Richards wrote:
> Not so, Dick Tracy -- the power company here in Michigan
> comes by and trims the trees -- they removed five whole fir
> trees one day from my yard.
>
We must live in a different Michigan<:-)) Although the odds are we have
the same power company, just different people.
There were several large Ash trees very near the power line in our front
yard. The Power company would do nothing about them. One spring we had
an ice storm and a different Ash tree went down over the lines in the
woods just the North of our place. It basically tied the 13.8 (I think
ours is 13,800) the 3/4" 75 ohm cable company's coax, and the ground
together. The whole area was without power for several days. It wasn't
the only tree, the line comes through the woods for a mile to the South
of us, and they were very poor about trimming them back.
*Finally* they decided it might be cheaper to clear the right-of-way
instead of the constant repair. They marked the trees and three years
later still had done nothing. By then the two *big* Ash trees were
dead. (Michigan has this little problem called the Emerald Ash Borer
killing our Ash trees which has resulted in our wood being quarantined.)
I called and complained that the next good wind might just dump them
over the power line as the line was within feet of the trunks that
towered well over it. They did come out this time and "trimmed the dead
trees back" leaving me with two very large, tall, and HEAVY stumps that
nearly reached the power lines. However they did an excellent job of
cleaning up.
Sooo... I got out my trusty chain saw and felled the two stumps. Can
you imagine what a hard wood stump nearly two feet across and over 20
feet tall weighs? Two people could barely lift a piece only 12 inches
long. They said the neighbors could feel it in their houses when the
larger one hit the ground. Fortunately the one neighbor wanted it for
his fireplace so he and his son hauled them away. It cost me $50 each
to get rid of the stumps. In the "Old days" I'd have just gone down to
the hardware store and picked up about 4 to 6 sticks of 40% <:-)) When
I was 16 I took care of stumps and rocks for the neighbors and bought
the stuff by the case. Now days I doubt I could even get a license to
use it.
At any rate about two years *after* that, they came through and marked
the trees again. As some of the branches of our two big Maple trees in
the front yard overhung the lines they were going to just cut the one
side off each which leaves them really ugly. The guy in charge wouldn't
budge an inch, but I talked to an engineer (higher up the food chain)
who agreed they only needed to remove the problem branches and would
pass on the instructions, BUT be sure I was out there when the crew
doing the trimming came through. I was <:-)) and they did a very nice
job of trimming, even contouring the trees. The E/W road to the South
of us had a number of trees, including pine that grew up *directly*
under the power line. Now a 40 foot pine cut off at the 20 foot level
sure does look strange. In other areas they just cut all the branches
off the one side of the trees.
I should note that Consumers contracted this job out and the only trees
the power company was actually involved with were the two Ash trees and
probably those pine trees. They did a good job of clearing the
right-of-way through the woods to the North too, but as that was a good
5 years ago they trees are already getting dangerously close to those
lines. I'd imagine it's the same where they come across the section to
the South.
> You would love the power company here: They left quite a mess
> in my yard. They said they would remove all the branches and
> trimmings... yep... they sure did... but left all the logs of the TRUNK
> and said they did not say they would remove the TRUNK ... sorry...
>
> But they DO trim the branches back all along the lines and have a
> routine program for doing so. Dirty Birds .
>
Here (the Midland area) they do that routine when it starts costing more
to fix the lines than clear the right of way.
Roger (K8RI - ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R (World's oldest Debonair)
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