A grapple, a stunt, and a manslaughter charge

Four tree workers died or were badly hurt on jobs this week, spread across Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and Connecticut. One of those deaths ended with a coworker charged. Emerald ash borer also had a loud week, including its first-ever confirmation in Washington State.

The big one

Tyler Anthony Lynch, 26, of Royalton, Minnesota, was killed Thursday evening, August 20, on a trim job in the 5200 block of 132nd Street West in Apple Valley. He was on the ground collecting branches. A coworker, Christopher Boone Crimmins, 34, was running a boom truck fitted with a hydraulic grapple.

Prosecutors say Crimmins was manipulating the grapple while goofing around and playing shadow puppets, then closed it without looking and crushed Lynch's head. Officers found Lynch with massive head trauma and heavy blood loss. He was pronounced dead at the scene (New York Post, CBS News Minnesota).

Crimmins is charged with second-degree manslaughter in Dakota County, and OSHA will also investigate. A criminal charge against a coworker in a tree-work death is rare. It puts a name on something every crew already knows: the machine does not care that you were kidding around, and a grapple that closes on nothing costs nothing, but one that closes on a groundman costs everything. Eyes on the load, hand off the controls when a person is under the boom.

The canopy

Cal/OSHA data shows what gets tree crews cited

An analysis published August 21 by Compliant CA, using OSHA enforcement data on landscaping inspections (NAICS 561730) from 2020 through 2025, puts two tree-work standards in the top five most-cited. Tree work general (8 CCR §3421) was cited 370 times with an average current penalty of $1,515. Tree work safe work procedures (8 CCR §3427) was cited 129 times at an average of $7,121, with penalties running up to $24,300. Heat illness prevention (§3395) leads the whole list at 489 citations (Compliant CA). If you run crews in California, those three sections are where the money goes.

Arbor Alliance buys into Nashville

Atlanta-based Arbor Alliance acquired Druid Tree Service on August 20. Druid has worked Middle Tennessee since 1978 and keeps its name and production crews, with day-to-day operations under a newly named ISA Certified Master Arborist. Arbor Alliance already runs tree care brands in Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Florida (Business Wire via Yahoo Finance).

Southern Shade Tree recapitalized, adds a landscaper

Southern Shade Tree Co., a Carolinas landscaping and tree firm, was recapitalized August 19 by Mosaic Capital Partners, an employee-ownership focused private equity shop, with ButcherJoseph & Co. advising. The same deal folded in Atlantic Coast Landscaping Services of eastern North Carolina, whose leaders stay on. Terms were not disclosed (GlobeNewswire).

Fast Growing Trees is now Trees.com

The Fort Mill, South Carolina online nursery Fast Growing Trees rebranded to Trees.com on August 18 (PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance). Same direct-to-consumer operation your residential customers order from, new name on the box.

Safety report

Jayson Dutiel, 50, owner of A Cut Above Tree and Lawn Care in Michigan, was electrocuted August 20 on a removal at a home in Forsyth Township, near Gwinn. The tree fell onto a power line during the work. Another worker used a skid steer to lift Dutiel so he could try to push the tree off the energized line, and he made contact with the electricity and died at the scene. MIOSHA logged it as the 52nd worker death in the state this year and is investigating (The Mining Journal, WILX News 10).

In Perry County, Ohio, a man was killed August 19 while cutting a storm-damaged tree near a stream on the 500 block of Tile Plant Road in New Lexington. Responders found him trapped between an excavator and the fallen tree. New Lexington Police Chief Douglas Gill said preliminary findings show the tree hit power lines as it fell before striking the man. The work happened during several days of severe weather and flooding (Yahoo News).

In East Hampton, Connecticut, a groundman was seriously hurt August 17 when a large branch struck him in the face. One worker was cutting from a bucket truck at 185 Wopowog Road when the branch fell and hit the second worker below, causing a facial injury with severe bleeding. He was taken to Hartford Hospital (Patch).

Pest and disease watch

Emerald ash borer landed in Washington State for the first time. A couple in Vancouver found the bright green beetle on their windshield in early August and reported it, and officials confirmed it. A firewood quarantine took effect August 18, banning untreated firewood from entering the state (KGW / MyBellinghamNow). Texas A&M Forest Service confirmed EAB in five more Texas counties (Delta, Erath, Hardin, Walker and Wood), making Hardin County the southernmost EAB detection in the country (Phys.org). In Oregon, the beetle turned up in Beaverton, Salem and the Oregon Garden in Silverton, its first find in an Oregon state park (Natural Resource Report). Minnesota is putting nearly $5 million into ash removal and replanting across 33 communities, with more than 6,000 trees to go in (KAXE).

Spotted lanternfly is now established in all five Rhode Island counties and at least 17 states, the Rhode Island DEM reports, with more than 1,000 sightings logged in July and over 1,500 in August. The insect has no natural predators here and hits grapevines and stone fruit hard (Iron Mountain Daily News covers the Wisconsin ash risk; RI figures via DEM). Wisconsin foresters are also warning hunters off dead ash for deer stands, with EAB confirmed in all 72 counties and dead ash snapping without warning in wind.

Species spotlight

Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is a tough, adaptable urban tree native to the central United States and planted well beyond that range. It grows fast to 50 to 70 feet, takes salt, drought, alkaline soil and compaction, and casts light dappled shade through fine compound leaves that need almost no cleanup.

The wood is hard, strong, dense and rot-resistant, around 0.66 specific gravity and ring-porous, so limbs hold well under a rig. The catch on wild types is the thorns. Large branched thorns can shred a climber or a groundman on a removal, so scout the trunk and scaffold before anyone commits. Most street plantings are thornless, often seedless cultivars like 'Skyline' and 'Shademaster.' Watch for bagworms and aphids. The tree has been planted so heavily as a street tree that the real risk now is monoculture, so push clients toward diversity.

One for the lunch break

Oliveda International says a living 150-year-old olive tree in Spain will ceremonially open its first U.S. flagship store in Venice, Los Angeles, on August 27. The tree's live frequency is to be transmitted in real time from Spain to the Abbot Kinney Boulevard shop during the morning press preview, a remote, tree-powered ribbon cutting (GlobeNewswire). The tree stays in Spain. The vibes fly business class.

Stay safe out there,

The TreeNerd crew

On the board

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