PG&E tree removal rankles some residents

Utility is mandated to clear fire threats, but also is criticized for its actions

Efforts by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to remove trees that could down power lines and cause wildfires have sparked controversy in Marin County.

Some residents say they were provided little notice of tree removals or came home to find stumps on their properties or streets.

Woodacre resident Cathy Bleecker said a bay tree was recently cut down without notice at the property where she lives on Maple Road. Bleecker said PG&E notified her earlier that it would be doing tree thinning at her home and later was told that crews did not know the tree was part of her property.

PG&E has been under a state mandate since 2018 to clear more defensible space near its power equipment in areas the state deems as having a high fire risk, including nearly all of Marin County. About 25,000 miles of power lines — a length greater than the circumference of the Earth — are located in these high-fire-risk regions in PG&E's service area in Central and Northern California.

More and more trees that PG&E inspectors find near power lines are dead and dying after years of drought and diseases that will only worsen with climate change, Contreras said.

The state mandate came after devastating wildfires caused by downed power lines, including the Tubbs wildfire in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties that killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,600 structures in 2017. The state blamed the fire on a private power line and not PG&E.

State investigators have said PG&E equipment ignited more than 30 fires since 2017, including the state's deadliest wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed at least 85 people and burned 236 square miles in Butte County. The utility pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the fire and has been ordered to pay billions in damages.

A state auditor's report last year said Cal Fire found that fires caused by power lines hit by falling limbs or trees accounted for 74% of the acres burned by electrical power-caused wildfires in its jurisdiction from 2018 through 2020.

PG&E has taken a more aggressive approach by removing more trees, limbs and other vegetation that could take down lines. Neighborhoods and homeowners throughout the state have complained about PG&E contractors removing trees that did not appear to be at risk, or failing to provide notice.

Bill Teufel of San Geronimo said he has seen PG&E contractors come out to his property several times to cut the same stands of trees. While he agrees that PG&E should prevent fire hazards and supports the removal of certain trees, he said the utility has not been transparent about its work and that neighbors often have to confront crews to figure out why they are cutting trees. He also questioned why certain trees that did not appear to be a threat were removed.

“It just seems to be poorly supervised and not very well organized, not very well explained to people,” Teufel said.

Contreras said the policy is for all property owners who have PG&E easements to be notified several times before crews arrive. The notifications can be through mailed advisories, door hangers, automated phone calls, or foresters and arborists who come to inspect the lines.

While a tree might look healthy, foresters and arborists might find that the tree is diseased and at risk of falling, Contreras said.

“We know our customers in Marin love their trees,” Contreras said. “PG&E loves trees, but if we identify a tree that is dead, dying or defective, or a hazardous tree, we are going to mitigate that hazard while working with the customers.”

Mike Swezy, a forester for the Novato Fire Protection District, used to work with PG&E on its line clearance work when he was with the Marin Municipal Water District. He said Marin County and other areas are facing a grim outlook on wildfire risks, especially as the county has gone decades without a large wildfire.

“We have a lot more vegetation than we used to that's been largely unmanaged and we have this increased fire risk. I think everybody sees that and the expectation because of climate change is we're going to see more of the same and worse,” Swezy said

At the same time, Swezy said, judgments already exist about PG&E given its history of causing wildfires in recent years. Without being provided more information as to why trees are removed or thinned, people will become more distrustful, he said.

“I think there are things PG&E could do better, but they're racing through private properties now where they have easements. I don't think they have the luxury of going residentto-resident and negotiating. They show up and do their work and people are shocked,” Swezy said.

Woodacre resident Nancy Hanson has been adamantly opposed to most of the tree-cutting and instead called on the utility to upgrade its electrical system.

“This current panicdriven overcutting is at best a stop-gap measure that will need to be paid for and repeated annually. It must stop,” Hanson said. “What we need is a more permanent solution that allows us to coexist with nature and not further degrade our own habitat. Underground the wires or make the system safer in other ways.”

PG&E has committed to underground 10,000 miles of power lines in high-firerisk areas and to harden its electrical system.

State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire, a Democrat who lives in Healdsburg, said PG&E's current rate of undergrounding about 100 miles per year is too slow of a pace given the risk its equipment poses.

McGuire introduced a bill this year, SB 884, that would require PG&E to bury 10,000 miles of its lines within the next decade, or 1,000 miles per year, or face penalties. He said PG&E is spending more than $1 billion a year on tree trimming, with the vast majority of those funds being covered by ratepayers.

“Our solution, which should have been advanced decades ago, is to get the most high-fire-threat power lines underground once and for all. Once we underground these power lines the tree trimming debate stops,” McGuire said.

The bill is facing a “huge fight,” McGuire said, because it would also require telecommunications companies to underground equipment that is on PG&E power poles.