If your tree or a neighborhood tree is pressing on power lines, you should contact your electrical company immediately to request to have the tree trimmed. Most tree companies strongly advise that you do not do any work around power lines by yourself. However, many electrical companies are backlogged with tree-trimming requests by other concerned customers.

Emergency Situations

In the event of an emergency, you’re strongly advised to contact an arborist who is trained in dealing with trees that are next to power lines to remove the offending branch for you. Otherwise, the combination of unpredictable tree branch behavior and extreme high voltages present too much of a lethal risk to be worth it. Many states also specifically ban trimming trees around a power line without a specific license to do so. Find out the minimum distance from a power line a branch has to be in order for you or an uncertified arborist to trim it.

Some electrical companies will not trim around home service drops, as they are insulated. If you feel like the pressure on your service drop is too great, call the electrical company to disable the electricity to your home temporarily so you can trim around the service drop safely.

1. If your family’s lives are in immediate danger because of a tree branch pressing on power lines, call the electrical company to disable electricity to your home first.

2. Wear protective clothing, such as lineman’s gloves, a non-conductive hardhat, a close-fitting long-sleeved shirt, slip resistant shoes, and non-conductive equipment. Never work with wet or moist equipment, especially in adverse weather.

3. Rope off the surrounding area you’re about to work in to avoid getting bystanders involved, and make sure to cut branches off in a way that allows them to fall away from the power lines. You could also use a pull rope to prevent branches from falling on power lines.

Call In The Professionals

Only in the most dire situations should you ever attempt to prune near a power line by yourself. In the event that your power company cannot trim the tree in time, call a certified arborist, which couldn’t be made any easier by TalkLocal! We will connect you with up to three tree removal professionals in your area, getting you the help you need, when you need it.

This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Tree Removal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.