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When we talked with the PG&E customer support office, they assured us that no trees would be cut down without explicit approval from owners, and that we could remove the ‘X’ from the trees if we register our refusal. We removed the ‘X’ using a simple wire brush and chisel — just took a few minutes.
I too have a fear that their tree removal crew will operate with different marching orders. After all, no one I’ve heard from has had PG&E contact them for approval, so we’re also putting notes on our at risk trees saying not to remove. I do agree that PG&E’s customer service department has been excellent.
Well I did a quick trip up to Arnold this past weekend and PG & E has marked yet one more tree in front of my cabin! Biggest tree on my lot, very healthy and no sign of dying. Tree is about 20 feet from lines!
I called again and they claim no tress will be removed without me taking to them first. My guess is I will come up and just find them cut down and I’ll get an apology after the fact.I happened to be at our cabin a number of weeks ago when the PG&E inspection crew came through. I spoke to the crew captain, and he said that all of our trees by the street were fine. But yesterday I arrived to find a big yellow “X” on a large healthy fir tree that provides welcome privacy. It does not appear to have any dead limbs or limbs that are near the utility lines.
So this morning I called the number posted below and left a voicemail. I got a return call within a half hour (they had to leave a voicemail), and when I called back I got a live person, who had a record of both calls and voicemails. (I’ll say this: they do have a good customer contact/records system.)
The PG&E rep said that on a second inspection, an arborist had decided to tag my tree. She said they can tag trees even if no branches are within 12′ of the lines (the normal rule of thumb) and even if the tree shows no signs of disease, if the arborist concludes that the tree is “likely to die in the future”. (Imagine if my doctor used that criterion!)
I told her that I was objecting to the removal of that tree, and she put that into their record. She said they will send an arborist out for another inspection, but I don’t know what recourse we have, if they decide again to remove the tree.
(I suppose I could buy some bark-brown paint at Ace…)We just came up to our cabin to find 2 huge white firs and 1 large cedar marked with X’s on our property on the side of the street with the power lines. In addition, we saw many similarly marked large, healthy trees, including an enormous sugar pine also marked with an X on our neighbor’s properties. This is madness that cannot be allowed to happen, especially considering the devastation we’ve endured with loss of pines and white firs due to the beetle.
We’ve been in contact with the contractor hired by PG&E and they’ve implied we may have the right to refuse removal. The number Joe provided below is a good place to start with fighting back against this ridiculous PG&E over-reaction.
Yes, we (rarely) can have wind that can knock down a tree or branch, but it almost always happens during storms when fire risk is small and I believe it’s almost always snow load on branches that causes power line damage.
I have had a home in Dorrington for 20 years. PG&E and their contractors have always come around with notification to trim/top trees & take down any dead or threatening trees. They have always done this with courtesy and good communication. I just found out about the new policy around cutting down perfectly healthy trees by my friend and neighbor who sent me pics of the 15+ trees they marked for removal on my property. Not only are those trees healthy, all they need to do is trim them as they have for 40+ years. PG&E are under a lot of pressure because of their lack of attention that caused many fires this and last year fire seasons. Now they choose to overreact and want to practically clear cut my property. I called that number listed here informing them they don’t have authorization to cut those trees and they actually called back and left a message acknowledged that they don’t have permission. Hopefully, I can talked them about going back to their previous responsible trimming/topping.
Big yellow X on lots of very large, healthy trees in front of my place as well. I called and was told my trees are now on “hold” until an arborist calls me to talk about this. Trees in my area are scheduled for removal by the end of next month. We will see if I get a call back.
A week or so ago we had a crew of PG&E contractors coming through the neighborhood marking trees for trimming or removal based on branches or the trunk being within 12 ft of the high voltage lines. In our case we had a few marked for trimming and none for removal.
Yesterday another crew, from the same company came through and marked 15 of our trees for removal and I don’t think any of them are within 12 feet of the lines.
I can’t help but wonder if someone is making a ton of money from the healthy tree removals and passing on a kickback to the inspectors or inspection company.
I called the PG&E hotline at 1-877-295-4949 and told them that no tree removals were authorized unless they could prove to me that the tree trunks were within 12 feet of the high voltage lines.
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