If Metro wants to bring any of the city’s discordant neighborhoods together, it couldn’t do much better than to send out a Nashville Electric Service (NES)tree trimming crew. There’s nothing quite like the sight of disfigured, mangled trees to unite an otherwise polarized group of neighbors, inclined to quarrel over zoning overlays, lawn care and barking dogs. As NES contracts with crews for the second year of its so-called “vegetation management program,” many neighbors are bracing themselves for the hardwood version of “shock and awe.” And some might even be packing heat.
“Their reputation sucks, and were they to trim the trees at my house, I’d greet them with a gun,” says the otherwise mild-mannered Beth Flood, a landscape designer for Bates Nursery and resident of the leafy Richland Park neighborhood. “I’ve seen so many really, really bad examples of tree trimming by people contracted by the electric company. Right behind my house, they trimmed a group of dogwood trees so that they looked like a stack of broccoli.”
NES is a utility (not a landscaping company), whose primary obligation is to maintain its power lines—and this priority is, unfortunately, patently clear. But what’s also clear is that Nashville has too many trees causing too many power outages. According to a recent study by an environmental consulting firm, Nashville has the highest number of tree-caused outages per 100 miles of line than any of the 110 utilities studied to date. What this means is that, unless Nashvillians want to lose power every time the wind blows, they’re going to have to put up with some tree trimming.
For years, as it tried to balance a tight budget, NES skimped on its vegetation management. While the industry standard holds that utilities should clear vegetation away from its power lines every three to five years, there are some neighborhoods in Nashville that have gone a decade with unbridled tree growth around power lines. That might save money in the short run, but as the study confirmed, it can lead to power outages and more costly trimming later. Now the utility is finally playing catch-up, making a noticeable impression (if not necessarily a good one) on the neighborhoods it has visited so far. In the 1997-1998 fiscal year, NES spent less than $5 million on tree trimming. In the last year, it has spent more than $12 million.
“We try to keep rates as low as we can, but when your revenues don’t meet your budget, you look at areas where you can cut,” says NES spokesman Tim Hill, who says that future tree trimming won’t be as drastic as it is during this catch-up period. “You do that over a period of years, and you can get behind very quickly.”
Local arborists give NES-contracted crews mixed reviews. “Under the scenario they’re trying to work in—trying to maintain line clearance—there’s only so much they can do,” says Jim LaBerge, a certified arborist with Golden Rule Tree Service. “When I’m out there, my interest is the tree. Their interest is the wire.”
But Jason Kennedy, a certified arborist with Quality Tree Surgery, says that the tree trimmers can still clear room for electric wires without mangling trees. “What they don’t understand is tree physiology, so when they do their lateral pruning, they’re not making the right cuts. That’s why your trees look like hell.”
To those not particularly well versed on the intricacies of lateral pruning, Kennedy explains that errant crews often make what are called flush cuts. That’s when the whole branch is chopped away, including the collar, which draws into the trunk of the tree. The collar holds the healing tissue to mend the wound, so when it’s cut too, the tree will suffer. “You’re talking about a half an inch in your cut, but it means all the difference in the world to the tree,” Kennedy explains.
Sometimes, NES contract crews have no choice but to fell trees that are (or soon will be) hopelessly entangled with electric wires. Often, however, NES is actually too interested in saving trees, chopping them up and turning them into freakish looking hat racks, with each branch the same shape and size. “They are pruning trees that should be removed,” Kennedy says. “And leaving behind a problem tree later.”
Flood, who, in addition to being very protective of trees, has also written about gardening for the Scene and other publications, agrees that some trees can’t be saved. “The crews are trying to adjust a tree that can and will grow 60 feet high so that it can live under a wire that is 30 feet high, and there’s no way they can do that without butchering the tree. They should just take the damn tree out.” (Many times, however, residents think that the utility has left them with a skeletal tree, when, in fact, it has eventual plans to take the whole thing down. When NES has designs on removing a tree, the crews will trim the branches first, then return a few days later with a separate crew to remove the remainder.)
NES says that its crews follow guidelines established by the International Society of Arboriculuture—the goals being to protect the tree and allow for enough clearance for limb and lines. The utility has certified arborists on staff who oversee the program, but they aren’t present at every site. And, most importantly, the guys in the bucket receive some training, but they aren’t certified arborists themselves.
Whatever complaints people may have, the utility has been open about its vegetation management program. It has held informational meetings for Metro Council members and has hosted several open houses in neighborhoods across the city—from East Nashville to Brentwood. Most of those meetings were sparsely attended, because, for the most part, tree trimming isn’t one of those issues that’s particularly interesting in the abstract. Only when people come home to find their neighborhood trees looking like they were imported from the set of Pet Sematary do they get interested.
“As soon as people start getting notices that trees are coming down or will be trimmed, it’s going to be a hot issue because of all the trees we already lost in the tornado,” says Kristina Wait, a candidate for the District 6 Metro Council seat in the Aug. 7 election and president of Historic Edgefield. NES crews will be visiting her neighborhood soon. “The issue of the day right now is property theft, but as soon as trees start coming down, that will be what everybody’s talking about.”
What residents may not know is that they have some options. First, customers in affected neighborhoods will receive letters informing them when and why tree trimming is set to launch in their area. A week or so later, before the work begins, NES will dispatch work planners to meet with individual homeowners who request it. Homeowners also have the right to pay for certified arborists to remove or prune trees and even oversee the trimming crews. And if NES plans to remove a tree on a private lot, it will look into planting a lower-growing tree if the homeowner wants one.
Council member Ginger Hausser, whose Hillsboro Village district is currently being besieged by tree trimming crews, is impressed so far with the utility’s more open approach. “Compared to how they used to do tree trimming, when they just showed up at your door step and your trees were already trimmed, at least now they notify you beforehand and you have opportunities to negotiate.”
Even the rifle-toting Beth Flood sees some positive signs, noting that the utility did a “beautiful job” on an area it recently trimmed. But she’s not quite ready to discard her cynicism. “They say that if there’s a problem, call the tree company, but usually it’s too late,” she says. “You can’t glue the tree together. You have to discuss this before the first saw starts.”
