Why is it so important to keep trees near power lines trimmed? Here's the answer... (see some of your questions answered at the bottom of this page)
"The
Wires and the Trees..."
Please gather around folks, it is
time for the talk. I don't mean THE talk that rhymes with the title above, but
one that is sort of like that talk, just not as interesting, and a whole lot
simpler to illustrate. Yes dear reader, it is time to talk about the EPB's tree
trimming activities. Come, let us reason together. We are going to consider
just why we spend tons of money doing work that our precious customers really
do not want us to do. We sure wish we could stop, but it just does not work
that way.
Our customers tell us time and time again that they hate outages! For more complete information on tree trimming, where we will start and why it's so important (especially to keep outages to a minimum), we've made a short TV presentation that we're showing on Cable 6. You can even watch it here...
Why we
must "manage vegetation". There
now, that sounds better than tree trimming already, right? Okay here we go.
All of us at the EPB know for darned sure that the number one thing you want
us to do is to make sure that the services you buy from us are available all
of the time. Now, we are never going to achieve perfection, but we know we can
get a lot closer when we keep trees and other vegetation from making contact
with our electric lines. (I should point out right now that, if you do not get
your electric service from the EPB and do not live anywhere near our electric
lines, you can ignore this talk. However, it is very likely that the electric
utility that does serve you will be sitting you down for a similar talk very
soon) Trees and vegetation must be kept clear of our electric lines because
those lines carry very high voltage (some of them 7,200 volts, some 12,470 and
some of them 69,000 volts - OUCH!) and they are NOT insulated. Those wires up
there on top of those poles are bare (told you this was sort of like that other
talk) and if a tree branch, vine, or anything else also connected to the ground
touches that bare wire, current will flow from the wire to the ground. . . a
lot of current. This is a bad thing. Not only does it damage the tree severely,
it often causes you and hundreds of your neighbors to stumble through the dark
to a telephone and call us at the EPB and tell us how dark it is at your house.
How we
have been doing this "management".
Well, we have been trimming trees ever since the EPB was first created. One
would think we would be done by now, but we are not so it only follows that
we have been doing it wrong. After studying everything we have learned over
the last several
years and, after talking to trained arborists (people who know about keeping
trees healthy), we now know just what we have been doing wrong. Figure A shows
the kind of trimming we have been using for several years. While we have been
aggressive in trimming the trees way back away from our lines, we have been
making those cuts in the middle of large branches. When we do that each one
of those cuts produces dozens of new sprouts as shown in Figure B. Thus the
branch that required one cut the first time, now needs dozens of cuts the next
time (Don't complain about my drawing. . . want to see how I illustrate the other
talk?). Further, those new sprouts are weak and grow so quickly that we often
have vegetation contacting conductors again only a few weeks after we were there.
Further, these new sprouts, put out by the tree in a desperate attempt to re-establish
its leaf canopy, are very weak and provide hundreds of avenues for disease to
enter the tree. Clearly, this is the wrong way to do it. We have got to change
and that is exactly what we are about to do.
Now that
we know better. Utility companies
and professional arborists now agree. The best way to trim trees, for the tree's
health, and for maintaining reliable electric networks, is to use a method called
"directional" or "lateral" trimming. Directional trimming strives to train the
tree to grow away from and around the wires. These trimming principles were
developed by the U.S. Forest Service and are endorsed by the International Society
of Arboriculture as well as tree care professionals across the country. This
method is best described as trimming the limbs that are growing in the direction
of neighboring electric wires all the way back to their "parent" limb. This
method satisfies the clearance requirements for the EPB as well as the health
needs of the tree. It makes everyone happy except, perhaps, those who have to
look at the result. I really wish there was a humorous way to put this, but,
well. . . if there is, it escapes me at the moment.
The figures above are very good
representations of the results we expect from employing the new directional
trimming method. As you can see, this method leaves virtually no limb stumps
which can issue new sprouts in the direction of our lines. You might also notice
that the resulting tree is remarkably similar to a Salvador Dali painting (it
helps to be an art student to really appreciate the result). However, if you
just cannot bring yourself to appreciate this sort of art, we have one more
option. We will gladly remove a tree that is growing in our high voltage wires (not just growing in the service wires from a pole to an individual home... there are far too many of those for us to deal with) and we will replace it, at our expense, with a small decorative tree that should never grow tall enough to give us trouble. Just call us if you think you have such a tree and this replacement program is of interest to you. We will gladly discuss it with you before our contractor gets to your property.
