Landscaping challenges call for one tough animal

Bobcat machines help landscaper become one of the biggest and best in Las Vegas

Las Vegas businessman and Bobcat equipment owner Scott Walker is one of Las Vegas’ premier landscapers.

Scott Walker came to Las Vegas 17 years ago to start his own landscaping business with nothing but a dream. When he began Walker Landscape, he had two laborers and did everything with hand tools. “When I started, I dug the trenches for pipe and holes for new trees,” Walker says. “It wasn’t any fun.”

Six months later, Walker bought his first skid-steer loader — another brand of machine that didn’t last long — and eventually built his company with many Bobcat® skid-steer loaders, compact excavators and attachments.

Walker moved to Las Vegas at a good time. Construction in and around the city made the area one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States for more than a decade. Landscaping applications called for compact machines and attachments that could handle space-restricted areas and challenging ground conditions.

Walker’s Bobcat equipment inventory includes 463, S185 and S220 skid-steer loaders and a 316, 323 and two 331 compact excavators. He also owns a full range of Bobcat attachments, including angle brooms, an auger, a hydraulic breaker, sweepers, trenchers, pallet forks and buckets.

“Our Bobcat machines are our most versatile tools,” Walker says. “We use them for grading, excavating, lifting, unloading, digging and planting trees. We use Bobcat machines for 90 percent of our work. They are by far the best pieces of equipment we own.

“We work in residential and commercial areas with tight access, building streetscapes and landscape parks, and we use our Bobcat equipment throughout the process. Our compact excavators dig all our trenches through the hardpan and caliche. We unload landscaping block with the pallet fork in driveways and streets, and we occasionally use a hydraulic breaker to break up the soil.”

Avoiding costly fines

Keeping streets free of dirt and other construction debris is critical to success for developers in Las Vegas. Walker’s crews depend on Bobcat loaders with angle brooms to keep the streets clean during and after the construction process. “We use Bobcat loaders and brooms to sweep debris from the streets onto the dirt lots in less than 30 minutes,” Walker says. “The developers are happy because they have a sanitary jobsite if we ever get any rain. It’s up to a $27,500 fine if the EPA finds spoil in the gutter.”

Nearly two decades after Walker arrived in Las Vegas, he’s become one of the premier landscapers in the area’s residential and commercial landscaping market. As president of the Nevada Landscape Association, Walker is well-versed in the ins and outs of the business — including working in America’s fastest-growing city.

Competitive machines don’t make the cut

A few years ago, another compact equipment dealer in Las Vegas persuaded Walker to purchase another skid-steer loader brand. “We bought eight or nine pieces of equipment when they came out,” Walker says. “Everybody hated the controls, parts were hard to get, and they were twice as expensive.” Six months later, after receiving a barrage of complaints from his workers, Walker went back to Bobcat of Las Vegas and purchased 19 new machines. “Parts have to be available and reasonable. That’s one of the main reasons we like our Bobcat equipment.”

Read more about compact equipment solutions for landscaping at www.bobcat.com/landscaping.