Alibaba Stock – Edison’s aggressive tree trimming rankles Mission Viejo neighbors – Orange County Register

Neighbors in Mission Viejo’s Aegean Heights weren’t too concerned when Southern California Edison went door-to-door at the beginning of the month, letting them know that they’d be trimming trees along nearby power lines — “light trimming,” as one resident recalled.

But after hearing the chainsaws, several went out and were stunned to see more than two dozen trees stripped of all branches and leaves, some cut well below the power lines and others 30 feet or more away from those lines.

“Trees that were 100 feet tall are being reduced to five-foot stumps,” said resident Beth Berman said Feb. 17, the week the work was performed.

Her husband, Dan Berman, said the trees — mostly eucalyptus — provided welcome shade to their condos, a noise buffer for the railroad in the ravine below, and visual beauty for the neighborhood.

“They’re absolutely gorgeous,” he said.

In addition to the complaints from neighbors, the contractor — Utility Tree Service — heard from the city Maintenance Operations Manager Jerry Hill.

“He encouraged them to work more with the residents and not leave it all hacked up,” said Mark Chagnon, Mission Viejo’s director of public works. “We just want them to leave it decent for the residents. Nobody wants to look at a hack job.”

Edison didn’t acknowledge wrongdoing.

“The health and well-being of each tree was taken seriously while the branches were pruned to keep them at a safe distance away from the power lines,” said Edison spokesman Reggie Kumar. “We’re looking at the distance of the limbs and branches, not the trunks.”

Asked if the company agreed with residents that the work was overly aggressive, Kumar deferred.

“This is what I can tell you at this time,” he said.

However, Kumar did note, “Representatives with the city of Mission Viejo were at the location monitoring the work.”

Chagnon disputed that characterization, saying that the city had no jurisdiction over the private property being worked on and that city employee Hill simply encouraged the tree surgeons to coordinate better with residents.

“We were certainly not monitoring the work,” Chagnon said.

An apology

In high-risk fire areas, the California Public Utilities Commission recommends vegetation clearances of 12 feet to 30 feet, depending on the voltage of the lines. The previous range of 6.5 feet to 20 feet was increased in 2018 in an effort to reduce the number of wildfires sparked by power lines.

However, Aegean Heights is not a high-risk area.

“In non-high fire risk areas, SCE typically trims to a standard distance of 6 feet or greater,” Kumar said. “However, the standard distance can be adjusted based on safety and reliability factors, such as tree species, the need to remove overhanging branches and other location-specific conditions.”

That doesn’t get Edison off the hook as far as Beth Berman is concerned.

“They gave instructions to come by homes and alert neighbors to ‘light trimming,’ which was not the truth,” she said. “If the hard truth had been shared, we could have had these conversations before the loss of the trees.”

After complaints to the work crew, workers took a more light-handed approach, Dan Berman said.

Walking along the power lines for a mile stretch from La Paz Road to Bart Spendlove Memorial Park, the most aggressive tree trimming appears to stop at the Bermans’ condo complex, with lighter trimming north of there — work done after the the complaints were made. From that point, few if any trees were cut below the height of the power lines.

“When we spoke to the guys who were doing it, they were empathetic,” Dan Berman said. “They said they were originally going to cut them below the level of the lines. The supervisor came by our place afterward and apologized.”

Birds and nests

The now-bare trees clumped near the power lines are surrounded by many healthy, untouched trees in and along the ravine, which leads to Bart Spendlove Memorial Park at the north end of the Aegean Heights neighborhood. The park, which borders the ravine, is among spots highlighted as having particularly good bird watching at ocbirds.com.

Edison contractors were accompanied by a biologist, whose job was to keep an eye out for such wildlife.

“There was a red-shouldered hawk building a nest near this location, which was identified by our biologist on site,” Kumar said. “In accordance with our environmental protocols, the biologist stopped the work and a buffer was created around the nest, and the crew moved to a different location.”

But unlike his conversation with the tree surgeons, Dan Berman’s interaction with the biologist left a bad taste in their mouth.

“I spoke to the biologist and I mentioned a red-tailed hawk I’d seen,” Berman said. “He said he hadn’t seen it and questioned whether I could identify them.”