By Mary O’KEEFE

Crescenta Valley, Sunland-Tujunga and La Cañada Flintridge are high-risk fire areas. This means higher insurance rates and aggressive tree trimming by Southern California Edison.

“We prune to 12 feet from the power lines at the time of trimming,” said Melanie Jocelyn, principal manager, Transmission and Distribution Management, SCE. “Our concern first and foremost is public safety.”

The issue with some residents is not the trimming to prevent fire danger but the way the trees have been cut back. This is a concern that has been shared with CVW and on social media from residents living in Crescenta Valley and Altadena.

The purpose of trimming the trees is fire safety. Limbs are pruned off electric lines to the “national standards to the health of the tree,” Jocelyn said. “The results [may not] be aesthetically pleasing,” she added.

Some trees have been trimmed bare, while others are trimmed only near the electric lines leaving the tree in an odd L-shape.

During a recent CV Community Association meeting a resident shared a photo of a deodar tree in her neighborhood. She said the tree had been trimmed in a similar way two and a half years ago by SCE, and it is now leaning toward her property. There was another tree that, after trimming, was also leaning toward the roof of a home.

“It [is my] understanding the pruning we did on the side would not cause a tree to lean,” Jocelyn said after viewing the photo of the tree.

When asked if it would be possible to trim the trees in a more aesthetic way, with a more natural, uniformed shape, Jocelyn added that SCE is not a landscaping company.

“If we would prune every tree [in this manner] that would raise costs,” she said.

The cost of pruning is free, sort of; the cost is embedded in customers’ SCE rates.

After recent wildfires swept through California, everyone, from utility companies to residents, are more aware of the danger of wildfires. This year the state increased the trimming clearance requirements from six feet to 12 feet in high-risk fire areas.

In Northern California, Pacific Gas & Electric has filed for bankruptcy as it faces potential damages related to recent wildfires. On April 25, Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit against SCE and Edison International “to recover costs and damages from the devastating Woosley Fire.”

It should be noted the cause of that November 2018 fire is still under investigation.

In the LA County release regarding the lawsuit, SCE representatives stated in February that “it believes that its equipment could be found to have been associated with the ignition of the fire.”

SCE has been and will continue to have community meetings and discussions to listen to concerns from residents. Susan Cox, an SCE spokeswoman, is looking at calendars to find the next time SCE will be in the community to reach out to the residents. SCE representatives were recently at the Hometown Country Fair and are often at the CV Town Council monthly meetings.

  Mary Okeefe