line clearance=easy target

speelyei

speelyei

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I worked in line clearance for a few years. I often had to explain cuts, procedures, and specs to an uninformed and hostile public. At the recent TCI expo in Detroit, I heard the same kind of criticism and ridicule of line clearance trimmers I heard when I worked for the private tree services. Even on this thread BigJon says "most Asplundh employees can't climb".
Some of the best trimmers I ever worked with were at Asplundh. Guys who had their Arborist cert despite no recognition or re-imbursement for the company, guys who could piece out a 220' cottonwood over transmission lines with underbuild, like it was no big deal. Sure, some of their employees couldn't climb, but everybody worked hard. I thought I knew how to run a bucket before my apprenticeship....
Anybody who's worked in the field knows line clearance is a whole other ballgame. You have to trim to specs, and tree health and appearance is sometimes secondary. If I have to see another arborist with his nose in the air, preening like a peacock, enough gear on his harness to climb El Cap, slamming line clearance trimmers, I'm going to puke. If these guys know so much about it, why don't they bid on the contracts? Go ahead, show me how to properly trim a 75 year old Big Leaf Maple directly under the 3 phase so that it holds for three years and looks like a showpiece......
 
Speelyei,

Valid points. The line clearance workers are in a tough place The public doesn't want you on their property and feel that you are stepping on their rights, the wires are hot and staring you in the face all day long, your working on trees that have been trimmed by many people in the past (which have had different specs to work from) and then you get criticized (sometimes) by the foreman for working too neatly or cutting too much for the clean-up crews. Not easy.

The worst I ever had was doing transmission work in the rough terrain as a third party. The problem that we had was having to pass specs for the electric company AND the contractor. To top it all off, they decided that they wanted 25' clearance where they'd been getting 15' for decades. Talk about scalping! We decided to remove any trees that would need to be side trimmed by 50%>.

The problem regarding professionalism in some areas is that there is a high turn over rate. This means that there are "newbies" up in the trees that might not know what a branch collar is. I've seen plenty of "here's 6' of clearance" heading cuts when the collar was only another 2' further. Too bad when everyone gets lumped into that category.
 
Speelyei,

Thanks for contributing in such a professional manner. I agree, too often line-clearance work gets hammered pretty hard. Too often us in commercial/residential work forget that the wires and the utility are your customer, not the trees. Line clearance work is almost always visible too. Hard to soften the edges on a v-out or side prune. Too many shiners.

With the turnover I can't even comprehend how the big boys make it through a week. I'm having a hard time doing training with our crews and we haven't put a new person in a saddle since last spring. Hard to balance production with training.

Keep up the good work. I like my juice clean and ready to go when I flip the switch :)

Tom
 
This is a tough reply, but here it goes. As a non-utility Arborist, I respect what you guys do. Working around wires everyday,... dealing with the hazards of traffic control (something I know too well) ...and pruning to specs with disregard to the trees overall asthetic appeal. I could not do it everyday for sure. I don't even like changing a light bulb, let alone working around wires everyday. I don't question the ability of a utility Arborist. Many times we have to call on them to remove a tree that is out of our legal boundaries. I wouldn't question the overall courage of these guys either. I've seen some gnarly things made happen by a utility guy (although I turned away). Utility guys have as much sack, if not more, than your private Arborist.

I guess IT'S the stereotype that has plagued the utility Arborist for years. The final product looks like hell from even a person that has limited knowledge of tree biology. I think that more education is needed in the industry and the people that are willing to absorb that info and practice good arboriculture, should be compensated accordingly.

Stubs, dogears, 8" branches cut back to a 1" sucker, skitter chain saw marks on the bark,....etc... It all drives me nuts.
 
