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Shade trees vs. power lines Pacific Power clashes with landowners over vegetation management By MELISSA MARTIN When Rachel and Wendell McCormick walk out their back door, they see a shady grove of black oak, a berry-laden madrone offering food for the birds and a lodgepole pine displaying its greenery. But when a Pacific Power forester looks at the McCormicks' back yard, he sees danger - trees growing too close to the transmission lines that energize the Rogue Valley. The McCormicks object to Pacific Power's vegetation management plan for the east Medford foothills. The plan calls for cutting trees behind the McCormick home, which is situated next to transmission lines. The lines, on an easement on the McCormicks' property, carry power from coal-fired plants in Wyoming to White City, Sams Valley, Eagle Point, Prospect, Fish Lake and beyond. Another set behind the McCormick home carries electricity from hydroelectric plants in Prospect, Lost Creek and Eagle Point to a line called the Meridian, the main line that connects into the power grid that supplies the western United States. "Those lines are critical," said Bill Harrington, Pacific Power senior area forester and vegetation manager. As homes are built higher up the north flank of Roxy Ann Peak, there are more clashes between urban and rural land uses, he said. City dwellers may be accustomed to cropped trees beneath power lines, but foothill residents are not. "We don't object to them trimming the trees - it's the cutting down of hundreds of trees we're concerned about," said Rachel McCormick, whose home may be the closest dwelling to the five energy highways that crisscross Roxy Ann Peak. "Those lines have been there more than 40 years and they've never had a problem yet," she said. She points out an evergreen a few yards from her home that Pacific Power tagged for removal. "My husband planted that tree so we'd have something green to look at when we walk out this door," she said. The lodgepole pine, however, is one of many fast-growing species that Pacific Power doesn't allow beneath its transmission lines. Trees, which are good conductors because they contain water, don't have to be touching the lines to create an arc that could spark a fire or cause an outage, said Monte Mendenhall, regional community manager. "Electricity can do strange things," Mendenhall said. Trees are the number one cause of outages, Harrington said. Pacific Power spends $30 million a year for its vegetation program in six states. But if Pacific Power cuts trees on the north flank of Roxy Ann, it will impact creature habitat, said Wendell McCormick. "I call this my wilderness," he said, pointing down the transmission-line easement. "This is all animal habitat. We've counted dozens of quail that live in the bushes, and deer. We've seen wild turkeys, coyotes and bobcat. If the tree trimmers arrive, this will all be bare land as far as we can see." Animals that live in low-growing vegetation would still have homes under Pacific Power's management plan for the Medford foothills, Harrington said. It's the trees - not the short brush -that create the hazard. A limb on a line in town could darken hundreds of houses, but a tree causing an arc in the transmission lines on Roxy Ann could create a power outage for 104,000 customers in Jackson and Josephine counties, Mendenhall said. "This is a critical coordinate providing energy to Southern Oregon and Northern California, from Medford to Mount Shasta -everything comes out of this hub," Mendenhall said. "A tree on the line can have great ramifications." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail mmartin@mailtribune.com |
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