Tree Trimming
Trees enhance the quality of life in every community—converting carbon dioxide to oxygen—keeping the air clean.
Diseased or overgrown trees can damage power lines and lead to outages. To ensure reliable service, we will visit your neighborhood every five to seven years to trim around high-voltage electric wires. We do not trim outside of our schedule unless there is a significant hazard affecting those wires.
To learn more about how to manage the trees that grow around the distribution lines that power your homes and businesses, read our brochures on our trimming policies and planting near electric lines.
To ensure safety and electric service reliability, we schedule tree trimming every five to seven years adhering to the industry's “best practices.”
We use a technique called directional pruning in order to naturally train and direct growth away from the wires. This method is a true benefit to the health of the tree as it reduces disease and decay entry points. We only hire certified contractors to do this work and schedule trimming by geographic location. Unless there is a significant tree hazard affecting the electric wires in your area, we do not perform tree trimming outside of our trimming schedule. /d_safetyinternalbrand/tree-trimming.png)
Trimming is limited to tree branches that affect electric wires only. We do not trim trees or branches that affect individual customer service lines or phone and cable wires.
Before trimming, we attempt to notify customers by postcard, door hanger, or a crew visit. We trim trees to maintain a minimum of 10-15 feet of clearance from our power lines.
As part of our tree trimming process, crews will chip the branches they remove from the trees in your yard. Wood pieces that cannot be chipped will be cut into manageable lengths and left near the base of the tree. In areas that are natural and not actively groomed, wood/brush may be left to naturally decompose.
If additional pruning work beyond what we provide in our scheduled maintenance program is desired, you may hire an electrically qualified tree contractor to complete that work at your own expense. We will work closely with you and your qualified contractor.
We appreciate your cooperation during our routine maintenance work. Property owners are sometimes hesitant to authorize tree trimming on their property. If a property owner does not permit us the ability to properly trim or remove trees, the property owner may elect to sign a statement accepting responsibility and financial liability for any and all resulting damages and/or claims related to future electric service interruptions or damage caused by your tree(s).
We work closely with homeowners and their contractors to temporarily disconnect service for safe trimming or tree removal. Please call us at 1-800-642-4272 at least five days in advance of the work.