BPA quick to respond to residents angry over tree cutting
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BEAVERTON, Ore. – The Bonneville Power Administration is responding to neighbors who are angry over crews coming on to their property and cutting down their trees.
Doug Johnson, a spokesman with BPA, started working with concerned neighbors as soon as KATU brought him out to their neighborhood near Southwest Cornelius Pass Road and TV Highway.
"The very next morning I called Doug over at BPA and we had a wonderful talk," neighbor Sarah Richmond said. "He was genuinely concerned about what was happening out here."
Bonneville Power is clearing out trees near major lines that it believes may damage power lines or are close enough to the lines to attract arcing electricity.
Johnson said the lines running through the neighborhood are the highest voltage lines BPA operates.
Residents in the neighborhood are up in arms over BPA showing up on their property with cutting crews, ready to chop down trees in their back yards.
Some neighbors said they got no notice from BPA that the cutting was going to take place.
Bonneville Power said it sent out notices back in November but couldn't guarantee those notices reached their intended recipients.
Speaking on behalf of a few neighbors, Sarah Richmond said they just wanted BPA to include them in their tree-clearing plan.
Now BPA is setting up a forum to do just that.
Richmond, for now, is satisfied.
"If BPA had not been (made) aware that the situation was going on, it would have just gotten worse and worse," Richmond said.
Because Bonneville owns a rights-of-way easement along the power lines, it can legally access private property to cut down any vegetation that may interfere with the lines.
Some neighbors are still not happy with how BPA initially handled the situation.
"People were just getting very, very upset and still honestly are, but I think the town hall will help quite a bit," Richmond said.
Johnson said BPA is trying to schedule the town hall forum for April.
You can't be too smart if you buy a home and don't read the contract. Â It's the same thing if you don't read the deed and check out restrictions, easements, etc. Â People are so ignorant these days. Â Â
Yes, let's ride our bicycles down the bike paths, which follow miles of power lines.  What could go wrong?
Nice to see that Portland doesn't have the lock on clueless people.
We should ban power.
The people who live underneath the power lines ask "what is going on"...now thats a good one!
Anyone living that close ( as seen in the pic ) to these high power lines will have birth defects in their family also their cows and sheep.Â
Guess they would prefer to be leaning up against the tree when a few thousand volts arced through it.
They knew that the BPA had easements, and the terms of those are clearly spelled out in deed documents. If any resident claims he did not know about this, it is only because they are either lazy or irresponsible land owners. A prudent man makes sure he knows about the land he buys, or at least reads his deed!
@spacegnome In some cases they are talking about removing trees that protect property and privacy, trees that are 40 feet or more away from lines. Is an arbor vitae really going to grow to 50 feet, tripling its current height? No.Â
@Bob The first time there was an electrical arc that caused a fire, injury or even an outage, there would be complaints and attempts at law suits. No one should be planting stuff that is violation or one day will be in violation.
@Bob @spacegnomeIt doesn't matter. The landowner knew about the easement before he bought the property. If he didn't like that there was an easement on the property, he should have bought elsewhere.
@spacegnome There are many rentals along that area, so if the landlords were served with something, they failed to pass along the info.Â
I want my trees cut down Over here BPA to the SE
i'd worry more about CANCER than the trees that they need to keep clear of the power lines. if you bought property with in 1000 feet of those power lines your just stupid. yeah i know it was real cheap.
With all due respect from the concerned neighbors, what do they want? A forum to discuss what trees will be cut down? Safety and right-of-ways will determine that. Â
Perhaps a outlined plan showing a clearing path and courtesy notice? Â
The last thing anyone wants is a ground-arc from these types of transmission lines. Safety is good.
@Quaoptician Clearly BPA has not demonstrated that they possess the necessary common sense to make these decisions on their own.Â
Yah not like they've been delivering power dependably for 60 + years. What they really need to do is add a few knee jerk geniuses to their advisory staff for guidance
@Bob Read your paper work Bob! Maybe your anger should be pointed at yourself for not knowing about the property YOU bought. You don't have to like it. But don't be surprised when its enforced.
@Tonk So you're saying you want the job? Funny how everybody thinks they know what is going on when NONE OF YOU have even been to the area. Pretty sad how you can't stop and put yourself in another person's shoes for 1 minute. I'm so sure if men with chainsaws knocked on your door demanding access to your back yard with ZERO NOTICE, you'd happily let them in. Hell, you'd probably make them lunch. MANY of these targeted trees ARE NOT WITHIN FIFTY FEET OF LINES AND HAVE BEEN AT THE SAME HEIGHT FOR TWENTY YEARS. Get a damn clue before judging you friggin idiot!
'Â Bonneville Power said it sent out notices back in November but couldn't guarantee those notices reached their intended recipients.'
Since BPA knew which residences would be affected [in advance], they could have taken an intermediate step to notify those people by personally sending crews through the neighborhood to leave leaflets or other printed info at the houses and also try to answer basic questions people might have at the same time. Â I will *assume* this was a contractor hired by/acting on behalf of BPA to drop the trees in question, and I have no doubt, that what they did was necessary for the maintenance of the lines, it's just good PR and proper that BPA inform and work with the people that are going to be affected.
A few years ago, I had a PGE contractor take out a row of trees which grew directly up under and next to a residential power line. They did a wonderful job. Â They were fast, safe and I had firewood lasting for 2 years due to the job. Thanks Asplundh.Â
@ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredEÂ Your comment makes the most sense. It would not have taken too much time possibly. To have a plan first, and follow it through. Discuss at BPA what was needed, then make sure all knew what would be happening. The leaflets idea would have helped a lot, then within perhaps a week another crew or team to go through and chat with those that would be affected.
its like omg peeps whine if their power goes out yet they whine if the bpa  take steps to try and prevent just that. were doomed. to
@Pers Retiree The issue is not that BPA wants to maintain the safety of their lines, its that they failed to notify ANYBODY and then publicly lied about it. Their judgment all down the line has been abysmal. Please spare us your derision as you clearly do not have a clue what you are talking about. I'm so sure a 15 ft tall row of shrubs needs to be torn out for public safety.Â
There are two sides to this story., If you look at the picture you will notice a well tended area with a walking and jogging path maintained by the power company. I"ve seen many yards annexing these right of ways that were in much worse shape than the easement. There is no free lunch here, be reasonable about what trees you plant and prune them to not interfere with the lines.
@rec503Â They don't interfere with the lines. BPA is making indiscriminate decisions for no reason. If you actually saw the location you would laugh at some of the cuts they are trying to make. These trees are NOWHERE NEAR LINES AND NEVER WILL BE.Â
@Bob you still know where things can be planted and at what height they can be. Stop complaining. If you are a home owner, this shouldn't be news to you.
People shouldn't live under power lines. Â Just like the airport. Â You bought it, too bad for you.
These Lines Are Too Low and People living under them .....
@Glenn Pierce The lines are not low, and people do not live under them. Why do all of you ignorant people insist on pretending you know what the actual situation is?
@Bob I actually DO know the situation. I also actually know that as a property owner, it is YOUR responsibility to know what easements/regulations go along with your property. The way I see it is you are the ignorant one here.