SEQUIM — A Port Angeles arborist left three children after falling more than 30 feet with a portion of a tree he was topping on Peterson Street in Sequim, a friend said.
Lyle Lyster, who was the owner of West Coast Tree Service of Port Angeles, was pronounced dead at the scene after Clallam County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters with Clallam Fire District No. 3 arrived at 10:45 a.m. Thursday.
Lyster, 41, was a 1993 graduate of Port Angeles High School, said friend Jessica Edwards.
Members of the Lyster family could not be reached for comment.
Edwards said Lyster loved working outdoors and was not the kind of person to sit indoors when weather encroached on his tree business.
Lyster was employed with a construction company before starting his tree service about three years ago, she said. He was happy working on many kinds of heavy equipment.
The Port Angeles arborist also made a 2015 appearance on a National Geographic Channel program “The Legend of Mick Dodge,” in which he helped the characters erect a tree stairway on a property near Forks.
Fatal error
A safety compliance officer with the state Department of Labor and Industries said that equipment used incorrectly contributed to Lyster’s death.
Rick White, a Labor and Industries safety compliance officer, said Lyster was wearing spurs and was fully dug into the tree about 30 feet up when it fell, taking him down with it.
White did not believe the tree fell on Lyster.
White said Lyster was using a device called a Port-a-Wrap to lower branches that he had cut to the ground.
The device’s rigging, which uses a block and tackle near the top of the tree, was used to lower chunks of the tree gently to the ground to protect an in-ground drainage field, White said.
White said the Port-a-Wrap device should have been tied to the base of the tree but was instead tied off on a pickup truck.
Tying it to a truck put too much sideways pressure on the tree and caused it to fall, he added.
White said he was not sure Lyster, an experienced arborist who was known to the Labor and Industries officer, fully realized the “precarious position” he was putting himself in.
“It’s just the way it was rigged up,” White said.
Lyster had two unidentified helpers working with him on the ground, cutting up the tree chunks and feeding them into a chipper.
The safety compliance officer noted that Lyster was wearing a helmet with eye protection and earmuffs and his assistants were also wearing headgear.
Lyster was fully licensed, bonded and registered with the state, White said.
No collateral damage to the property was reported.
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Assistant Managing Editor Mark Swanson can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55450, or mswanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
