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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8 Arbor Age / May 2014 www.arborage.com B y S a r a S a n k o w i c h rees and power lines enjoy a delicate coexistence along our roads and highways. In regions like New England, where the tree canopy is dense and beau- tiful, trees have the potential to cause outages even in the fairest of weather, be it from a broken limb or a fallen tree. Against these chal- lenges, utilities strive to maintain a balance in their right-of-ways, but they must ensure the system can withstand a variety of typical weather events. Vegetation management (VM) is a critical part of system main- tenance for most North American electr ic utilities because of this coexistence. As the system arbor- ist for a utility in New England, my responsibility is to develop and implement a successful VM program that helps ensure system reliability and mitigates risk. This also includes continuous moni- tor ing and per iodic updates and improvements. It is important to always keep sight of your goals, whether they concern reliability, customer satisfaction, or safety — and adjust your program as needed to meet those goals. Managing vegetation around utility lines presents a unique set of challenges, which requires me to work closely with independent vendors providing qualifi ed line-clearance con- tract crews and other specialized equipment to ensure they are prepared to deal with everyday hazards they encounter in the fi eld. Whether you are a tree company looking to do utility line clearance pruning, or a utility looking to hire line clearance pruning crews, the following fundamentals are essential to completing utility tree work safely and successfully: Obtain proper qualifi cations Only qualifi ed individuals should prune near power lines. Before an ar- borist can work around utility lines, it is essential that he or she obtain proper training, experience and cre- dentials. One of the fi rst things a util- ity will look for when evaluating bids for a project is whether the contrac- tor's personnel are properly trained and are Qualifi ed Line-Clearance Arborists or Line-Clearance Arbor- ist Trainees. These titles mean they have gone through the training and certifi cation process to learn how to safely work around utility lines. Being able to identify the electric line, how much voltage it conducts, and the appropriate minimum ap- proach distance are essentials for these qualifi cations. This type of training can be conducted with the assistance of the Tree Care Industry Association's (TCIA) Electrical Hazards Aware- Fundamentals of Utility Vegetation Management SPECIAL FEATURE SPECIAL FEATURE re al E ti in f ll T One of the fi rst things a utility will look for when evaluating bids for a project is whether the contractor's personnel are properly trained and are Qualifi ed Line- Clearance Arborists or Line-Clearance Arborist Trainees.