California Arbor Day is being recognized this week (March 7-14) to highlight the importance of trees to communities for keeping homes cool by providing shade, for improving air quality, for enhancing property values, and for beautifying residential and commercial neighborhoods.
To celebrate California Arbor Day, Kelly Frederickson, of PG&E’s Vegetation Management department, engaged students at Bidwell Elementary School in Red Bluff in a discussion about tree planting, care and safety. “There are right kinds of trees to plant under power lines and some not so much,” Frederickson said. The discussion included a table-top model demonstration of what happens when a tree falls into a power line, the Red Bluff Daily News reported.
In Bakersfield, PG&E encouraged residents to call 811 before planting trees or landscaping to have underground power lines and other utilities marked, the Bakersfield Californian reported. Other safety tips from PG&E included:
- Only plant a tree under power lines if it will grow to less than 25 feet at maturity near distribution lines. (This information is available at your local nursery.)
- When planting near transmission lines, only use low-growing plants.
- Keep all trees, equipment and people at least 10 feet away from high-voltage electric power lines.
- PG&E should be notified if a tree grows closer than 10 feet to a power line. Call 1-800-PGE-5000.
- For more information on trees and vegetation, email a request to PG&E’s RightTreeRightPlace@pge.com.
PG&E has been named a Tree Line USA Utility for the 17th time by the Arbor Day Foundation in recognition of the utility’s national leadership in caring for and protecting trees. In a note to PG&E Chairman Peter Darbee, the Arbor Day Foundation cited PG&E for “training your workers in quality tree-care practices, educating the public about planting trees for energy conservation and helping your customers to plant appropriate trees near utility lines.”