News

Green industry aids tornado devastated areas

From sunup until sundown, for nearly two weeks, Jay Hager and six crews removed tree after tree from house, after house, after house.
Arbor Masters Tree & Landscape employees traveled throughout Alabama from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham to Cullman to Huntsville, cleaning up the destruction and chaos strewn by tornados in late April.
“The first day we were there we were in Tuscaloosa, and just seeing people and families walking around, apparently looking for their stuff – it’s hard to handle, it pulls at you for sure,” said Hager, Arbor Masters’ Ocala, Fla., branch manager.
It’s partly the nature of the business, partly the nature of the people in the green industry, but many companies have stepped up to help communities across the country devastated by the natural disasters that hit this spring.
BASF Corp., which has operations throughout Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama, contributed $100,000 to the American Red Cross to help strengthen ongoing tornado and flood relief efforts.
“We strongly believe that it is important to support the communities in which we operate, and with employees and contractors living in the affected areas, these disasters are extremely personal to us,” Deidra Jackson, BASF communication manager based in Geismar, La., told NBC 33 in Baton Rouge.
HMI deployed more than a dozen tree crews from its Authorized Member Network to assist homeowners in Alabama and Tennessee. Some of those crews were Arbor Masters.
The Shawnee, Kan.-headquartered Arbor Masters is primarily a tree and lawn care company, but assists in debris hauling after large storms. In fact, while its Florida crews were in Alabama, the company’s Oklahoma crews were helping with efforts in their own state.
 “It’s very challenging,” Hager said of the emergency storm response work. “The timing is difficult because there are still a lot of power lines down; debris is all over the place. It’s very difficult to get around certain areas driving the big equipment. Getting down the road sometimes is a big challenge and finding paths to the work is difficult. Obviously every day that you’re there it gets better because it’s being cleaned up or put away as the municipality is trying to make things safe. But in general, it’s a challenge.” – Carolyn LaWell

Brickman enters LA market

LOS ANGELES – With its recent acquisition of Dworsky Cos., The Brickman Group has entered the Los Angeles market hoping to become a more dominant player in Southern California.
Since expanding to the West Coast more than a decade ago, Brickman has looked at opportunities for growth within the Los Angeles area and the state, said Mike Bogan, executive vice president. Brickman had a presence in Southern California with 11 branches from San Diego to Inland Empire, which is east of Los Angeles. But acquiring Dworsky Cos. was the prime opportunity to penetrate the central and northern portion of the city.
“We’ve had a presence in Southern California since 2000, and our business has grown to be a dominant market leader,” Bogan said. “We’ve looked at the adjacent market in Los Angeles as holding an incredible amount of opportunity, and we wanted a business that had a great footprint across that market. That is what Dworsky represented.
“LA is probably one of the largest markets for landscape services in the entire country and holds a tremendous amount of potential.”
Dworsky was founded in 2002 by Dave Dworsky, a 20-year industry veteran, and is known for its award-winning landscapes at properties such as Hughes Center, Sun America and Nestlé. Brickman will absorb Dworsky’s five locations and will have about 200 employees in the area.
 “When we do acquisitions we absolutely evaluate the team and that is a large part of what we purchase,” Bogan said. “It’s not equipment, it’s not contracts, it’s the teams that do the work that are the acquisition. We are very happy to have their team in place, and we couldn’t do the work without them.”
Brickman will offer its full line of service in Los Angeles from landscape management to landscape construction to water management.
The company, which is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., generally anticipates its local businesses to generate double-digit organic growth on an annual basis, Bogan said. But he said he expects the Los Angeles branch to exceed that growth ratio because the company currently has such a small piece of the market.
As far as competing in ValleyCrest Landscape Cos. backyard – the Calabasas, Calif.-headquartered company is one notch above Brickman at No. 2 on Lawn & Landscape’s Top 100 list – Bogan said he doesn’t think it will be difficult being the new company in town.
“ValleyCrest is a great company and they have a great team and a great customer base, but Los Angeles is a huge market,” Bogan said. “My experience has been where there are really strong competitors in a marketplace they raise the customers’ expectation of what they demand out of their contractor and that narrows the playing field down to just a few of the best companies. I’d rather compete in that kind of environment than anything else.”
– Carolyn LaWell

LawnAmerica gets best in state

Tulsa, Okla.-based LawnAmerica was named best lawn service for the second year in a row by Oklahoma Magazine and GTR Newspapers. What sets the company apart from the competition? LawnAmerica President Brad Johnson gave away some of his secrets during a March Lawn & Landscape interview and when we caught up with him at The Real Green Users Conference late last year. Visit www.lawnandlandscape.com and search “LawnAmerica” to see what he said.

