Clearly the caller to the MEC was not in the ranks of "tree huggers" who have long been trying to devise ways to prevent trees from being cut, or she would have known that even if the impact of a cut is severe on neighbors, property rights most often allow it. It was probably the first time this and other callers who contacted the MEC about PGandE's vegetation management service expressed concern about trees being cut.
A PGandE spokesperson for the program informed me that the best way to deal with "intrusive trees" was to cut them down. Intrusive means growing close to electric power lines. They have contracted with a consulting firm to survey the county to determine where work needs to be done. Davey Trees will do the trimming/cutting. They must, of course, obtain the property owners' permission before taking a tree out. In the case of the concerned woman mentioned above, the neighbor gave permission, and then after seeing the result, regretted it.
Then came an unsolicited call from someone working within the program who was equally concerned about PGandE's practices. The utility company pressures its contractors to remove trees, not just trim them. Property owners are encouraged to allow the cuts with promises of replacement trees. However PGandE doesn't pay for these replacements; that is left to a non-profit tree planting group which doesn't have the financial resources to replace all the trees which become victims of PGandE's hired blades.
According to this source, there can be problems when trees are just trimmed. Disease can pass from one tree to the next by the saw blade, and property owners have complained about trees dying after PGandE trimming. Saw blades should be wiped with bleach between trees, but often aren't.
Several calls to PGandE regarding this issue were not returned.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1998
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited