News

TCIA and PLANET discuss unification
The Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) and PLANET recently met for two and a half days in Baltimore to examine the possibility to combine the two groups.

Bill Hildebolt, PLANET president, said the two associations have been in talks since 2004, when the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) and the Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA) merged. Talks intensified about a year ago, and have been “serious” since then, he said.

“One organization is not acquiring the other. This is a unification,” says Terrill Collier, chairman of the board of TCIA’s directors. “We’re designing this new, unified organization from scratch with that question in mind: How can we make this a better world for our members?”

TCIA has membership of 2,000 commercial tree care firms and suppliers; PLANET’s membership is 3,500 landscaping companies. A combined membership would total about 4,000, Collier says.

“Our core purpose is to advance the professional greencare industry. That includes people that do lawns, landscape contractors, interior plantscapes (and) arborists. We’re going to have a much greater impact together than we are apart,” Collier says. “We want to have a more unified voice representing the green industry. We want to build value for our members. We’re really going to have more of a voice in government and regulations and our government relations. The more members you have, the better your voice is going to be heard.”

Both Hildebolt and Collier stressed that the two associations are still in talks; no formal decision has been made nor a timeline set to combine them.

“It’s a process that’s going to happen over the years. It has to gestate,” Hildebolt said. “This is a big deal, this is a big undertaking. This is going to be even larger (than when ALCA and PLCAA combined). … What you come up with is going to endure for years and years out.”

In the past few years, PLANET has dabbled in combining with other green industry groups. In 2006, the Green Industry Expo and the International Lawn and Garden Power Equipment Expo shows merged to form the annual GIE+EXPO.

And the association was in talks a few years ago with the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA), but the partnership was voted down by PLANET’s board.

Hildebolt said PLANET isn’t in unification discussions with any other industry associations. – Chuck Bowen
 

BIO Landscape & Maintenance acquires Texas Services
HOUSTON – In December, BIO Landscape & Maintenance, a Yellowstone Landscape Group company, acquired Texas Services.

Houston-based Texas Services focuses on tree care, lawn maintenance and landscaping. The company was founded in 1976 and serves Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and the surrounding areas. Texas Services will now become the tree care department of BIO Landscape & Maintenance, the company said in a release.

“Texas Services will further expand BIO’s geographic footprint by adding a stationed office in the growing Sugarland area while allowing us to offer an expanded portfolio of sustainable services, including tree care, to all of Texas,” said Robert Taylor, president of BIO.

Taylor said Jim Sivils, Jeff Hanawalt and Robert Jaynes, prior owners of Texas Services, will join BIO’s management staff.

“We are excited to join an organization with the same culture and commitment to customer service, safety and employee development. When companies with the same objectives are integrated, the opportunities for customer and employee success along with organic growth are a certainty,” said Sivils, the former majority partner of Texas Services and the new strategic accounts business developer for BIO. “We are really impressed by the BIO/Yellowstone company structure and relationship, their team-focused attitude, how most decisions are left in the operating company hands, the attention to customer needs versus company structure, and the additional benefits offered to Texas Services by becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of BIO. It is safe to say that the future of our company is much brighter and that our customers will continue to be placed first.”

With the addition of Texas Services, BIO serves 15 counties with a combined work force of 440 throughout central and southeast Texas. The transaction marks the second addition to BIO in 2009. In October, BIO acquired Outdoor Environments, a Houston-based commercial landscape maintenance company. 
 

GIE Media’s Horticulture Group announces promotions
RICHFIELD, Ohio – GIE Media has promoted Jim Gilbride and Chuck Bowen to management positions within its Horticultural Media Group.

Gilbride has been promoted to national sales manager of Greenhouse Management & Production, Nursery Management & Production and Garden Center magazines, leading business-to-business magazines serving the nursery, greenhouse and garden center markets. GIE Media acquired the publications in 2008.

Gilbride joined GIE in 2004 as a sales representative for Commercial Dealer magazine, and in 2005 promoted to an account manager position for GIE’s PCT Media Group. This most recent promotion acknowledges his strong sales and marketing abilities.

Bowen came to GIE Media in 2007 as an assistant editor for the PCT Media Group, and was promoted to associate editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine in 2009. His recent promotion to managing editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine is acknowledgement of his strong journalism and management abilities.

“Chuck and Jim have demonstrated their exceptional abilities and high degree of personal commitment to professional standards, and we’re delighted to award them with these increased business management responsibilities,” says Chris Foster, president and COO of GIE. “These two individuals are a delight to work with and we feel are wonderful examples of the best young professionals in the media industry today. We’re honored to have them both on our corporate team.”

The Horticulture Group comprises print and digital editions of Lawn & Landscape, Nursery Management & Production, Greenhouse Management & Production, Garden Center and Golf Course Industry magazines, as well as the leading Web sites and newsletters serving the group’s magazine title portfolio. GIE is the leading media company serving all five major professional horticultural markets.
 

Report: Two years of house price depreciation halted
LEXINGTON, Mass. – House prices in the U.S. ended their two-year slide in the third quarter of 2009 and edged up by 0.2 percent over the second quarter, according to IHS Global Insight. The uptick was led by a 2.1 percent increase in California, according to a quarterly housing valuation analysis by the economic analysis firm.

