A cherry tree lies in pieces Tuesday near the west end of Monteith Riverpark before being cleared away.
Tuesday’s bike ride along my riverfront beat took me through Monteith Park, where I could not help but notice that tree cutters were at work once again.
But in no way was this a repeat of the winter of 2023, when City of Albany contractors felled about 80 trees to make way for reconstruction of the park as part of the Albany Waterfront Project.
Instead, the operation Tuesday was much, much more limited.
A crew from Wright Tree Service cut down three mature trees near the west end of the park in order to prevent any possible future contact with overhead power lines that cross the park in a north-south direction.
Thetrees (a maple, a locust and a cherry) were cut down at the behest of Pacific Power, one of the workers told me.
After being blamed and sued for disastrous Oregon wildfires in recent years, the utility is understandably keen to keep trees far away from its wires, especially the high-voltage lines that cross Monteith Riverpark on their way to North Albany.
Those trees and the power lines had coexisted in the park for a long time. But trees grow, and these apparently had grown tall and wide enough that somebody decided they had to go. (hh)
The power lines are too thin to see in photos, but they ran across the tops of the downed trees.
If we don’t stop cutting trees down, we will have very few trees. What is a park without trees?
I doubt that those trees would contribute to a fire.
The power company are eliminating any tree that could possibly cause them extra work.
They could run their power lines under ground in the park area.
Looks ugly as hell, and the birds and the environment will miss the trees.
Considering the massive lawsuits power companies have been subjected to over not taking care of their systems, surprising it’s taking so long for them to do so…
Hering notes, somewhat acridly: “After being blamed and sued for disastrous Oregon wildfires in recent years, the utility is understandably keen to keep trees far away from its wires…”
Power Companies only understand one thing: financial penalties for their negligent failure to act in a timely manner. Rather than pay their employees to maintain the foliage under their power lines, for decades this expense was ignored, creating conditions primed for fire destruction caused by sparking and arcing.
The power companies ONLY began to maintain their power line routes when the cost of litigation outweighed the cost of proper maintenance. This cynical approach has cost the public hundreds of millions in lost lives, lost homes and destroyed property value.
And then the power companies had/have the temerity to say that all costs associated with power line maintenance will/should be passed on to the consumer. Despite Hering’s tacit approval of previous power company policies that allowed for these disastrous results to occur, the power companies have finally been bit in the butt hard enough that they are finally acting in the public’s interest rather than only in shareholder interest.