Blog - Woodpecker Tree Care

Disease-resistant “Accolade” elm finds new home in Wood Point

John optimistically purchased this Ulmus “Morton” elm hybrid, more commonly known as an “Accolade” elm, from Charlie the Tree Guy this fall. The Accolade cultivar was originally planted in 1924 at the famous Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois). In 2005, the Accolade was studied alongside several cultivars in the US National Elm Trial, which determined the survival rate among elms. At the time, elm trees were dying off by tens of millions due to Dutch Elm Disease (DED) and other pests. Accolade came out as one of the top hybrid cultivars, with a 92.5% survival rate.

John Haney holds up a tag attached to an Accolade elm sapling and smiles.

Meet Beck Aurell

Beck Aurell is self-admittedly obsessed with trees and plants. She is an accomplished arborist with a breadth of experience, including Treemasters in Stockholm, The Tree Company in Melbourne, All Green Tree Care in Halifax and Asplundh in Nova Scotia.

Meet Luciano Onichino

Luciano Onichino, more often affectionately called “Looch,” is honoured to climb and care for trees. He joined the team in 2018, and has learned leaps and bounds, including how to climb and remove trees. The team loves having him around for his big heart and mechanical skills.

Luciano Onichino smiles while a small bird is perched on the fingers of his left hand. He is outdoors in the forest.

Cabling and bracing a split black walnut

This black walnut in Sackville, NB needed some help to keep it from falling apart, so Woodpecker Tree Care was hired to give it the support it desperately needed. The problem is pretty obvious, it’s splitting down the middle, but you need more than superglue and some string to pull it back together.

A person puts their foot on a split walnut tree.

Meet Meg Cunningham

The fifth installment of “Meet the Team Monday” features the newest addition to the Woodpecker Tree Care crew, Meg Cunningham.

Meg started with Woodpecker Tree Care by washing trucks, but her role has developed since then. Meg is the current Maritime Elm Protection Initiative coordinator, and is responsible for organizing the annual DutchTrig vaccination campaign. She is also the author of the majority of Woodpecker Tree Care’s recent online content, including “Meet the Team Mondays.”

Meg stands in a pumpkin field and smiles.

How do we get our ropes up a tree?

This is one of the most frequent questions Woodpecker Tree Care staff gets on the job. The process is typically quick, so clients tend to miss the process altogether by the time they check in. We don’t lasso the trunk or bring stilts, but getting ropes up a tree is still pretty fun (and surprisingly simple). With the help of a weight, a throw line, and sometimes a slingshot, we’re able to pull our ropes up into a tree’s canopy.

Watch Woodpecker Tree Care’s Kevin Anderson and Rory Fraser demonstrate the process:

Meet Norm Hunter

For our fourth “Meet the Team Monday,” we’re featuring Woodpecker Tree Care’s resident gardener and story-teller Norm Hunter.

Norm Hunter has probably forgotten more about gardening than most people will ever know. Woodpecker Tree Care is proud to have him on the team as our resident expert at garden design, installation, and maintenance.

Norm Hunter smiles and holds a large bunch of kale.

PEI Hospital – Then and Now

A heritage elm stands outside the old Prince Edward Island Hospital on Kensington Rd in Charlottetown

We stumbled onto a magnificent building with a hidden tree-story while visiting Charlottetown recently. Admiring the American Elm on the property we were also curious about the building itself. A bit of searching led us to find that it was the second Prince Edward Island Hospital, built in 1898. This article also happened to mention a bit about the trees, and some pictures!

Meet Rory Fraser

This is the third in a series of seven we’re calling “Meet the Team Monday”

Rory Fraser walked onto our job site for a visit in 2014 and hasn’t left since, much to our gratitude. Since leaving his former job as an elementary school librarian in Oman, Rory has embraced the world of arboriculture with both hands.

Smiling Rory Fraser raising a glass at a wedding celebration in Hong Kong.