics

This 2002 Winter Olympics countdown clock is ticking away for Salt Lake City, Utah, who will host the world-famous games in February. For the past ten months, Asplundh crews from the Will Willis Region have been helping the city's Urban Forestry Division prune trees in parks and along streets to beautify and improve public safety. Their work is part of a five-year contract to assist this Tree City USA community in achieving a seven-year maintenance cycle.

As a late November snow storm coated city streets in Salt Lake City, Utah, Asplundh crews from the Will Willis Region got a taste of the snowy conditions that Olympic skiers may encounter in a couple of months.

In 1995, Salt Lake City won the honor of hosting the XIX Olympic Games, which are scheduled for February 8-24, 2002. Although many of the snow events will take place about an hour away in Park City, Salt Lake City will be the focal point for ceremonies, skating competitions and transportation for thousands of Olympic Games visitors and participants.

To help the city's Urban Forestry Division beautify street and park trees, as well as improve public safety, Asplundh crews have been working since March to prune dead wood, assist the city in tree removals, and perform stump grinding as needed. Another aspect of Asplundh's services to the city is removing snow-damaged trees and limbs. Crews under General Foreman Ed Boyd recently devoted almost two weeks to clean-up limbs broken by four days of heavy snow in late November.

The majority of the scheduled (non-emergency) pruning work has been done from the street with aerial lifts, although some parts of the city's parks and golf courses have required manual climbing. Based on the structural condition of trees that may affect public safety, a number of tree removals are done by the city's crews. Asplundh provides stump-grinding crews to follow up once a removal is complete.

City Forester Bill Rutherford, who also manages two city tree crews, maps out the priority areas for the Asplundh crews and follows up to make sure the work is done to the proper standards. The long-term goal is to get the city on a seven-year tree maintenance cycle.

Mayor Rocky Anderson and the City Council are proud of their Tree City USA designation and with the continued hard work of the city and Asplundh crews, Salt Lake City will surely hold that honor and improve upon it. Good luck with the Games!

Asplundh crews under General Foreman Ed Boyd can be found working through Salt Lake City, depending on the priorities set by City Forester Bill Rutherford. Just before heavy snows hit the city in late November, this crew was pruning trees (thinning and removing dead wood) along a typical Salt Lake City neighborhood street.