How'd it go today?

squisher said:
Yah a ROW contractor up here would never do all that extra hacking for free. It'd be get the specified clearance and move onto the next span. If a homeowner wanted that kind of additional hacking someone would have to pay for it.
Click to expand...

In Minot we oftn got Wright to remove trees down to th wires in tight situations, we cleaned up with the BC 2000. These were city trees many times with DED that we replaced with short varieties or left open. Utility liked the idea of not dealing with them every couple of years.
 
And here too the utility will cover removals of repeat offender trees and they'll cover hacking the crap out of trees over and over that threaten their lines but no one that I'm aware of wood be covering just all around extra hacking because the homeowner wants more cutting done. I've never seen ROW/clearance work done like those pics. I've seen trees hacked all to hell in the name of clearance but never much more than needs to be done.
 
squisher said:
Peter wouldn't a contract like this be put out to bid? If not that's totally different than how it works here.

Here it would be a bid contract with clearly defined parameters. Any kind of over cutting like that you for one wouldn't be able to charge more for, it would be a set bid price. And two could probably land you in some hot water unless you could prove it was a privately owned tree and they'd agreed to the work.
Click to expand...

Davey has the municipal contract for, I think, at least a year. They get paid by the day. If there is a approach issue with a HO contacting me sometimes Davey will top or clear part of the tree, and then I'd complete the job, or often will take the entire tree down.
 
I want to thank each of you for the fantastic input on this topic. I've seen comments offering valuable opinions on what happened with these trees, to include utility workers using company trucks and equipment to make extra money working on the side. I've read comments dealing with how these situations are normally handled in most other municipalities around the nation, and even some comments dealing with the replacement of a tree when trimmed to the point that the tree is no longer capable of sustaining itself. I also see many comments related to a two-stage take-down in the works. I tend to agree with many of these viewpoints.

As an investigator in this 'crime' against nature, I'm finding it very difficult to get the whole truth. I get the feeling that some of the people involved have been very honest with me, but I can't be sure of that. I'm simply approaching this from the standpoint that I can easily see that the work was not performed properly, and that a whole lot of trees were needlessly put to death. I plan to leave it up to the Board of Directors at Northern Plains Electric to see to it that these violations come to a quick end. It's too late to save the trees that have already been lost to this activity, but it's not too late to take action to prevent further destruction.

My next goal is to present a well-organized and detailed proposal to the Board, encouraging them to adopt a tree replacement program. Obviously we don't want to plant a tree in the same site from which it was removed. Instead, I'd like to see a replacement tree planted at the nursing home, or at the hospital.......in a location well away from any power lines. There are many good locations available for trees in my community. I have hundreds of suitable sites available, and for trees of all sizes.

In addition to this, I plan to make it very clear to the Board of Directors that the City of Cando, as well as other municipalities in North Dakota, is currently working to take preemptive measures against an expected invasion of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). Selected ash trees may designated for removal in an effort to get a jump on the reforesting process ahead of a massive removal project that we soon expect to take place. We may be able to work together to begin removing ash trees that are near power lines, whether or not those trees need to be pruned extensively for clearance operations.

While visiting with the Board of Directors, I plan to ask a few questions pertaining to the training that the utility workers receive prior to taking the clearance operation jobs. I want to know if the utility workers are trained according to the ANSI A-300 pruning standards that apply to utility workers.

Many thanks again, folks. I truly appreciate your opinions, observations, and the valuable input. All of this will be valuable to me when making my presentation to the Board of Directors.

Joel
 
Raj said:
Davey has the municipal contract for, I think, at least a year. They get paid by the day. If there is a approach issue with a HO contacting me sometimes Davey will top or clear part of the tree, and then I'd complete the job, or often will take the entire tree down.
Click to expand...

So your municipality owns the power lines? Here in BC, bc hydro or fortis owns the lines and contracts out the work. So there do you pay your power bill to the municipality and they are the ones actually supplying power? A quick Google shows that it looks like it's the same there as here.