All great
projects must start somewhere and some time.
This one is going to start as soon as we find the right tree contractor that
will comply with our plan for trimming and make you, the customer, as happy
with the results as possible. Right now we think we will find and hire this
firm by late May or early June. We are planning on starting this process with
the top one third of our system (if looking at a map where the north is on top),
and working our way down to the middle third and finally the bottom third of
our system over the next three years. It is our hope that, after the initial
three year process of getting our vegetation managed in this fashion, we will
be able to maintain the clearances with our own personnel and our own equipment.
The map below depicts the area we expect to have laterally trimmed during the
first year of this new program.
Over the years, it seems like the
thing I get screamed and cursed at the most about (at least by our customers)
is tree trimming. People either hate the way we have trimmed tree in their neighborhood,
they hate the fact that we are not trimming them when they want them trimmed,
or they hate the fact that their electricity, cable television, internet service,
or telephone service is interrupted due to a tree coming in contact with our
wires somewhere other than in their yard. Now, no one on my team enjoys this
sort of interaction with our customers. We love our customers and want to make
them happy.
This is an attempt to
address all of those issues. As I said earlier, we do not enjoy any of this,
but it is necessary in order to maintain the essential technology services to
your homes and businesses. This will not be the only time you will
be seeing information about this topic. We have produced a video to air on Cable
6 to add to your education about this topic (you can actually watch it above). We will also be striving to answer
another of the complaints we often get; the lack of advance notice of impending
tree trimming activity in your neighborhood. While this is already
serving notice to everyone in the area depicted above, we will be making an
extra effort to notify you through email, regular mail, and other means to remind
you as the contractor is identified and their plan of attack is clear. We will
do everything we can think of to make sure you know that we are coming. But,
when we come, we will be trimming the trees as described above. I am afraid
that is not negotiable.
I am almost
done now. I hope you can now
see and understand our situation with trees. The popular thing to do would be
to employ twice as many tree crews and trim much less, but trim more often.
This would be popular for those customers on heavily wooded lots that are deeply
attached to the natural shape of their trees. However, it would cost twice as
much and that would be very unpopular with others in town who are not so attached
to the trees in someone else's yard. Thus we are faced with the fact that doing
what's popular isn't always right, and doing what's right isn't always popular.
Thanks for listening and thanks for being our customer. If you have any questions
or comments about this "talk", please feel free to contact me.
Here's the text of a letter that we sent to about 600 of our customers recently. After you read through this, take a look at the first question below.
June 14, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. John
Q. Public
123 Shady Lane
Glasgow, KY 42141
Dear Mr. and Mrs.
Public:
This letter is written
to notify you of impending tree trimming work which will shortly be occurring
in your neighborhood. While this work to clear vegetation away from our
electric circuits must be performed, we still want to do everything we
can to notify you of this work and explain how and why we must do this
work in order to preserve the reliability and low cost of electric power,
cable television, Internet, and telephone service to you and your neighbors.
Hopefully, you have
already had a chance to read or hear the information about our new tree
trimming pattern and the underlying reasons for this change. It has been
discussed in the local newspaper, it has been the subject of our monthly
bill insert newsletter (if you have Internet access, you can still read
that article at www.glasgow-ky.com/tree_trimming/), and it is also the
subject of a program which has been playing regularly on EPB Cable 6.
Before the crew from
our contractor, Townsend Tree Service, arrives, please consider a couple
of options. First, if you have trees that are very near our high voltage
lines, the very best option is let us remove them completely. We offer
a tree replacement program wherein we will have a new decorative tree
planted in your yard for each large tree that you allow us to remove (assuming
that the tree is one which threatens our high voltage lines). However,
we must have this decision before we arrive at your location. Our contractor
is being paid to get line clearance for us and they will not want to return
to a yard to remove trees that they have already spent time trimming.
Second, you always have the option of having your trees trimmed yourself.
So long as you maintain proper clearance between your trees and our lines,
there is no reason for us to trim them additionally.
To that end, I am
enclosing some information about proper tree trimming methods. The practice
of "lateral trimming" that we now employ is recommended by the International
Society of Arboriculture and, before you consider trimming your own trees
by simply lopping off limbs in a haphazard fashion, you should read and
understand the enclosed brochure. Cutting of tree branches to stubs or
lateral branches that are not large enough to assume the terminal role
(as described in the brochure) is definitely unhealthy for the tree and
the people who live around that tree.
