With Whatcom County residents struggling to keep their driveways clear of snow, much of the responsibility for snow plowing has fallen to private landscape companies.

Corion Landscape Management in Ferndale has been inundated with requests for snow removal from both businesses and homeowners. Even with a full crew of employees working non-stop, the company is slammed, said company President David Arnold.

“I get in the truck and plow with our team,” Arnold said. “We have a team of 23 snow fighters out plowing, shoveling, and applying snow and ice melt.”

Last week, Corion received more than 50 inbound calls for snow-plow services. Most came from businesses. About 30 percent of calls were from residential customers, and 10 percent came from churches.

“Corion was at capacity prior to an event of this size hitting our community. Our objective is to not commit to services we will not be able to perform when we get this busy,” Arnold said.

He recommended that residents seek snow and ice management agreements with landscapers before the cold season hits.

“This allows our team to develop sitemaps, and this is a crucial communication tool we use internally for communicating specific items such as handicap parking spots, where to pile snow, speed bumps, and not to forget storm drains for when the snow melts,” he said.

With the limited resources available, Corion prioritizes its work based on property type. Medical facilities are first in line, followed by commercial properties, and then homeowners association (HOA) or condominium owners association (COA) properties.

But snow plowing is just one piece of what Corion does as a landscaping management company.

“We are now behind on our regular duties, which will result in some overtime for our team to ensure we get caught up,” Arnold said.