Trees and Power Lines

• When the area is safe, it is the property owner’s responsibility for debris clean-up after emergency service restoration, tree failure, or customer-generated calls for electric line workers.
  
  
• When routine maintenance tree work is scheduled for your property:
  
  In lawn areas: The wood will be left for your use. We cut the wood into lengths for ease of handling. Brush and anything smaller than 4” in diameter will be chipped and removed from landscaped areas.
  
  In unmaintained areas: Brush is either piled in windrows (which creates good habitat for wildlife and suppresses future tree growth) or is mulched and scattered within the easement right-of-way. Any wood will be left for your use.

• For a clear illustration of what we will repair, click here.
  
  
• In the illustration, Area 1 is the wire from the transformer to your home or building. Consumers Energy will trim branches that are broken and laying on the wire or, during scheduled maintenance work, branches that are placing excessive pressure on the wire. Any other work will be the customer’s responsibility; in this case, please arrange for a private tree company to perform your desired tree work. Then, contact Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050, 5 days in advance to schedule a temporary service disconnect (free of charge, Monday-Friday) so your private tree work may be completed.

• Consumers Energy clears trees and brush around our electric wires; we do not clear trees for communication wires attached to our poles such as telephone, cable TV, or fiber optic lines which are owned and maintained by other companies. Note: Sometimes in trimming for our clearances we must also clear around communication wires in order to obtain our minimum clearance requirements.
  
  
• Consumers Energy does not trim trees for streetlight illumination or for streetlight sensors. This work is generally the responsibility of the municipality.

The marks mean one of our Forestry personnel has identified tree and brush work that need to be performed.

• Trees to be trimmed will be marked with a blue dot (.).
  
  
• Trees to be cut down will be marked with a blue X (or blue A if outside the easement right-of-way).
  
  
• Smaller brush may also be cleared and intermittently marked with a blue slash (/).

• Approximately two weeks before tree crews begin work on a scheduled maintenance project, a letter will be mailed to you. It takes anywhere from one to three months to complete the project, so it could be anywhere from 1-12 weeks before the tree crews arrive to do work on your property.

• When tree crews perform work on residential property, wood is cut into lengths for ease of handling and left on site for your use. Please note that wood is not cut into “firewood” lengths. You must have permission from a property owner before removing this wood from their premises.
  
  
• If tree work is planned in your area, you may request to have wood chips dumped at your property. Please contact the forester listed on the circuit letter or door hanger to request wood chips.

• Consumers Energy uses herbicides to prevent stumps from hardwood trees that are cut down from sprouting new stems.
  
  
• We also use herbicides to control woody brush, including several invasive species, along easement rights-of-way using selective application methods. If a selective application is being planned for your property, the contract application company will attempt to notify you in person or by mail prior to the treatment. These treatments decrease the amount of manual work required for our tree crews in the future, promote compatible species including pollinator species, and provide accessible easement rights-of-way for our line crews to maintain or repairs our lines.

• You do not have to be home when our crews perform work. If you have a concern about the crews accessing the work area through fences or gates or the placement of septic tanks so crews do not inadvertently drive over the tank, please contact the number on our letter or door hanger. This connects you directly with our forester who planned the work and can ensure that the crews take extra precautions on your property.

• Consumers Energy cuts down dead trees along our primary voltage distribution lines that are accessible to aerial lift trucks and within distances specified in our easements or per our specifications filed with the MPSC. We do not cut down dead trees along service lines to homes or dead trees that do not threaten the primary voltage lines. If you have a dead tree on your property near your service line, you can schedule a temporary service disconnect by calling 800-477-5050 so a tree removal company that you hire can remove the tree; we will reconnect the service line when the tree work is complete.

• If a tree branch (or an entire tree) has fallen on an electric line, call us immediately at 800-477-5050. Do not touch the branch or the electric line.
  
  
• If it is not an emergency, you can self-report through this website using the form on this page.