Hello!
Great job everyone! We are so happy to see 373 signatures to save trees throughout the town of Buena Vista! Let's get to 500 this week! Please share with your people. The more signatures, the bigger collective voice of reason we have in demanding that Sangre take a year to investigate the better strategy of burying lines rather than thoughtless tree removal.
I want to reiterate that the BV Tree Coalition takes fire danger seriously and we don't want to do anything to put anyone in danger. Here are some of the background reports that we used to come up with our perspective that mass tree removal is a bad idea.
Our investigation has shown that mass tree removal does not mitigate fire danger. It increases urban heat and dryness and can contribute to destructive grass fires like we saw in Louisville, CO in 2021 which obliterated a neighborhood. No trees involved there. Cause of that fire? A sparking Xcel power line.
Mass tree removal also exposes power lines to more wind and weather leading to more downed lines, more fire danger, and more cost for repairs that never end.
Burying lines is a solution to all of this. Here are some really compelling articles on the topic:
PG&E Abandoning Tree clear cutting in favor of burying lines underground
After a Pacific Gas and Electric powerline sparked the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise, California, and killed 85 people, the utility company implemented a tree-thinning program to mitigate the risk of wildfire. After 5 years, they are ending the program, saying it is ineffective.
"PG&E said that an internal review showed that trying to take out every threatening tree wasn't effective. Instead, they are focusing on undergrounding lines and what is called enhanced powerline settings, which shuts off certain grids if a fire is detected." https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/pg-e-cuts-tree-trimming-program-it-says-was-ineffective-in-fire-mitigation/
FEMA Guidance + Grants for burying overhead power lines
Burying lines “...enhances power reliability, reduces property loss, and lessens risk to human life—and it saves money… Continuously reinstalling downed power lines, which resulted from several storms that toppled trees and snapped branches, did not make financial sense for the municipally owned company. As replacement costs continued to escalate—along with the risk to life and property damages—reversing the “reinstalling” trend became a priority. We are not offering customers a service by repeating what we did three or four decades ago. We have to quit pouring money into [downed power lines in] storm after storm and start finding ways to benefit customers and reduce future damages,” https://www.fema.gov/case-study/using-grants-help-convert-overhead-electrical-lines-underground
“Following a 1996 severe ice storm, Dakota Energy, a non-profit cooperative, used funds available through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to bury a 5.5-mile segment of line in Beadle County just west of Huron. The cost of the burying the line was approximately $11,570 per mile, for a total cost of $57,850. The HMGP paid 75 percent of the cost, or $43,387, while Dakota Energy paid the remaining $14,463. The project was part of a larger strategy to bury select power lines.” https://www.fema.gov/case-study/overhead-underground-it-pays-bury-power-lines
How to get involved
Finally, If you'd like to participate, join our meetings, talk to us about making public comments or writing an article for the paper, contacting Sangre, conducting research to help the effort, share your research, share info on social media, we'd LOVE to hear from you and support you!
Contact us by email at bvtreecoalition@gmail.com
Thanks for participating!
The BV Tree Cooalition