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Tree planting programs benefit utilities, customers, communities

spring, when a utility’s fancy turns to thoughts of…planting trees. With Arbor Day just around the corner in most states, it’s a good time to recall how much our leafy friends do for us and to look at a few programs Western customers use to keep their communities green.

There are many reasons to plant and protect trees, but most of them fall into one of three categories: beauty, nature and commerce. Obviously, trees are pretty—they sooth us, shelter us and inspire awful poetry. They are also an essential part of a healthy environment. Absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, recharging groundwater, protecting against erosion and providing wildlife habitat are just a few of the purposes trees serve.

The practical advantages of trees range from producing food and fuel to making retail and residential spaces more inviting. Healthy, mature trees can add up to 10 percent to a property's value.

Utility interest in trees lays at the intersection of commercial and environmental benefits. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and can save 20 to 50 percent of energy used for heating. Saving energy decreases peak powerplant demand, while trees help absorb the CO₂ produced by fossil fuel-burning powerplants. It’s no wonder that both the American Public Power Association and the National Arbor Day Foundation encourage utilities to develop strategies for planting and caring for trees in their service areas.

Tree Power gives utilities tools for local action
APPA's award-winning Tree Power program is a nationwide effort by public power utilities to plant trees. While participating in the national Tree Power program, utilities design their own programs based on local resources and needs.

More than 215 APPA members, many Western customers among them, have participated in Tree Power since it began in 1991. Participants receive a kit that includes graphics and communication materials and resource lists for in-depth tree-planting information, including how to implement, promote and fund a tree-planting program. The regularly updated TREE POWER Report offers helpful articles and tips for building programs.

At its annual national conference, APPA awards one active Tree Power member a $2,500 grant to enhance its program, and presents Golden Tree awards to utilities that plant one tree per customer. The list of Western customers that are past Golden Tree winners is a long one. Missouri River Energy Services joined Tree Power in 1992, offering its member co-ops an incentive for each tree planted per electric meter served. By 1999, the MRES program had planted 125,000 trees and earned its Golden Tree.

Nebraska Public Power District received the award for a program that focused on maintaining adequate clearance between trees and electric lines. The pruning, removal and replacement program removed trees that continually interfered with power lines, and replaced them with shorter, slower-growing trees and shrubs wherever possible. “It helped control an expensive and necessary part of providing power while keeping the communities beautiful,” said NPPD Media Specialist Jeanne Schieffer. “We’re looking forward to promoting more planting in the coming year,” she added.

Guidelines and training key to protecting trees, power lines
Abundant, healthy trees sometimes seem to utilities like an obstacle to providing reliable electric service. To show that trees and electric service lines can peacefully co-exist, the National Arbor Day Foundation cosponsors Tree Line USA with the National Association of State Foresters.

To become a Tree Line utility, a power provider must meet three requirements: have a program of quality tree care, provide annual worker training in quality tree care practices, and offer a tree planting and public education program.

To help with the first requirement, the foundation offers two references that recommend best practices. Pruning Trees Near Electric Utility Lines: A Field Pocket Guide For Qualified Line-Clearance Tree Workers and Trenching and Tunneling Near Trees: A Field Pocket Guide for Qualified Workers cover tree care methods from root to branch. “A lot of our electrical system is underground now, and not everyone understands that what you do to the roots can be just as damaging, or more so, than what you take off the top,” said Colorado Springs Utilities’ Restoration Services Section Leader Phil Helvie.

Colorado Springs Utilities has been recognized as a Tree Line USA utility for nine consecutive years. “We make sure that all of our contractors and in-house staff have both guides,” Helvie stated.

Incentives, education encourage public to plant wisely
The tree planting and education component of Tree Line USA gets consumers involved in making wise planting choices that will beautify the community while helping the utility avoid long-term operational costs.
The best way to encourage people to plant trees, most programs recognize, is to give them trees for free or at a reduced cost. Riverside Public Utilities, which participates in both Tree Line USA and Tree Power, issues a bill credit of up to $25 per tree for the purchase of up to five shade trees per year. Sacramento Municipal Utility District delivers healthy trees, stakes, ties and fertilizer at no cost to customers who promise to plant and care for them. When CSU crews remove an obstructing tree or shrub, customers receive a nursery voucher that includes planting.

Programs place a lot of emphasis on planting the right tree in the right place, and replacing varieties that can interfere with power lines. Omaha Public Power District planted an arboretum next to one of its substations to show visitors what different trees look like at different stages. “That way, people can see why they don’t want to plant a sugar maple, for example, near a power line because of the problems that type of tree can present,” explained OPPD Public Information Manager Jeff Hanson. “We also do pruning demonstrations complete with mock lines.”

CSU created a poster for nurseries showing the best trees for planting in areas where utility crews might have to work. Each spring, CSU customers receive a flyer in their bills with pruning and planting advice, and the utility sends a letter to local landscapers reminding them to “look up before planting trees.”

On SMUD and RPU Web sites, customers will find lists of trees that qualify for the utilities’ incentive programs, along with planting and care information. An instructional video, “Planting Your Shade Tree,” is available to SMUD customers participating in the shade tree program. Most programs mentioned here work with area forestry experts to provide technical assistance in positioning and caring for the trees.

Since Tree Line USA is an Arbor Day Foundation program, all Tree Line utilities celebrate Arbor Day in their communities. Power providers may team up with schools, garden clubs or service organizations to sponsor seminars, poster and essay contests and, of course, tree plantings.

Utilities don’t have to participate in Tree Power or Tree Line USA to enjoy the benefits of strategically planted shade trees, however. Both program Web sites give links to resources that would be useful for developing a local program. Nurseries and landscapers may be open to partnerships that bring enthusiastic gardeners in the door, and university cooperative extensions often have planting and pruning information printed and ready to slip into billing statements. So mark Arbor Day on your calendar and take time to hug a tree or, better yet, plant one.