Powerful Partnerships: City Foresters, Tree
Care Professionals, and Utilities
Both trees and power lines are frequently
found occupying the borders of public thor-
oughfares and other locations where beauty
and electric service are desired. In situations of
this kind, conflict may and often does develop
between these two great, separate forces of
public good. A common sense basic appraisal
of the factors involved should consider trees as
nature's gift to society and the service supplied
by power lines as gifts of man's ingenuity.
Obviously, each of these contributions is indis-
pensable to human needs, convenience, and
pleasure. To provide their greatest individual
usefulness, trees must be vigorous and beau-
tiful; electric service must be continuous and
dependable. In this measure of quality, each is
essential to the happiness of civilized people.
—George D. Blair (1951)
Utility arboriculture has undergone a lot of
changes since Mr. Blair wrote that reflection in
his textbook, Tree Clearance for Overhead Lines:
A Textbook of Public Utility Forestry. For instance,
during his time, tree topping was an accepted
practice, whereas it is now widely recognized
that the directional pruning method—which min-
imizes stress from pruning and focuses on tree
health—is the best management practice (Purcell,
2015). Directional pruning has also proven to be
more cost effective to utilities (Matiuk, 2016).
There has been a shift in the utility industry to
promote more proactive and sustainable man-
agement programs, including selective tree
removal with appropriate replacements offered
to the homeowner/community. This reduces
future costs of repeated pruning/maintenance
cycles, fosters relationships with utility cus-
tomers, and claims space in the urban green
network with an appropriate species, rather than
allowing for volunteer seedlings to take hold.
City arborists and community tree care pro-
fessionals play a key role in educating their
communities on the proper selection, planting,
and maintenance of city trees. By forging part-
nerships with utilities, they have the ability
to change public opinion of utility tree care—
and gather some benefits of their own.
Utilities have the people power, equipment,
and budgets to assist with trees near utility
lines, drastically reducing costs related to
municipal tree care programs. And don't
forget safety! Rather than taking an outage so
that the city or a private tree care company
can safely perform work, most utilities have
a "Make Safe" program; the utility will, at no
cost, perform all needed work to gain safety
clearance around the conductor so that
non-line-clearance-certified professionals can
safely complete the remainder of work.
Many utilities set aside additional resources
for community outreach and education. In
fact, those utility forestry programs that are
enrolled in the Tree Line USA program with the
Arbor Day Foundation are required to spend
$0.10 per customer on tree planting, education,
and outreach activities. This can include tree
donations/seedling giveaways for Arbor Day
celebrations, sponsoring Community Canopy/
Energy Saving Trees programs, corporate grants/
match opportunities, tree replacements for
their customers, and offering educational ses-
sions and professional speakers for all age
groups. So, if you haven't already, consider
reaching out to this unexpected, and sometimes
underutilized partner: your local utility.
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