Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
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…)My kids are at my cabin and are experiencing drain issues. Any recommendations for a 24 hour plumber?
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.
bill, i have a new contact # for PGE. feel free to contact me – 916.716.8999. they said they were supposed to come cut trees in the next couple weeks. this whole calfire thing is irritating. we didn’t fail our inspection in may. doing this in october is a joke. i did speak to calfire and they were nice. i told them PG&E left all the dead trees but they have no way (or maybe desire) to contact PG&E to get them removed. i did hear PG&E is supposed to finally get the ones they fell 2 years ago, of which my property has many.
Received pass letter. With the damage to the forest I am guessing that Cal-Fire can no longer depend on the volunteer force and took it over. PGE dropped a huge fir on my lot and cleaved my driveway. I never had trouble reaching their arborist nor the service doing the felling. By the time I called about the driveway they had already found the damage and scheduled a repair.
Either they are totally overwhelmed by the dead trees or an prior writer didn’t exploit all of the possible contacts. I texted, emailed and left voice mails and eventually established an email dialogue.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.
ndamico.. did pg &e advise you when they would remove the trees? Did they give you another number to call? They have not been very responsive to me. They stacked a dozen 3 foot dia x 12 feet long large logs haphazardly in the bottom of our lot that are impossible for me to deal with.
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.I need to have my snowblower and Honda generator serviced. Mostly oil change, spark plugs, check belts, etc and would like them to come to my home to do the work.
Any recommendations? I seem to recall there was a mobile repair man doing work in BTV, but can’t find info.
ThanksUPC, the new PG&E tree inspection company, is coming back through and doing QC inspections. When I stopped to talk to them they said they were looking for over and under evaluations. However, all I saw was that they had changed some dotted (slated for trimming) to Xs (slated to be cut down).
Time to take up arms and put PG&E back under regulation as a PUC rather than a publicly traded company and F their shareholders!!!I also passed inspection in May, then received the non-compliance report two weeks ago. Have left Cal Fire four phone messages, but, they refuse to return my calls. PG&E is due to cut more trees. Caught between a rock and a hard place if I cannot speak to someone. Been a good citizen in BTV since 1977 and want to do the right thing. All the tax dollars I have paid over the years doesn’t warrant a return phone call?
