Tree Trimming and You
What to Do if a Power Line is Down
If a tree branch or entire tree falls on an electric line:
Safety Facts about Trees and Power Lines:
Tree Health and Planting Tips
Managing Trees for Safe and Reliable Energy
Our customers depend on us to deliver safe and reliable electricity. Our expert Tree Management Team follows established forestry guidelines to ensure that trees don’t interrupt your service, using qualified line-clearance contractors to safely clear trees and vegetation that could interfere with our powerlines.
When trimming trees and managing vegetation, we follow clearance standards that vary based on the voltage of nearby electric lines. Many factors influence the decision to trim or cut trees, such as species, location, and health of the tree. Sometimes trees within the utility right-of-way easement, or growing close to it, will need to be removed to ensure safe and reliable service.
What to Expect When We Trim Trees
A Forestry Planner marks trees or brush that need maintenance.
• Trees to be trimmed are marked with a blue dot.
• Trees to be cut down are marked with a blue X. If outside the easement they will be marked with a blue A.
• Brush to be cleared may be marked with a blue slash ( / ).
We assign qualified tree-trimming contractors.
Here’s how we handle clean-up.
• On lawns brush is usually chipped. Larger wood is cut into pieces and left onsite.
• In unmaintained areas brush is either piled in windrows (creating habitat for wildlife and suppressing future tree growth) or mulched and scattered within the easement area.
• If trees are cut down, stumps are cut as close to the ground as possible and treated with a herbicide to prevent regrowth.
• Following storms, trees and limbs may be cleared so crews can make repairs to electric service. In this case wood, limbs and debris are all left on-site.
Other Ways We Manage Vegetation
We use different techniques to manage vegetation along powerlines and pipelines. We may use several of the methods below to manage the vegetation on or near your property.
Manual Cutting: A tree crew using a bucket truck and chainsaws.
Mechanical Cutting: Larger mower with mulching heads or off-road vehicles with saws mounted on aerial booms.
Herbicide Applications: Used to prevent stumps from sprouting new growth, or to control brush growth in the right-of-way. When using herbicide, we use selective methods that target trees and brush.
Cultural Controls: We sometimes lease property we own to farmers for agricultural production. When a farmer grows a crop on our land it is a win-win - they produce a crop and keep trees and brush from growing at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions
The marks mean one of our Forestry personnel has identified tree and brush work that need to be performed.
Contact Our Tree Management Team