Friday, April 24, 2009

Can trees and utility lines co-exist?


If you've ever cringed when the Entergy truck comes around to trim trees before winter, like I have, you know that trees and power lines aren't a good combination. As homeowners, we want our trees to have a nice shape and enhance our landscape. Entergy wants branches that hang over power lines cut back so they don't bring a line down during a storm and knock out not only your electricity, but all your neighbors', too.

Our house is more than 100 years old, so we didn't plant the trees that loom near power lines. So when Entergy comes around, we fill out the card that tells them we want to be there when they trim. The tree trimmers are given guidelines by Entergy that tell which branches to prune, where, and how far from the line, but I still like to be there to watch out for my trees.

If we were building a house in an area without underground utilities, we'd pay close attention to the graphic you see here. It's provided by Entergy in honor of Arbor Day. By the way, The Arbor Day Foundation has named the folks at Entergy a Tree Line USA utility, noting they follow guidelines on how to prune properly.

No comments:

Post a Comment