If the weather and
the contractor's equipment cooperates, they should be working on your
street within the next week or two. Please be expecting them. They will
be trimming trees and other vegetation in the manner described in our
newsletters and on our television program. This matter is not subject
to negotiation. However, if you have any questions about this process
or if you want to talk to someone about having trees completely removed
and replaced under our tree replacement program, please call us at 651-8341.
You can also feel free to contact me directly at 659-3507 or by email
at wray@glasgow-ky.com.
Respectfully,
William J. Ray Superintendent
Here are answers to some of your questions. We'll be adding more to this as you ask more questions...
I don't see any of my trees that are near your high voltage lines, but I got your letter in the mail (as shown above). Does that mean that you will definitely be trimming one or more of my trees?
No, not necessarily. We sent that letter to all property owners in the areas we're going to trim fairly soon. In other words, letters went to all addresses in that area. However, we're only trimming the transmission and distribution lines (that's the lines that transport the power and the lines that serve multiple customers - the lines going up and down the street). On most streets, those lines are only on one side of the street, not both. Generally, we would only be trimming on the side of the street with the lines.
In the future, we will probably only notify the customers at the addresses where we will actually be trimming. This will not only be a better use of our time, postage and so on, it will also lessen any confusion for you, our customer.
Trees have been trimmed in my yard. Do I have to clean up the brush?
When we are doing preventive maintenance, such as this, we will clean up the brush. In most cases, it will be cleaned up the same day it's trimmed. In the event of an outage, if your trees cause us trouble, you would dispose of the brush yourself. We have to make the best use of our time in those situations - getting the most people back on in the shortest time!
I'm thinking about just asking you to cut down a tree that's growing into the lines on the street. Will you do that? When do I need to ask?
If one or more of your trees is growing into a high voltage line, we may cut it down at your request. Call us at 651-8341 and dial "5" for the Engineering Dept. They will get one of our personnel to come by and take a look, then we'll get back in touch with you. All we ask is that you make your request BEFORE our tree crews show up to trim at your house. It costs us substantially more to come back after we have already been there.
You're going to be cutting one of my trees down completely. Can you replace it with something else?
We will replace your tree(s) with a smaller decorative tree if you'd like. You can choose from a:
White Dogwood or Pink Dogwood,
Redbud,
Flowering Plum,
Flowering Pink Cherry,
or a Crabapple (Pink Flowering, Red Flowering, White Flowering or Mixed Flowering varieties).
When a tree is cut down, what happens to the stump?
When a tree is completely removed, you have a choice. We will either have the stump ground for you OR we will replace your tree with a smaller, flowering variety, as stated above.
I have some trees growing into the line that serves my house with electricity. Will you be trimming those?
As the first question above states, we are only trimming the transmission and distribution lines. These are the lines that run all over town. The line that travels from the pole to your house is a "service line" and we do not trim those. However, if you would like to get someone to trim it, we will send one of our service personnel over at no charge to you and remove the electric wiring running to your house. This will allow your contractor to trim with greater safety. After their work is completed, contact us and we will reconnect your power.
I really don't want you to trim my trees, even though they are growing into the high voltage lines. I don't think this is fair.
If what we trimmed only affected your property, you'd be right - it wouldn't be "fair." However, if we don't trim the potentially outage-causing trees on your property, you could affect many other folks in the event they cause an outage. What's not fair is to allow one small problem to affect many, many customers - especially if it's something that could have been avoided altogether. Nobody likes outages!
several
years and, after talking to trained arborists (people who know about keeping
trees healthy), we now know just what we have been doing wrong. Figure A shows
the kind of trimming we have been using for several years. While we have been
aggressive in trimming the trees way back away from our lines, we have been
making those cuts in the middle of large branches. When we do that each one
of those cuts produces dozens of new sprouts as shown in Figure B. Thus the
branch that required one cut the first time, now needs dozens of cuts the next
time (Don't complain about my drawing. . . want to see how I illustrate the other
talk?). Further, those new sprouts are weak and grow so quickly that we often
have vegetation contacting conductors again only a few weeks after we were there.
Further, these new sprouts, put out by the tree in a desperate attempt to re-establish
its leaf canopy, are very weak and provide hundreds of avenues for disease to
enter the tree. Clearly, this is the wrong way to do it. We have got to change
and that is exactly what we are about to do.
