When Jimmy and Barbara Wilson and their family moved into their home on Church Avenue they found a picture of the house taken, they believe, in 1923. The road passing the house was unpaved and a sidewalk stretched along the curb. Beyond the sidewalk, a young pecan tree grew.The road has long been paved and the sidewalk, which once provided an additional buffer between the yard and street, is gone, but the tree and its two siblings are still growing in front of the house, a problem for Alabama Power since they are growing into the power lines. Last Thursday, a crew was sent to remove the trees only to have Barbara refuse to allow it.
“We just were startled when they said, ‘We’re here to take these three big trees down today,’ she said. “I said, ‘No, you’re not taking those three big trees down.’ We thought they were here to tell us they were here to trim the trees again like they always did.”
A petition now sits on a table beside her driveway, along with a sign urging people to sign the petition in hopes of saving the trees. Friends are circulating two other petitions around town.
Without the trees, the front of the house will have little to no shade, making it uncomfortable to sit outside and watch people pass by their door, something the couple enjoys.
Alabama Power has offered to replace the trees once they are cut down, something they offer to everyone who loses trees during their annual maintenance cycles.
According to Buddy Eiland, Alabama Power’s Public Information Representative for the Eastern division, which includes Calhoun County, the most important factor behind the annual trimming and cutting is safety.
“A kid can climb that tree if it’s under there that close, whether we trim that tree or not a kid can climb that tree and get up into the lines,” said Eiland. “That is the primary thing that is driving what we are doing.”
In addition to safety, tree limbs growing into lines can disrupt power, causing short interruptions, or faults, in the power supply just by brushing against a line when wet.
The Alabama Public Service Commission hears many complaints about those disruptions each year and they use their position as a go-between for Alabama residents and utility companies to pressure Alabama Power to constantly improve its reliability.
“We bring a lot of pressure to bear on Alabama Power to provide very reliable service and to have a minimum number of outages and to repair those outages quickly,” said David Roundtree, spokesman for the Public Service Commission, adding that many outage complaints the commission hears come from heavily treed areas.
Burford’s Tree Surgeons, Inc. is doing much of the work in Jacksonville. As with every contractor used by Alabama Power, they are given specific guidelines to follow when choosing which trees are cut and which to trim.
“In Jacksonville we’re not cutting very many trees, especially compared to other areas. We’re going through and we’re trying to get 15 feet of clearance on either side of the conductors,” said Eiland. “The large trees or anything that is large enough to grow up into that line, we’re cutting.”
The only exception to the rule is for ornamental trees, which will never grow large enough to be a problem for the power lines.
The contractors are also required to have certified arborists on staff. Burford’s has four employees in its Anniston office registered as certified arborists with the International Society of Arboriculture.
The Wilsons’ pecan trees are scheduled to be cut down July 9, but they hope to achieve a compromise with Alabama Power to only trim the trees, something the power company has done each year as long as Barbara can remember.
