UI arborist a man of the woods

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 7/21/2009

The early morning sun shone over the old Art Museum through the leaves of the sugar maples fortunate enough to survive the 2008 flood. However, the tree taken down by UI arborist Andy Dahl Monday wasn’t so lucky.

Sawdust flew through the air as he took its branches off with a chain saw one by one while standing in a cherry picker. Fellow arborist Mike Rhinehart threw each limb into the wood chipper.

Dahl, 38, said his affection for arboriculture rubs off on his family. So much so, his children’s early vocabulary reflected his work.

“My first daughter’s first word was ‘tree,’ ” he said. “So I know she’s mine.”

Dahl, who has worked as an arborist for the university for 10 years, said he enjoys his job because he works with trees all day, whether it’s planting them or trimming them.

“You get to do it all,” he said, “You get to have fun planting new species that usually don’t grow here.”

He and the other arborists often recommend changes in the type of trees on campus, he said. And that’s not always fun — it means cutting down those that are dead.

“It’s not taken lightly,” he said, “Some of these trees are like old friends. To see them go, it’s a sad thing, but people’s safety is the most important.”

However, Dahl said, last year’s flood forced him and the other arborists to cut down more of the university’s trees. UI Facilities Management grounds supervisor Shawn Fitzpatrick said the university has 7,000 trees on the Iowa City campus.

“We’ve taken down about 120 trees that we normally wouldn’t have” because of the flood, Dahl said.

The number could grow; the university will have to wait to see if any more need to be removed or if new ones can be planted — a decision that will be influenced by the new Hancher complex location.

“We’ll replant once it’s all finished, but that may be a few more years down the road,” Dahl said.

Dahl used to run his own landscaping business but switched to arboriculture so he could have more time with his family.

“It’s just hard finding help, insurance cost, and customers own your soul from 6 a.m. to 10 at night, seven days a week,” he said. “With a family it’s just not possible.”

Rhinehart said he also worked in landscaping, but he took his job with the university because he was tired of working in sales and wanted to do more “hands-on actual maintenance.”

Along with the occasional side landscaping gig, Dahl manages to design and maintain a unique look for his own lawn.

“I’m the crazy guy on the corner with all the plants in the yard,” he said

And while he said arborists are meant to help maintain public safety on campus, he hopes his work will be recognized and appreciated 50 or 100 years down the road.

“Hopefully, someone will go, ‘Wow — someone knew what they were doing back then,’ ” Dahl said.

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Hancher decision delayed, recovery continues

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 6/12/2009

AMES — UI officials did not propose a new location for the Hancher complex at the state Board of Regents meeting Thursday, despite expectations to do so after the last conference in April.

UI President Sally Mason said the university has eliminated some of the eight possible sites that officials had considered, but they have added some new ones as well.

“It is critical we make the right decisions,” she said.

Doug True, the UI senior vice president for Finance, said relocating Studio Arts is more difficult than Hancher; officials are “reaching to resolves insurance issues,” he said.

True said he expects to present a plan for the Studio Arts Building at the next regents’ meeting, in August.

The decisions involve waiting to see which areas are available once portions of the area surrounding the river are raised to 1 foot above the 500-year flood line. Last summer’s floodwaters reached that point.

The presentation featured specific areas of the campus, such as portions of the sidewalks near the Theatre Building as well as well as the west side of the IMU, which faces the river.

True said the university’s plan will also include making the sidewalk wider, which could better accommodate trucks delivering sandbags and Hesco barriers should floodwaters rise to that height again.

As for renovating the IMU’s still-closed lower level, True said the Federal Emergency Management Agency hadn’t given the school the approval to do so.

“We cannot go back into the lower level because FEMA could walk away from us financially,” True said, “It likely wouldn’t fund us without a mitigation strategy.”

The university is working with the College of Engineering to develop plans for the IMU lower level as well as other buildings, such as Art Building West, promising the building would be “up and running soon.”

Other buildings on campus also remain in recovery mode. Along with moving all of mechanical equipment out of the basement of Mayflower Hall, the university is working on a terrace that will help protect the building from future flooding.

The university is still waiting for an expected $470 million from the federal government.

“Cash flow from FEMA has been slow,” True said. “We have to predict how FEMA will be running in that sense.”