Arbor Age

Arbor Age May 2014

For more than 30 years, Arbor Age magazine has been covering new and innovative products, services, technology and research vital to tree care companies, municipal arborists and utility right-of-way maintenance companies

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www.arborage.com Arbor Age / May 2014 9 ness Program (EHAP). Candidates must complete the require- ments of the EHAP training program, and TCIA will issue a certifi cate of completion, which is valid for one year. Each year a renewal process, with unique training content for a fi ve-year interval, must be completed. Understand utility line clearance Utility arborists face unique challenges when pruning around utility lines. Because of this, it is critical that a tree worker understand the fundamentals of pruning around utility lines before he or she begins working in the fi eld. Pruning is done for a specifi c purpose — to keep veg- etation from contacting and causing problems with electric utility lines. As a utility system arborist, I do not work for a tree care company, even though I have a forestry education and specialize in tree care. I work for a company that de- livers safe and reliable electric power. This is an important point to remember. While we follow all pruning and tree care best practices and genuinely care for the health of our street trees, the overall objective of tree work for a utility is unique. Utility line-clearance is done on a cyclical basis. A popula- tion of trees along a set number of miles of power lines must be continually maintained. To facilitate this maintenance, pruning work is distributed over a set timeframe where maintenance objectives (such as system reliability, safety, customer satisfac- tion and cost) are evaluated. Often this is a four- or fi ve-year cycle — meaning only one-fourth or one-fi fth of the total lines are pruned each year. This cycle setup means there will be a gap in time where the trees are not reviewed or moni- tored. Workers must think of the pruning "window" or time interval before they will be back again to do work. What is the health of the tree being worked? Will it rapidly deteriorate and become an issue over that four- or fi ve-year timeframe? Unfortunately, utility programs do not usually have the ability to visit and evaluate trees every year like a concerned home- owner may have the ability to do. This changes the amount of risk that may be acceptable, and ultimately changes the work performed on the tree. This brings up the fact that utility pruning is done on trees that are owned by someone else. Unless the utility owns the land where line-clearance pruning is being per- Before planting any tree, choose a species and location that keeps the tree clear of overhead and away from underground electric lines. Graphic provided by Unitil

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