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A big December snowstorm five years ago touched off a flurry of power outages and fierce criticism of the power company. Today, Rocky Mountain Power ran head-on into more criticism because of a tough tree policy it adopted after the storm of 2003.
Rocky Mountain Power admits it's cracked down on trees near power lines in the last five years for safety and reliability reasons, but critics who love their trees say it shows how powerless the little guy is against the power company.
Rocky Mountain has started cutting down trees by the dozens in Tremonton. More than 100 eventually will come down. Treemonton resident Carrie Kerr said, "We love the trees, and it leaves us bare."
Seventeen of the trees run right along the front of Duane and Carrie Kerr's home. "For 40 years we've been planting trees on this lot, planted hundreds of trees," Duane said.
But there's also a big 46,000-volt power line and a power company determined to keep it separated from tree limbs.
Dave Eskelsen, with Rocky Mountain Power, said, "If a tree touches a power line, it's electrically conductive. And also, if a branch falls and interrupts a line of that size, it can interrupt service for a lot of people."
Residents wonder why the power company changed gears after trimming the trees regularly over the years.
Lynn Stander said, "They didn't want to trim anymore. They want to just cut them all down. ‘Destroy' them is the word they used.'"
Rocky Mountain Power says the risk is too high, as was proven when tree limbs dragged down numerous power lines in the snowstorm of 2003.
"We are taking a much more strict attitude. This is part of that process that's been going on for several years," Eskelsen said.
Residents say many trees may be underneath, but they're not even close to the power lines.
"It's kind of a power struggle to show they have the power over us, and we don't have the rights that we thought we did," Stander said.
But the company says electricity can jump that far from a high voltage power line to tree limbs. "Because of the safety issue and the system reliability issue, it's absolutely necessary," Eskelsen said.
Some angry residents believe the whole thing is spurred by the company's desire to save money by doing less tree trimming. Rocky Mountain Power says it will tolerate tree species that stay small, and it even offered to help residents buy them.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
