Quasi-actions on trees I. Bounded valence

Given a bounded valence, bushy tree T , we prove that any cobounded quasi-action of a group G on T is quasiconjugate to an action of G on another bounded valence, bushy tree T . This theorem has many applications: quasi-isometric rigidity for fundamental groups of finite, bushy graphs of coarse PD(n) groups for each fixed n; a generalization to actions on Cantor sets of Sullivan's theorem about uniformly quasiconformal actions on the 2-sphere; and a characterization of locally compact topological groups which contain a virtually free group as a cocompact lattice. Finally, we give the first examples of two finitely generated groups which are quasi-isometric and yet which cannot act on the same proper geodesic metric space, properly discontinuously and cocompactly by isometries.