As I was leaving for work this morning the contractors from the power company were just rolling up to trim the trees back from the lines. They've done this before, and it's never been a big deal. I even went down and talked to them, warned them about the giant wasp nest, and they assured me they were just going to take the limbs that were a hazard to the lines.

I came back from work to find this:



What used to be a relatively full maple tree is now a 30 foot stick with two limbs sticking out the top. There was some dead stuff at the top so I expected them to maybe lop that off, and maybe a few limbs on the west side by the lines, but I didn't anticipate this.

They were just packing up to leave, so I asked the supervisor if they could just take the whole thing, since at this point it's basically dead. He said the work order he had was only to clear the lines, but if I called in they would likely make up a new order and send him back out to take care of the rest.

So I tried to do that. Had to navigate through a ton of menus, got put on hold, hung up on once, and finally had to schedule a callback. When I finally got to talk to a lady, I explained the situation and told her that the supervisor had told me to call in about arranging to have the rest removed. She told me that they had "made it safe" and the rest is my problem. I told her that where I once had a live tree I now have a giant dead stick that is still taller than the lines, and at some point it's going to fall somewhere. She still refused to do anything about it.

My wife is sad about the tree. I'm pissed because it is one of four big maples that line our front yard, and now the symmetry is going to be off. I'm also pissed that I'm now either going to have to pay somebody to remove it, or deal with it myself.

I don't have a full photo of the tree before it was violated, but here's one of the giant wasp nest that gives an idea of the foliage that used to be there:

Call the local news and see if they would like to do a story about it.

Wow. I would be freakin' PISSED.

I know this is not helpful, but my experience in a similar situation is (to paraphrase Roseanne Rosannadanna) "We're the power company, we don't HAVE to care."

IOW, I had no recourse and I'm still living with a "one-legged" tree.

I feel your frustration. I have a beautiful half of a Japanese Red Maple out front. They just came through about a month ago on their 3-year cycle. By the time they come back, it will just start looking whole again.

This type of property owner abuse has gone on forever. In my cop days, the trimming contractor would call us out when shotgun toting property owners chased them off the property in order to protect their trees. I never took action against the homeowners. Just because the power company has a legal easement, it should not give their subcontractors the right to destroy trees. I once intervened when the tree trimmers drove a heavy cherry picker rig onto someones lawn and crushed the driveway culvert. Suing these people is very hard so I dont know what the outcome of that event was.

My wife had an idea...anybody know what it would cost to have somebody come out and chainsaw sculpt something out of the stump? A bear or a moose or something like that would be kinda cool.

quote:

Just because the power company has a legal easement, it should not give their subcontractors the right to destroy trees.

That's exactly what an easement allows Anything within their boundaries is subject to removal. If you have a tree on your side of the line and the tree grows over their easement line, they have the right to take everything up to their line.

In this case they should have simply removed the entire tree.

I'm out in the sticks and they were doing our power line maintenance a few years ago. There were a few smaller trees where they wanted to take the entire tree but leave a stump a few inches above the ground. This would have interfered with my mower so I asked them nicely if they would take them down to 4' and let me pull them completely out with a winch. Although it was against their policy, once they were sure I was actually going to do that they were happy to help me out.

FWIW, I'm not mad about them trimming it off the lines. I like reliable power as much as the next guy. I just wish that if they felt the need to take so much off that the tree isn't going to survive that they would have just finished the job and took it all the way to the ground instead of leaving me with an ugly hazard.

They didn't limit themselves to the easement, either...they cut stuff off the side of the tree that's away from the lines, and also parked a truck in my driveway to do it. Again, not a problem, I'm just upset about how they left it.

Keep going up the line, find someone in charge vs someone on the CS staff. Get an email, send the picture to them, heck find their facebook and instagram pages and post it.

Look what So and So power contractors did to my beautiful Maple! LOL

Hard to tell from the picture but how close are those power lines, they don't look to be anywhere near the tree that would require that much trimming.

Is your State Utilities Commission competent enough where filing a complaint might get some action?

My FIL went through something similar with two trees that electric wires ran by and they wanted to just butcher the trees enough to clear the wires, he wanted them gone anyway and raised enough hell that they came and took them down completely.

I'd be on their asses until they came back and took that all the way down, that's just complete BS what they did there. That's going to cost you money out of your own pocket now if they can't make this right.

I would be a real shame if something were to happen and that tree (or what's left of it) suffered an "accident" in the coming weeks that made it fall onto the power lines and thereby forced the utility company to have to come out and remove it. (Just sayin')

Very common occurrence here.

quote:

Originally posted by Unishot:
I would be a real shame if something were to happen and that tree (or what's left of it) suffered an "accident" in the coming weeks that made it fall onto the power lines and thereby forced the utility company to have to come out and remove it. (Just sayin')

Short of a hurricane or a traffic accident , it's kind of hard for a tree to fall over " accidently " .

I’d push to have them remove it completely. Worst case, get them to cover half of extraction.

Large trees like this, near a home, are a thing of the past. They just aren’t worth a big limb coming off during a storm and ending up going through your roof, into the house, or worse, your neighbor’s home. Around power lines? Kill it with fire. Unless you live in an area that doesn’t get high wind thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, a tree at max height, should be level with your roof. Nothing should be higher. Higher = antiquated subdivision planning. Homeowners policies are seeing massive increases in many states. It’s not if it hits your area, it’s when. Power companies spend millions, if not billions of dollars dealing with this sort of thing which is why they come in, drop the hammer, and leave.

Way to try and make lemonade out of a lemon. I’d be furious. They’ve flat out killed trees in my yard, trees that weren’t even NEAR the power line were topped (evergreens) and they just died. Ever since, I lay in wait for the power line tree trimmers and bring them to the stump of what’s left to show them what I do not want to happen. I’ve had to chase a few trimmers out that were working on behalf of a neighbor that tied into my line somehow.
These folks really PISS me off. Never mind that jackass of a neighbor that constantly tries to mess with my yard.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: irreverent,

Enlist an arborist - if you have pictures prior to the cuts as well as the ones after, that professional opinion can make a difference.

Which came first ?
The power lines or the tree?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,