Four Generations in the Trees
Blue Mountain Arbor is a family-owned tree service in Elkton, Virginia, founded by Derrick Lawson in March 2025. Derrick is a Shenandoah Valley native whose family has been in Appalachia for six generations and in forestry for four. He was raised in this work, and he built Blue Mountain Arbor to do it the way he believes it should be done: thoughtfully, honestly, and with the tree's future in mind, not just the invoice.
Derrick's great-grandfather logged these mountains with mules. His grandfather took the family from mule to machine, building S.L. Lawson Logging and Excavating from nothing in the early 1970s into an outfit that employed fifty men by the 1990s, excavating through the summers and logging through the winters. Derrick spent his teenage years logging alongside him, and the lessons stuck: work six days, endure hard seasons, and stay sharp.
In Derrick's words: "If you're good at anything, be good at math, so you don't need anybody to count your money."
Derrick's grandfather, and the first business advice Derrick ever got.
Trained on the hard jobs
Derrick's professional arboriculture career began in Boston in 2018, working for a company that owned its own crane and rented a second. Nearly every job was crane work, which is rare training in this trade, and it shaped his specialty: hazardous removals that require a crane to do safely. He came home to the Valley in 2020 and worked the Charlottesville storm circuit for four years, including recoveries most companies could not touch, before opening Blue Mountain Arbor. Today he is one of the few tree services in the Shenandoah Valley that does crane work at all, and likely the most experienced at it.
How we work
Every estimate starts with the same question: do you want to save it? If a tree can be preserved with proper pruning, treatment, or soil care, that is what we recommend, because we would rather fix a problem organically than sell you a removal you do not need. When removal is the right call, we say so plainly and do it safely.
You will notice the difference in the small things. Your written proposal usually arrives before Derrick leaves the driveway, with our insurance certificate attached and your trees pinned on a map. Every visit is logged permanently, so as your trees respond to care over the years, we have the full history. Payment is due only when the work is done, and estimates never cost a dime.
What we believe
We are closed on Sundays because it is the Lord's Day, and we think rest matters. We will not send you a mailer claiming we will be in your neighborhood next week when we will not, because that is a lie and we do not tell those. We care for the created world and the people in it, and around here that means healthy trees, safe homes, and neighbors who get straight answers.
Credentials, plainly stated
TCIA certified staff on every job site, including our TCIA certified groundsman and climber.
$1,000,000 in general liability plus workers compensation through Jenkins Insurance of Harrisonburg.
Derrick is actively pursuing ISA certification, and we will tell you honestly: it is a hard test, and he has come within a few points twice. We would rather earn the credential than borrow the words.
