Who Butchered My Tree?
How would you feel if you returned home from work to find that the beautiful shade trees by the street in front of your house had been drastically pruned? Instead of a thick, symmetrical canopy of leaves, there is a gaping hole through the middle of the tree. This reveals the overhead electrical conductors. “Why did this happen?” you would undoubtedly ask.
You may not be aware that while trees add significantly to the beauty of our communities, they are also responsible for costly property damage and power outages. In fact, tree failure is by far the leading cause of outages nationwide. The tree that grows into electrical conductors presents a potential hazard to the community if it becomes energized or wipes out a power line. Therefore we see utility line clearance contractors in our neighborhoods trimming trees.
Some residents get irritated and feel that these trees are needlessly damaged. “The Tree Care Industry Association receives a lot of calls from homeowners complaining that their utility company ‘drastically’ cut trees near power lines,” says Tchukki Andersen, CTSP, BCMA, and staff arborist for the association.“While utilities are required by law to trim trees, sometimes severely, it is, nevertheless, important for them to follow tree care standards of practice,” adds Robert Rouse, TCIA’s chief program officer. TCIA is the Secretariat for the American National Standards Institute A300 Standard, a national standard that covers tree pruning operations, including line clearance.
“When one is evaluating the quality of line clearance tree trimming, it’s important to consider that the utility’s primary objective is to prevent outages caused by trees as well as electrical hazards,” explains Rouse. Minimally, the tree should be left in a healthy state, with at least some aesthetic value. If this cannot be accomplished, the utility may opt to remove the tree rather than create an eyesore and future problem.
Why the gaping hole in the canopy? First, the utility company specifies a certain amount of clearance around its wires, depending upon the voltage, the tree’s growth rate and other characteristics, 
and the pruning cycle (how frequently it will be pruned). Furthermore, scientific research has proven that it is better if the trimming crew removes whole limbs with a small number of large cuts. Finally, utilities have found that removal of entire limbs helps to train the future growth of the tree away from the wires, keeping maintenance costs to a minimum while helping to ensure that the tree needn’t receive the same drastic pruning in the future.
What should consumers do?
When you or your utility hire a TCIA member company, you are assured that the company has access to the most recent information on tree care practices. Homeowners who would like a professional arborist to assess their trees should contact a certified tree care specialist.
Want to contact a professional to have your trees assessed? Visit our website
We see this happen all the time in the Phoenix area. There are many landscape crews here that don’t trim correctly and the extreme desert heat takes a toll on the trees. Since we really need a lot of growth here to combat all the blacktop this is a real problem. We even see the utilities do this all the time. They should know better.
Very good point. They are more concerned about the power and what might happen if a storm comes than the tree.
If one wants to avoid that situation, best to call a tree service company on your own before it happens.
With the hurricane season in Clearwater, FL we always try to inform the public that they should have their trees inspected before the season starts just to be safe and not be stuck at the last minute if a storm rolls in. Plus it’s free. After the storm hits, companies seem to raise prices and charge for inspections.
One of our most requested tree services includes trees and power lines.
I wish that every contractor will follow correct tree trimming procedures, including those hired by the utility companies. That is not always the case, but safety comes first, as exposed power lines can be hidden by canopies and become a huge risk.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! I think your blog may be having internet browser compatibility issues. I must say we should have an online discussion on this.
Maybe one of your trees that butchered are so old and needs to cut because it is too dangerous who passes by.
tree pruning
This is worth it to read. Thank you for your hard work and for sharing good ideas to all your readers.
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Very good points. So many people don’t consider the relationship between trees and power which is understandable, but could be very costly.
https://www.treeserviceranchocucamonga.com
It would help if people (including developers and builders) would stop planting large-growing trees near power lines in the first place. It seems like everyone wants to plant trees right on their property line, which inevitably leads to a future conflict with overhead wires (or the neighbors). Why not start out smarter, and plant bushes or small-form trees near the property line, and save your shade trees for further away from the power lines? A little more foresight would prevent the vast majority of these conflicts.
There is obviously a lot of tension between homeowners and utility companies. Perhaps a little understanding on both sides would go a long way. Thanks for flagging this up!
https://www.treesurgeongloucester.com/
Good article, its important to focus on Tree Maintenance to avoid issues like this.
Trees have many benefits, from environmental to aesthetic. Without trees, not only will your property look bare, but you have reduced privacy, less shade, and less protection from the elements.
As a tree service company, it is important to always have a tree service show thier licensed and insured before you hire them.
Trees play a very vital role in our world as a whole. It’s just, we are already overpopulated, that is the reason why trees became the reason of “costly property damage and power outages”.
This is good information for any property owner.
From Alex L. Shigo in “Tree Pithy Points” #55: ” Don’t call tree mutilators, butchers. Butches are highly skilled people.” And #51: ” Thou shalt not plant tall maturing trees in small spaces or under utility lines.”
This article would have been much more professional had they not used the term ‘trimming’. The proper usage would have been ‘pruning’. Tired of our own people using this archaic term.
You have done your task so well. Incredible job. Keep it up!
Unfortunately, we see it happen all too often with too many things whether it be trees or the Best BBQ in Nashville. Sometimes the professionals need to be left to do the work. Thank you for sharing!
Great site to visit, thanks for the share.