This has to be the worst hack job by the local utility company I’ve seen yet! In order to minimize safety hazards and improve the quality of service, utility companies commit prunicide to free up power lines of colliding tree branches. The secondary effect? An ugly, weakened tree that often falls victim to pest and diseases.
What should you consider before planting a tree?
- Contact your local utility company about the recommended trees for your area.
- Call your utility company before you start digging, there may be underground utilities as well.
- Investigate whether your local utility company has a tree replacement program for problem trees. Some will replace the trees themselves or offer a nursery voucher for homeowners to find their own replacements.
- Plan on buying a species that reaches a mature height less than 25 feet.
According to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, “utility companies spend more than $1 billion annually for tree pruning, passing this cost on to the consumer.” The responsible homeowner can help curb the cost of tree pruning and the life of an unknowingly tree victim. So remember, always look up and down before you plant a tree.
What trees have you successfully saved from Utility Prunicide (sharing your zone info is helpful)?
Hideous and dangerous, for certain. But what came first, the chicken, the egg, the tree or the power lines. If the lines were there before the tree was planted, then the person who planted the tree gets the Bone-Head Award. It’s always a matter of “right plants / right place.” If the utilities came second, then the best solution would have been to take the tree out immediately and plant the appropriate size plant to avoid this.
Granted, no one will win any pruning award, but the practical matter of continuing to provide electricity and cable access to Anthony Bordain is also a high priority. The best solution is underground utilities, but that costs a friggin’ fortune. We have only one neighborhood in StaBarbaCA that started out with underground everything and it’s a beautiful place to live (‘cept I don’t live there).
We actually just saw one outside our office that looks JUST like that. I said the SAME thing. Sad, sad & sad. You should have to have a license to prune a tree. Period.
Oh, too bad. @GardenWiseGuy had a good response, “what came first, the chicken, the egg, the tree or the power lines?” Wish more education was made readily available to help homeowners choose the right tree. I think the city should replace trees when they install power lines after the fact.
If you can’t cut down the trees around your house then you should contact the companies who have complete equipments the trim down the trees.
I work with a tree service and we see these sort of hack jobs all the time. To be honest, this tree needs be completely removed. Unfortunately, there is very little a homeowner can do to have this tree removed since this tree is located in the city’s right-of-way. That being said, great tips on what to consider before planting a new tree!
Kudos to @gardenwiseguy (chicken,egg, tree or power lines) There are issues about the poor trees. They get the whack job by tree companies to keep the power lines safe. Homeowners want to remove them and tree lovers want them to stay *catch 22* so we get to look at whacked up trees!
Important topic! I live on a corner – on one street the city trees are liquidambar, and on the other street they are sycamore. WHAT a nightmare!!! Every time the city comes to do the cutting for utility lines I run outside like the crazy plant lady and try to direct the cuts, but they never listen to me (of course! It might be my crazy bed-hair that undermines my aura of professionalism). When a city has chosen terrible trees for the streets in your neighborhood, there is practically nothing you can do – even paying for them to be pruned yourself can possibly open you up to fines from the powers that be! Sigh. Unbelievable!!! XOXO!!!
That’s terrible Germi! Our city is getting better about replacing, paying for and planting new trees that are appropriate for under power lines. The trouble arises when new power lines are installed after the fact.
It’s totally a catch 22 Annie! Thanks for stopping by and sending a comment. Best to you!
Wow, this is one of my pet peeves and favorite topics to rant about for sure!.. being an Aesthetic Pruner and Landscape Designer myself.
Ivette, the beautiful area I live in in San Jose – called Willow Glen also has a predominance of Sycamores and Liquidambars…. some of the largest ones right on my property. Sycamores are a year round maintenance nightmare…. especially in the fall.
Definately choosing the right plant for the right place and working with the existing powerlines if they came first is part of the landscape designers opportunity to contribute expertise, or in lieu of that the homeowner’s responsibility.
It kills me inside to see a plant or tree pruned incorrectly. There is so much of this around… as Billy coined the phrase, ‘plant janitors’ have often never learned the correct way to prune, nor is it often in their consciousness that there is any importance to it.
In truth, incorrect pruning, not only is ugly, it is damaging to the tree, opening it up to disease and insect problems down the line.
More education is needed, and people willing to be educated is key to that!