Ewing unveils Rain Bird product

PHOENIX – Ewing Irrigation has launched the Rain Bird High Efficiency Variable Arc Nozzle, a new irrigation product designed to help achieve water efficiency in landscapes and green spaces.
The HE-VAN, which Ewing has exclusive distributing rights to through 2011, offers higher distribution uniformity and a lower-scheduling coefficient, providing even coverage and shorter run times when compared to traditional VAN or other fixed arc nozzles. The arc nozzle is easy to adjust and offers flexibility.
“It’s our responsibility to help landscape and irrigation professionals grow their businesses through the adoption and wise use of water-efficient technologies,” said Warren Gorowitz, vice president of sustainability and conservation for Ewing. “The HE-VAN represents an opportunity to offer our customers new choices and flexibility when designing, installing and maintaining water-efficient green spaces.”
During the launch, the HE-VAN will be distributed in California, Texas, Florida and other parts of the Southeast.

Wright Manufacturing initiates litigation

FREDERICK, Md. – Commercial lawn mower manufacturer, Wright Manufacturing, has filed a patent infringement complaint against The Toro Co. and Exmark Manufacturing Co. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
The infringement complaint surrounds two of Wright’s lawn mower deck life patents – U.S. Patent No. 6,438,931 and U.S. Patent No. 6,935,093. It seeks damages, injunctive relief and other compensation.
The complaint alleges the infringing mowers include Toro’s Grandstand and Exmark’s Vantage mowers.  

ANLA reacts to proposed H-2B program changes

WASHINGTON – The American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA) has taken action in response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently proposed changes to the H-2B program.
Widely used by landscape installation and maintenance professionals and other seasonal employers seeking a legal workforce, these proposed changes would increase filing requirements and advertising timelines for employers seeking to fill positions. Employers will be subject to stricter requirements to hire any and all available U.S. workers, despite historically low interest and retention of these applicants, according to ANLA.
“DOL’s proposed changes will render the program unworkable for responsible landscape installation and maintenance employers seeking a legal, seasonal workforce,” said Hadley Sosnoff, ANLA’s director of government relations.
Submitting comments to DOL for review, ANLA is pursuing a three-pronged approach to defending the H-2B program:
First, ANLA joined partners in the H-2B Workforce Coalition to convey how the changes will negatively affect the program and employers. Second, ANLA joined PLANET to submit a set of comments to DOL that focus on the specific concerns of the green industry.
Third, ANLA joined other agents and associations to submit detailed comments researched by a legal team led by ANLA labor and employment law counsel Monte Lake, of CJ-Lake.
“The CJ-Lake team painstakingly researched the record of Congress since the mid-1980s,” said
ANLA’s Vice President for Government Relations Craig Regelbrugge. “What they found is that DOL is acting in direct conflict with Congressional intent; essentially, they lack the authority to do what they are doing.” Sosnoff said, “The ongoing battle promises to be tough, and the stakes for the green industry are especially high given the large number of seasonal and agricultural jobs in landscape and nursery businesses.  Thanks to all who are supporting ANLA’s aggressive defense of the program.” L&L

Correction: The “Fighting Grubs” article that appeared in the May issue of Lawn & Landscape mistakenly included crabgrass control options rather than grub control options. Some active ingredients that Weed Man finds effective for preventive control of grubs are: halofenozide, imidacloprid, chlorantraniliprole, thiamethoxam and chlothianidin. Some active ingredients that Weed Man finds effective for curative control includes: trichlorfon and carbaryl.