It is certainly true that there are trimmers out there who use the specs as an excuse to be hacks, but I think those guys' days are numbered. The increased knowledge of the public, increased training of other employees, and the ISA's efforts have boosted awareness and professionalism all around.
I know that I was openly critical of "journeyman" with sloppy work habits and a poor work ethic, and so were a lot of people I worked with. In general most clearance trimmers I worked with worked hard to balance productivity, tree health/appearance, and maintain reliable electric service. I've got a few pics around, I'll try to get them scanned in.
By the way, when I got a direct request from the utility forester to round-over, top, v-trim, etc, I knew it sucked. I wasn't proud of the way the finished product looked often, but that's the job.....
I often wonder why the red in the face home-owner or tree-amnesty activist didn't work harder to avoid a powerline/tree conflict through education, proper species choice, or transplanting efforts...They always have energy to scream, never to pick up a shovel...
 
Tom, You said "hard to balance production with training"...wow, is that ever true, at least at my company. Do you or Mark or anybody else out there have any particular philosophy or approach to that subject? Good post by the way..
 
Transmission poles, with the trans lines oriented vertically, with distribution lines mounted on cross arms below, horizontally.
 
"Clearance not appearance"
There seems to be a lot of issues with utility work lately. The price of power is going up, goverment run power corps are becoming a thing of the past, and our dependance and hunger for electricity is growing exponentially. Money hungry corporations are more concerned about profit than they are about reliablity. Can anyone say "blackout"?

In my experience, the first budget to get cut at a power company is usually foresty. Why, because its easy to. So what does a power company like to do...contract it out. Contractors are cheaper and a lot of times the power company isn't really concerned about quality. Company officials see trees getting trimmed and power staying on so everything must be OK. A lot of times too the company officials have no idea what proper trimming looks like so how could they judge it. Contractors have a hard time keeping people for a lot of reasons. One of them being job security. Who's going to stay with a contracting company if they cannot guarantee them a steady, long-term job? So as a contractor, why would you invest training into somebody that won't be sticking around? Oh, did I mention that training costs money.

I'm not saying all contractors are hacks but until quality control improves its always going to come down to the bottom line$ Hey, they're out there to make money too you know.

Later
Dave
 
Bell Canada hires a general contractor to hack trees here.
One day they might be digging a pit and the next day they're trimming trees and it looks like hell when they're done.
The contractor and the company don't know any different, they don't care and you can't tell them.
 
Very well written post, Speelyea (i.e. your 11/17/04 post). I've read some of your other posts throughout this site and I wasn't quite sure if you were a testosterone ladin adrenaline junkie or a professional - I'm leaning towards the professional.

As professional utility arborists, it is our duty to suffer the ingnorance of the public, including accountants, and educate them. Proper pruning techniques are not for aesthetic reasons, they insure the health and vigor of the remaining tree. Poor practices lead to excessive decay and structural deficencies that will years later cost a utility in an overtime outage/restoration. With just one pole replacement averaging $3000, one flush cut can cost a utility as much as trimming an entire mile of ROW.

You spoke of "tree activists" and that's what we need to be. Get yourself on a planning board or landscape commission or just sit in on these to voice what is right until they evolve. It takes years and lots of patience, but they do come around. You'll be amazed when the same red-faced HO that peeled your ass three years ago does the same to a bobble-headed politican when they suggest something contrary to what you've taught them. It is most rewarding.

And yes, I do spend more of my time with a shovel in my hand than I do a stick saw.
 
so why is it that line clearance tree trimmers bash arborist. I'm new to the industry I went to a ACRT Urban Tree Worker Program In Golconda Il and went thru alot of field instrutcors it made me sick . Myself I like both I plan on getting my ISA cert and my EHPA and my ACRT certs. so what is the big deal we should all just get along and do the job because no matter what its all dangerous. Ps my two favorite field instrutors are eric raven and Ray felt.
 
I'm glad to read from some guys that care about this aspect of our business. As a Foreman, I spend most of my time trying to get the crew to realize the tree should continue living (healthy)after they have trimmed it, and calming down property owners.
I do have to say that the Consumers Energy Foresters we work for here in MI are knowledgable and intelligent in their choices and in dealing with irate homeowners. I have had the pleasure of working closely with them on both distribution and transmission lines and have actually learned a great deal from being involved with the conversations they have had with Customers about trimming to be done on their property.
As for the Production vs looks vs time issue I run with safety - quality - quantity in that order. and insist my crew does the same.
 
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