The Supreme Court just shut a door on pesticide lawsuits

The Supreme Court handed pesticide makers a win this week that runs straight through every PHC truck. Vermont became the first state to ban paraquat. And Nebraska now holds the world record for the biggest eastern cottonwood, which is the kind of trunk you'd want a long tape and a coffee break to measure.

The big one

On June 25 the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts state-law failure-to-warn claims. In plain terms, a state jury can't force a manufacturer to add a cancer warning that EPA never required on the label (National Law Review).

The Court threw out a $1.25 million Missouri verdict against Monsanto over Roundup. The reasoning: EPA decided glyphosate labels don't need a cancer warning, so any state demand for one is "in addition to or different from" the federal label and gets blocked under FIFRA section 136v(b) (National Law Review).

What this does not do is stop states from banning or restricting a product outright. It only stops them from rewriting the warning (The New Lede). For anyone holding a applicator license, the EPA label plus your state's use rules stay the whole game. The ruling is expected to kill off a wave of similar failure-to-warn suits nationwide.

The canopy

Vermont becomes the first state to ban paraquat

Vermont approved a statewide ban on paraquat, the non-selective herbicide tied in research to Parkinson's disease. The ban takes effect November 1, with orchards, berries and small fruit crops allowed to keep using it until 2030 as a phase-out (Associated Press). EPA is still reassessing the federal registration. Right-of-way and vegetation crews working in Vermont need a different plan outside those specialty-crop uses. If you run jobs across state lines, expect more of this patchwork.

Farm Bill draft would fast-track hazard tree and line-clearance work on federal land

The Senate Agriculture Committee's June 23 discussion draft of the 2026 Farm Bill creates new NEPA categorical exclusions for high-priority hazard tree removal up to 6,000 acres and for electric utility line vegetation management on National Forest System lands (Holland & Knight). The draft also reauthorizes hazardous fuel reduction through 2031 and raises maximum project sizes. If it passes, federal-land hazard and line-clearance contracts get easier to launch, which means more volume for UVM contractors and a different paperwork path on Forest Service jobs. It's a draft. Watch it.

Portable Winch launches a battery capstan, the APW6000

Portable Winch put out the APW6000, a battery-powered capstan winch aimed at arborists, forestry crews and contractors (Portable Winch via industry coverage). A cordless capstan that doesn't need a gas engine warming up on the tailgate is worth a look for ground crews doing rigging and load lowering.

Osprey buys into California tree care

Osprey Landscape Group acquired LandGraphics, a deal that closed in June and gives Osprey its first Southern California foothold, including the tree care operations under New Way Landscape & Tree Care Services (Osprey). Consolidation keeps moving in the West.

Pest and disease watch

EAB turns up in three more Willamette Valley towns

The Oregon Department of Forestry confirmed emerald ash borer in Tualatin, Newberg and Silverton, in parking-lot trees and at a private home. All three sit inside Oregon's existing quarantine covering Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties (KPIC). Ash, olive and white fringetree material and any hardwood firewood can't leave the quarantined counties. EAB was first found in Oregon in 2022. At a Eugene City Club program, arborists said they believe it is already in Lane County even though it hasn't been confirmed there, and they told owners of high-value ash to plan trunk injections with emamectin benzoate or imidacloprid before the beetle arrives (Lookout Eugene-Springfield).

New Jersey quarantines boxwood after box tree moth shows up

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture set a Cape May County quarantine on June 25 after USDA-APHIS confirmed box tree moth at private residences. No live boxwood plants, debris or dead material can leave the county without a compliance agreement (NJDA). Scout boxwoods for skeletonized leaves, webbing and caterpillars.

Elm zigzag sawfly hits Michigan for the first time

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed the elm zigzag sawfly, an Asian pest that chews elm leaves in a telltale zigzag and can defoliate trees hard (AOL News). Another one for Great Lakes crews to watch alongside EAB and spongy moth.

Species spotlight

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) won't ever pay your fuel bill. The wood is light, weak and soft on a small frame, with no commercial value and almost nothing to rig. You're not climbing it. You're working around it.

It's a slow-growing understory tree, 15 to 30 feet tall, native from New York to Florida and west to Nebraska, hardy in zones 5 through 8. It wants deep, moist, rich, slightly acidic soil and shade when young, then takes more sun as it matures. It suckers into patches, which is how you usually find it, and it's close to pest- and deer-free. The foliage is the only host for the zebra swallowtail. Prune in the dormant season. The payoff is the fruit, North America's largest native edible, a custardy tropical-tasting banana off a small tree with big drooping leaves and maroon flowers that flies and beetles pollinate.

One for the lunch break

The biggest known eastern cottonwood in the world is sitting at the northeast corner of Pibel Lake in Wheeler County, Nebraska. The tree stands about 85 feet tall with a trunk circumference just over 37 feet, scoring 561 points in the National Champion Tree Program (Nebraska Public Media). State foresters measured it and confirmed the record. It's more than 12 feet bigger around than Canada's largest registered cottonwood and is estimated at 125 years old, which is ancient for a species that usually grows fast and dies young. Locals are calling it the Cornhusker Cottonwood, and it gives Nebraska back-to-back national champs (Plains Sentinel).

Stay safe out there,

The TreeNerd crew