Arbor Day is Every Day at AUB

 

Media Contact:

Wayne Scarbrough

(423) 745-4501 ext. 6002

wscarbrough@aub.org

April 26, 2018

 

ATHENS — Friday, April 27 is Arbor Day.  It’s a time to celebrate trees, and Athens Utilities Board has a lot of interaction with trees.

 

Trees provide a wealth of good for our community and the world.  The Arbor Day Foundation recognizes Athens as a Tree City and Tennessee Wesleyan University as a Tree Campus.

 

Consider just some of the benefits trees provide:

• Increase property value
• Absorb odors and pollutant gases and in turn create oxygen
• Provide a barrier from harsh winds or a noisy highway
• Provide food sources in the form of fruits and nuts
• Communities can benefit from trees by the way a tree can provide shade to the streets and parks
• Trees even provide storage of rain water through absorption, relieving some stress on municipal storm water systems

 

Even on Arbor Day, however, as the nation celebrates trees and their many benefits, power lines and trees just don’t mix well.

 

“But, that doesn’t mean we don’t love trees,” said AUB’s Ryne Frazier.

 

Frazier, a certified utility arborist, oversees AUB’s vegetation management program, and that includes keeping trees out of power lines.

 

“We have to protect the community’s power lines from trees and we also want to protect trees from power lines and poor trimming practices.  Arbor Day is the perfect time to talk about that,” he said.

 

“We trim trees to eliminate service interruptions, to avoid damaging expensive equipment that all of us pay for through our power bills, and to ensure that the utility meets its responsibility to provide quality power safely and efficiently,” Frazier said.

 

Frazier spends a large portion of his time meeting with customers to talk about why AUB trims trees, the methods used, tree health, and how customers can avoid having their trees trimmed altogether.

 

AUB trims trees according to standards set by the American National Standards Institute, or ANSI.

 

“Our program is based on a three-year cycle that allows us to cover our 550-miles of line fully every three years.

 

“If you live on our system and have trees near AUB lines, I’ll be visiting you at least that often to discuss what we need to do at your property to keep the lines clear and the power flowing to you and your neighbors while properly trimming the tree,” Frazier said.

Call Before You Dig; Look Up Before You Plant

 

Spring is the season for growth and for planting and it’s one of the busiest seasons for Frazier.

 

“Springtime growth pushes the accelerator on our trimming program.  With rain and warm weather tree foliage explodes seemingly overnight, kudzu begins its annual takeover, and sucker growth related to past trims takes off.  We have to stay ahead of all of it,” he said.

 

Not everyone, of course, is happy about tree trimming even when shown the benefits from a power delivery standpoint.

 

But, Frazier says, you can avoid utility pruning with prudent planning and proper planting.  

 

“Every spring I see hard work put in by customers planting long-life hardwoods in their yards, but they plant along roadsides and property lines under or near power lines.  I know in a few years we’ll have to trim them to keep them out of the power lines, and the customer will be unhappy.”

 

“Call before you dig, and look up before you plant,” Frazier recommended.

 

Calling 811 before any digging is a state law.  The call generates orders for utilities to mark underground lines and pipes to avoid dangerous dig-ins by contractors and property owners.

 

“But by also looking up before you plant, you may realize just how close the tree will be to power lines in two, five, or ten years depending on the species of tree.  At full maturity, tree limbs need to be at least 10 feet away from power lines,” he said.

 

Some tree species are fast growing, some slow growing.  Some grow very tall, such as oaks and poplars, while others such as dogwoods and redbuds top out at 15 to 25 feet.

 

“No tree species should be planted directly under a power line.  Those will eventually have to be removed or trimmed so drastically that they are unattractive or unhealthy,” Frazier said.

 

Low growing trees with a maximum maturity of 25 feet can be planted adjacent to the overhead lines, but be aware of how large the canopy will be at maturity and choose your planting location with that in mind, he said.

 

A few examples of low growing trees include:

• Japanese maple
• Armur maple
• Apple serviceberry
• Eastern redbud
• Oklahoma redbud
• Kousa dogwood
• American smoke tree
• Sargent crabapple
• Little gem magnolia

 

Trees that grow taller should be planted farther away from overhead lines, keeping in mind their crown size at maturity.  Examples include:

• Leyland cypress
• Pines
• Mimosa
• Ailanthus
• Oaks
• Tulip Poplar
• Sycamore

 

“And don’t forget about underground utility lines,” Frazier said.  “Tree roots can cause problems with these as well.”

 

If you have underground power and a pad-mount transformer, make sure no trees, bushes or shrubs are planted too nearby.  Trees should be planted a minimum of 10 feet from any pad mount transformer.  The root system of a tree can cause as much damage underground as limbs growing into an overhead line.

 

Frazier said a common request that AUB gets is to “round over” a customer’s tree after the line clearing has been performed.

 

“We don’t do that for two reasons,” he explained.

 

“First, when you think about it, my role at AUB is not really the tree trimming business.  It’s the power-line clearing business,” he said.

 

“We trim trees to clear them from power lines, not for aesthetic reasons.  Our right of way trimming is done for the ratepayers at large, paid for by the ratepayers at large to keep the community power system on.

 

“We have no right of way or interest in trimming parts of a tree that have nothing to do with the power lines.  Trimming the back side of the tree would be spending ratepayer money to perform private work for an individual, and that is not the right thing to do with ratepayer money,” he said.

 

“Second, topping or rounding over a tree terrible for the tree’s health and is an unacceptable practice in the arboricultural world.  Rounding over can weaken or even kill some tree species.   Though used often to reduce the size of large canopy trees or simply to ‘balance it out,’ rounding over is a poor practice that should be avoided,” he said.

 

From providing shade that cools our homes, thereby reducing summer cooling bills, to producing the oxygen we breathe and fruits and nuts we eat, trees are something to celebrate this Arbor Day.

 

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