In year-over-year terms, house prices increased during the third quarter by 0.9 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This increase is the first since the second quarter of 2007 when the national housing market began its slide. From its peak in 2007, the U.S. housing market is now down 10.7 percent, on average.
While nationally the price index increased, prices still declined from the second quarter in 161 of the top 330 metropolitan areas.

This is a significantly positive change compared to 317 metro areas with declines in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to “House Prices in America,” the quarterly U.S. housing valuation analysis from IHS Global Insight. In the third quarter, 169 markets registered price increases.

For the first time since the study began in 2005, no metro areas were extremely overvalued. There were 52 in 2005. For the nation as a whole, the housing market is now slightly undervalued – 8.6 percent when weighted by market value; 10.1 percent when weighted by housing units.

The largest quarter-on-quarter home price declines were 5.6 percent in Bend, Ore., and 5 percent in Las Vegas; these metros are now 33.5 percent and 56 percent below their peak prices in 2006. In all, eight metropolitan areas of the 330 studied each quarter have experienced price declines greater than 50 percent from their peaks. Four of the eight, led by Merced, Calif., with a 66 percent price decline, are in California’s Central Valley. In all, 128 metro areas have experienced price declines of at least 10 percent from their peak.

Only 16 metro areas have escaped net home price declines since the cycle began. All 16, except Pittsburgh, are in the center of the country, and six are in Texas. Two areas hit hard by the housing downturn – Los Angeles and Miami – recorded third quarter price increases above 4 percent.

“While the rate of decline has decreased throughout (2009) as the market began to stabilize, it’s not at all clear that the market is on a recovery path,” said James Diffley, group managing director of IHS Global Insight’s Regional Services Group.

“Economic conditions remain dire, with unemployment likely to remain stubbornly near 10 percent for some time. The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers has played a temporary role in bolstering the market,” said Jeannine Cataldi, senior economist and manager of IHS Global Insight’s Regional Real Estate Service.

The markets that are still overvalued remain mostly in the Pacific Northwest, according to the report, though prices are declining in the region.

People
Jason Farland, vice president of operations, Ecoscape Solutions Group, Charlotte, N.C., has relocated to the company’s Raleigh office. Ecoscape also hired two branch managers: Chris Hamil for its Charleston, S.C., office and Jed Warner for the Columbia, S.C., office.

Maria Muhlhahn, FCHP, operations manager with ArtisTree Landscape Maintenance & Design, Venice, Fla., has earned her Certified Arborist certification from the International Society of Arboriculture.

Spring Meadow Nursery hired Ryan McGrath as marketing and public relations specialist.

Deanna Griffith has joined Jacobsen as marketing manager with responsibility for the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Clean Cut Lawns, Mesa, Ariz., promoted Robert Logan to branch manager.

Burke S. Hammonds has joined Lawns by Yorkshire, Westwood, N.J., as a vice president.

The Fockele Garden Company’s draftsperson Stephanie Gordon recently completed the Georgia Certified Landscape Professional program and obtained an associate degree from Gwinnett Technical College in environmental horticulture.

Aaron Majors, of Cagin & Dorward in Novato, Calif., has passed the certified landscape professional test.
MGK (McLaughlin Gormley King Company) has hired Doug Mills as sales representative for its newly defined Southeast region.

The Texas Turf Irrigation Association hired Amanda Griffin as executive director. She owns Smart Outdoor Services, Garland, Texas.

The IA Education Foundation named its board during the 2009 Irrigation Show in San Antonio. Lynda Wightman, Hunter Industries, chair; Robert von Bernuth, Michigan State University, vice chair; and Steve McCoon, Nelson Irrigation Corp., treasurer.

Jason Scire, nursery manager at VanWilgen’s Garden Center, North Branford, Conn., was named the state’s Connecticut’s Young Nursery Professional of the Year by the CNLA.
 

Contractor News
Premier Plantscapes has received a national merit award from PLANET for a recently installed green roof on the Bentley Building in Sandy Spring, Md.

Borst Landscape and Design in Allendale, N.J., recently won the Grand Award in Environmental Improvement from PLANET for a landscape design/build project in Bergen County.

Jerry Kienast, service director at Milwaukee-based Reinders, accepted the Equipment Service Achievement Award from Toro for his accomplishments. The annual distributor awards honor outstanding customer service and performance in the commercial equipment market.

JFNew, Walkerton, Ind., was recognized at the 2009 U.S. EPA Conservation and Native Landscaping Awards ceremony in December for its work at Wolf Lake, a 500-acre body of water located on the Indiana-Illinois border.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Ecoscape Solutions Group recently completed the Circle at Concord Mills project, the first multifamily community in the country to be certified by Audubon International as an Audubon Signature Sanctuary. 

Ecoscape Solutions Group, Charlotte, N.C., has opened two new offices, expanding its South Carolina market presence with new offices in both Columbia and Charleston.  

ArtisTree recently won an Overall Gold Safety Achievement Award from PLANET.

Two projects installed by Rochester, N.Y.-based Broccolo Tree & Lawn Care for Environmental, Design and Research, a design and planning firm, were recently recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The RIT Perkins Green Site Improvement project, which added numerous sustainable landscapes and energy efficient features to the RIT campus, won the 2009 NYU Chapter Honor in the category of built design.

And the Conkey Corner Park project received the 2009 NYU Chapter Community Award for Community Achievement.