The Farm Bill just changed how you cut hazard trees

The House passed its Farm Bill this week, and buried in it are two provisions that reach straight into hazard tree and line-clearance work. California moved to ban paraquat. And it was a rough week for crews, with a fatality in Portland, an electrocution near Richmond, and a utility trimming crew shot at in the California foothills.

The big one

The US House passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R.7567) on August 14, and two sections in it matter for anyone doing federal or utility work (Tree Care Industry Magazine).

Section 8401 directs a NEPA categorical exclusion for managing high-priority hazard trees within 300 feet of roads, trails, and recreation sites, and it raises the project size limit to 6,000 acres. In plain terms, that would let federal land managers skip the long environmental review on hazard tree removals along corridors where the public actually goes. Section 8406 creates a separate categorical exclusion for utilities' vegetation-management plans, which could shorten the permitting slog on line-clearance contracts.

The pesticide provisions that were floating around earlier, including the liability shield we flagged last month, got cut before the House vote.

None of this is live yet. The bill still needs the Senate, and then rulemaking and agency guidance before anything changes on the ground. But if you bid federal hazard tree work or run line-clearance crews, this is the direction the paperwork is heading, and it points toward faster approvals on big corridor jobs.

The canopy

California is phasing out paraquat

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation canceled the state's last remaining paraquat registration and set a two-year phase-out, which ends paraquat use in the state (The Guardian). Anyone running integrated vegetation management with paraquat in the mix has two years to switch to another herbicide or a non-chemical control. Two years is not much time to re-do prescriptions and retrain applicators, so start now if this hits your programs.

The new Z133 spells out electrical qualifications

TCIA published a piece on ANSI Z133-2026 and how the standard's electrical qualifications for arborists have changed (Tree Care Industry Magazine). The gist is that the requirements for who is qualified to work near energized conductors, and what training backs that up, have been reworked in the new edition. If you run crews near lines, this is the section your safety program and your insurer both care about.

ArboStar makes every tree a permanent record

ArboStar rolled out a new Tree Inventory system that treats each tree as a permanent object with its own ID, a fixed spot on a satellite map, and a full history of every estimate, service, report, and invoice tied to it (ArboStar). It shifts the record-keeping from job-centric to tree-centric. It's live for subscribers on web and mobile now.

A San Antonio homeowner got fined over a bird nest

A San Antonio homeowner was cited and hit with a $300 city fine for not trimming a tree branch, then argued that cutting it would disturb an active nest protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act (KSAT). The city said it was enforcing clearance rules. Federal wildlife law says leave the nest. That squeeze lands on tree workers too, because the city ordinance doesn't carve out protected nesting. Worth a look at the tree before you commit to a trim date.

Safety report

Three serious incidents this week, and one from earlier this month.

In Portland, Oregon, an arborist on a tree-clearing crew was struck and killed when a separate tree, not part of the crew's work, uprooted and fell onto him. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Portland Fire & Rescue reported it, and it appeared in a workplace-fatality roundup on August 11 (Ground News). No cause analysis has been released beyond the description of the unrelated tree failing.

Near Richmond, a tree worker named Dustin McKown was electrocuted while working in a tree on Darbytown Court in eastern Henrico County, Virginia, on August 5. He was subcontracted to maintain power lines. A branch broke and he fell roughly 25 feet, suffering severe burns and a broken rib, and he needs surgery (Henrico Citizen).

A 26-year-old worker was killed in a woodchipper at work, and his father found him at the scene. The report says the worker had complained about the machine the day before (Ground News). Location and employer weren't given.

In Mentone, California, a Southern California Edison tree-trimming crew came under fire from a resident during planned roadside work on August 14. The crew got clear and no one was hurt. San Bernardino County deputies responded around 10:50 a.m., and after the man barricaded himself and later fired at deputies, he was shot and killed (Los Angeles Times).

Pest and disease watch

EAB keeps finding new ground

Maine found an adult emerald ash borer in a purple prism trap in Bristol, the first detection for Lincoln County, plus another adult in Jackman. The state is expanding the quarantine because of the Jackman find and taking public comment on rule changes (Maine DACF). That's a turn from Maine's earlier talk of scrapping the ash borer quarantine. Colorado Springs confirmed EAB inside city limits and warned that untreated, the beetle could kill every ash in town over about 15 years, an estimated $190 million in lost ecosystem services (Rocky Mountain PBS). Nebraska's July report puts EAB in 20 counties, with communities needing adopted response plans by December 31, 2026, to count toward the state's Growth Award (EIN Presswire).

Chicago is falling behind on its tree goal

Chicago set out in 2022 to plant 75,000 trees by the end of 2026. The count: about 18,000 in 2022, nearly 25,000 in 2023, roughly 17,000 in 2024, around 9,000 last year, and 2,750 so far in 2026 with 3,350 more planned this fall (Chicago Tribune). The report says even a 0.03% annual canopy gain could save more than 100 lives a year by cutting extreme-heat exposure. The pace has stalled badly since the first two years.

Species spotlight

Freeman maple is the red maple and silver maple cross you keep meeting in subdivisions, usually as 'Autumn Blaze' or a similar seedless cultivar. It grows fast, takes soils from moist and well-drained to wet, and handles zones 3 through 8, which is why developers love it.

On a rig the wood is moderate density, around 0.47 specific gravity, stronger than straight silver maple but nothing you'd call heavy. The catch is that fast growth. These trees throw codominant stems and included bark constantly, so the failures you deal with later are structural, not decay. If you prune young ones, do it in summer or late dormant and skip early spring to dodge the sap bleed. Verticillium wilt and anthracnose are the diseases to watch, and it's a host for Asian longhorned beetle.

One for the lunch break

Arborists got called in to save a roughly 300-year-old live oak near the Revolutionary War battleground at Eutawville, South Carolina (Count On 2). The American Battlefield Trust and the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust brought in specialists to assess and stabilize the tree rather than take it down. The oak was standing when the fighting happened, and it's still standing now, with a little help.

Stay safe out there,

The TreeNerd crew

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