Here an approved contractor might be handed a small job here or there but it still wouldn't be up to their discretion to do a bunch extra and charge a bunch more.

Locally here it's bc hydro and they have their arborist on staff.
 
Squisher,

First off, our electrical utility lines are owned and operated by the utility company. In this case, Northern Plains Electric Cooperative. They have their own crews who perform the tree work and line clearance duties.

In this particular case, it appears as though the homeowners were approached and told that their trees would be pruned to allow a mandated clearance distance from the overhead power lines. The homeowners then requested the utility company to prune the whole tree "while you're up there". The utility workers agreed to prune the entire tree, at the homeowner's request. There was no additional charge. The utility crew did the work for nothing.

Through some investigative work, I may have found the root of the problem. I can't be positive on this yet, as I don't have all the facts in hand, but it seems that the power company does not employ a certified arborist and possibly does not send their clearance crews to pruning schools, or hold educational seminars related to this type of thing. I'm working on getting all of the information together before making any further suggestions or comments related to the tree work in question, as I don't want to make any enemies, or insult anyone who might be employed in the utility's training department.

Tip-toeing through the process, for fear of tipping the boiling pot, causes the fact-finding mission to take a whole lot more time than it really should, but I have confidence that I'll eventually find a solution that will keep everyone happy.

Joel
 
Received this in the mail today, be hard pressed to help myself in a real life senerio but plenty of real life scenes where it could really matter.
9085dcad6223ef99b0466040661f335b.jpg
 
Yup, Brantford Power is who supplies in the city. Brant County Power supplies to the rest of the county.

Norfolk power was just bought by Hydro one.
 
Looks, good, Joel....the knowledge alone may help keep you safer, just knowing how difficult a rescue might be...someone, someday may benefit directly.
 
Raj said:
Yup, Brantford Power is who supplies in the city. Brant County Power supplies to the rest of the county.

Norfolk power was just bought by Hydro one.
Click to expand...

Hmm. You guys are all ass-backwards back east I tells yah. :P

Joel, the whole thing does seem like a bit of a nightmare to sort out. Good on yah for speaking for the trees.

Other Joel. Congrats!
 
Today was another wonderful day in the life of a logger. Knee deep mud, falling trees on ice, falling through the ice and wading back out. Bad thing is its too deep for hip boots and too many thorns for my chest waders.
On another note what are your thoughts on running 404 vs 3/8 chain
 
I had a good smile today when the Operations Manager at the local utility asked me what my qualifications are when it comes to tree work. Ummmm......me thinks he was asking this of the wrong person. Better, I think, to ask the guy who's in the bucket running his chain saws........but what do I know?

I'm not sure I like government office, but I'm not one to quit easily.

Joel
 
timbertramp said:
Today was another wonderful day in the life of a logger. Knee deep mud, falling trees on ice, falling through the ice and wading back out. Bad thing is its too deep for hip boots and too many thorns for my chest waders.
On another note what are your thoughts on running 404 vs 3/8 chain
Click to expand...

I have no opinion on the chain thing, but I feel your pain otherwise.
 
timbertramp said:
Today was another wonderful day in the life of a logger. Knee deep mud, falling trees on ice, falling through the ice and wading back out. Bad thing is its too deep for hip boots and too many thorns for my chest waders.
On another note what are your thoughts on running 404 vs 3/8 chain
Click to expand...


I cut the last beech of this logging season today.
Because the climate change has turned winter into a muddy nightmare here, we are switching to summer logging a lot of stuff.
So we are 1½ monts short of a full logging season now.
That hurts!

As for the 404 I can't help you.
That size never really caught on in Europe, except for the earliest years of chain saw logging.
It is all 3/8 here.
 
The reason I'm wondering about the 404 chain is because my eyes are getting bad at song the smaller teeth. But I don't know how good it bores
 
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