If people are interested in learning about Aesthetic Pruning, we are just forming a new professional organization: ‘Aesthetic Pruners Association’, and have a new Facebook Page all about it with more to come.
Thanks for posting the Jayme! It is an important topic.
Utilities should never need to prune a tree away from power lines. They must do it because so many property owners refuse to take responsibility for selecting proper trees and/or maintaining them as they grow. Then they blame the utility for “prunicide.”
If this homeowner wants an aesthetically-pleasing tree here, they can simply have this one removed and replaced with a new tree in the front yard that can thrive away from the power lines. However, many property owners are not willing to pay for tree work so they wait for the utility to do it at no charge. Would folks prefer utilities be empowered to completely remove these trees instead of pruning them?
Don’t blame the utility for a bad planting decision and 20 years of deferred maintenance by the tree’s owner. Fortunately, community Shade Tree Commissions are now educating residents in many places to prevent this problem down the road.
BTW, opening up the interior of trees like the one shown, and allowing new growth on the sides, is now considered the best management practice for this situation. Unbalanced aesthetically? Yes. Unhealthy for the tree? Not compared to topping!
Was the second photo included as another example of the “problem”? From an urban forestry perspective, it’s a success story. I’m an arborist (I don’t work for a utility) and I’d love to see rows of trees like that shading my town’s streets. If the branches aren’t located directly above the lines, the utility will leave them.
You make some very good arguments Anne. I never would have thought the pruning techniques in the photo were okay for the trees, but after reading your comments, I can see that now. Tree topping is a for sure no-no. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your expertise!
Right plant, right place should be plastered every where in every garden center and nursery, right?! If more people would follow this simple rule, a lot of garden mishaps could be avoided. Thanks for your comments Judy!
my neighbor wanted me to top off my split leaf maple that was planted by my husbands grandmother over 25 years ago when she lived here- just so she could get better satellite reception!!!
she had cornered me (again) when i was late for something and in a hurry and half in my car to ask me that- i looked at her like she’d grown two heads and told her that topping off a tree stopped its upward growth and that That tree was there first before she’d ever moved in. i told her we would be happy to TRIM it and some other hideous diseased giant pine trees in our yard* but no way would i be topping off That tree.. even the satellite guy wanted us to- neither one of them had any idea what topping off the tree would do to it!
*there are tons of very tall very big and half dead pine trees in the community area i live in.. the land lord wont cut them down as they need to be, some are leaning over peoples homes.. we were told that due to how they were growing and so close to the homes it would cost $8000 per tree. there’s 4 in my yard alone- one with in a foot of my house. heck if he’d cut them down long time ago all those split leaf maple seedlings i get from this tree would have taken their place in no time. lol.
What a predicament you are in…about the pine trees that is. I had 3 half dead, full grown birch trees AND a row of 20+ arborvitae taken out for around $600. Are you shrieking yet? This guy was recommended to us from a landscape designer friend. He used to be homeless and started his own business. Kind of cool.
About the neighbor and the satellite guy…I am not surprised. Many people do not put value on plants, curb appeal or mature landscapes. I’ve had numerous contractors totally disregard my plants that have taken 3-5 years to mature. So frustrating!
Prunicide committed on the red cedars at my home, on my property (not on the ROW).
The utility attacked them while I was not home; no notice (even though they had promised previously to do so).
The trees are 70 years old. They grow slow here.
You will note the trees on the left; they were delimbed 3/4 of the way around the trees, from 20 feet up, almost to the top.
The cedars on the right were just unceremoniously topped (worst thing for red cedars) and they’re not topped evenly. They look like a job done by a weekender with a case of beer in hand.
Crooked. Uneven. And the trees have to be removed now because they’re so ugly. If they don’t die first.
200 feet of cedar trees hacked.
The hydro lines went in 35 years ago,almost on my property line, as it turns out (they can do that); according to the legal survey I had done, and according to the municipality I live in.
Their transformer actually sits over my property. THAT is a no no. They can’t do that. They may have to move their pole line.
Hydro manager (higher up) is coming to visit tomorrow.
Here’s a picture, see what you think: http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab171/woodgyft/treeshacked004-1-1.jpg
That is awful Sharon! Topping trees is the worst thing ever. At least the trees in my photo are pruned appropriately, even though it looks hideous.