Pacific Gas and Electric contractors have been trimming and removing trees at an unprecedented scale in West Marin, but the work to clear vegetation from around power lines and reduce the risk of wildfire has not always gone smoothly.
Residents have complained about poor communication, overly intensive cutting and the removal of healthy trees without the permission of property owners. Dozens of complaints have been heard by Supervisor Dennis Rodoni and his aides, who have referred them to PG&E.
Company spokeswoman Deanna Contreras acknowledged the public’s frustration with the cutting, but said most of the specific concerns have been resolved.
“We understand people love their trees—PG&E loves their trees,” she said. “But we’re doing this for the safety of the community, and we want people to understand that trees that have the potential to fall on a power line are not a good match.”
This is the first year of PG&E’s enhanced vegetation management program, which is currently limited in Marin to San Geronimo, Woodacre and Nicasio. The program is aimed at potential threats, such as overhanging limbs or dying trees that are tall enough to strike the lines. It came out of the utility’s wildfire mitigation plan, newly required by the California Public Utilities Commission, the government body responsible for overseeing PG&E.
Other forested areas, mostly around Inverness, are seeing routine but expanded work. The utilities commission recently increased the clearance requirement around high-voltage power lines from 18 inches to four feet in high fire-threat areas.
Since the increased workload was court-ordered and mandated by the utilities commission, PG&E has the right to conduct work around its lines without permission from property owners; county permits are needed only for road encroachment. Still, company practice is for arborist inspectors to resolve concerns and obtain approval from property owners before doing enhanced vegetation management. For routine work, property owners are informed of the plans with a door hanger.
Yet poor communication—both externally, between inspectors and residents, and internally, between tree trimmers and inspectors—is a consistent complaint from locals.
“We all understand the importance of fire safety, but the lack of communication between these people is a very real and confusing issue,” said Caroline Gold, a Nicasio resident who argued with tree crews after they left debris under power lines on her property. “They’re undoing whatever good they think they’re doing by trimming.”
Ms. Gold’s property is one of 638 along the Woodacre-1101 distribution line where PG&E is undertaking enhanced vegetation management. Trees marked with an “X” are slated to be cut, and trees marked with a dot are meant to be pruned. Trimming is expected to wrap up mid-year.
Valley residents have voiced their complaints about the project on NextDoor.
“Am I the only one who feels like PG&E contractors are being too aggressive with their cutting of healthy growth trees in the valley?” Frank Morris asked on the social network in January. Dozens affirmed his feelings.
“They can’t cut all of the trees down that would damage the lines,” valley resident Viki Sullins said. “To me, it’s a little band-aid on a gaping wound.”
Denis Poggio, a retired landscape contractor who complained directly to the utility, said he was appalled by the work. “There were trucks driving east, south, north and west at the same time,” he said. “One guy is leaving, and another guy is walking on.”
Jeff Daniels felt personal pain when crews cut down three of his redwood trees on Lucas Valley Road. He doesn’t think his property should be considered high fire-risk because redwoods do not easily ignite. But one late evening, following up on a previous inventory, a crew showed up and marked some of his trees for removal. The next morning, trimmers showed up with chainsaws and started cutting.
Mr. Daniels said he ran out to his yard and started yelling, telling the crews to get out and never come back. They left, but three redwoods had already been felled. An arborist for PG&E later told him the trees were healthy and it had been a mistake to cut them.
“These trees are beautiful. They are amazing, and these idiots cut them down,” Mr. Daniels said.
He asked the sheriff’s office how to stop future cutting, and a deputy recommended that he post a no-trespassing sign. He put signs on trees marked with X’s, and he is considering both a lawsuit and what he can do with the fallen trees.
Like others, Mr. Daniels complained that PG&E is hiring out-of-state crews who are poorly versed in tree-trimming in California. But the utility maintains that all of its contractors are held to national standards for arboriculture and are continuously trained on proper pruning techniques.
Judge William Alsup, the federal judge overseeing PG&E’s five-year criminal probation for felonies related to the 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, has threatened to order PG&E to hire its own tree trimmers. But the utility’s attorneys have pushed back, arguing there is a statewide shortage of qualified tree workers and such an order would be counterproductive.
Another frequent complaint is that tree crews leave behind debris. PG&E’s practice is to leave the wood, which it considers the property owner’s asset, Ms. Contreras said. Still, under the enhanced vegetation management program, the company will remove wood for free if residents complete a request form.
Routine tree work around Inverness this winter has also rubbed some residents the wrong way. For this work, inspectors come out, generally once a year, to write a prescription to protect power lines. For fast-growing tree species, that can mean clearing up to 15 feet of space.
When crews descended on Inverness Park in December, five residents along Drakes View Drive complained in a letter to the editor about misdirected work and inadequate messaging.
“Unmarked trees were cut, and marked trees were left standing,” they wrote. “It seemed like workers were removing the best trees and leaving behind compromised firs, infected oaks and trees leaning into the road.”
The work continued in Inverness. Crews were out in force in February, cutting all over the village. People complained to the county, to the Inverness Public Utility District, on Facebook and at the Light offices.
“What these crews did was just a god-awful mess of trees taken down all over the place,” said Jim Fox, the fire chief and water superintendent for the utility district. “It looked like a logging operation.”
People were especially concerned about changes in Seahaven and a large oak that was removed across from the Inverness School. But the tree was rotting and likely to split, Supervisor Rodoni said.
“It seems brutal, on the one hand, losing all of these nice, big, old [trees], but then if you look a little closer, a lot of them are diseased, rotten and hanging over power lines,” said Tom Gaman, a forester in Inverness. “Although it’s hard to accept, it’s something I guess we have to live with in this day and age of climate change… It’s a changing forest.”
Jason Weber, Marin’s fire chief, said the tree work can complement the goals of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, which just passed a measure to raise roughly $20 million every year, much of which will go toward vegetation management. He is hopeful that the utility’s infrastructure maintenance will reduce the risk of ignition, and that the authority can reduce the risk of spread and threat to homes.
PG&E has faced intense pressure on multiple fronts to improve customer safety after its equipment ignited several deadly wildfires. In its 2020 wildfire mitigation plan, PG&E estimated that enhanced vegetation management and system hardening would reduce ignitions caused by vegetation, animals or equipment failure by 10 percent compared to last year. Statewide, the company aims to replace 241 line-miles of overhead conductive line by either removing lines, installing covered lines or burying lines underground.
Among the lawmakers calling for reform of the energy company is State Senator Mike McGuire, who represents the northern coast of California. “We must expedite grid hardening, grid modernization and vegetation management around PG&E’s lines, especially in the most fire critical regions,” he said in a statement.
Assemblyman Marc Levine has introduced legislation that would allow the utilities commission to embed a public administrator within a utility’s leadership, to help make decisions and ensure that safety protocols are followed.
Governor Gavin Newsom has gone as far as threatening a state takeover if the investor-owned utility fails to make serious reforms while it works through bankruptcy.
The company must emerge from bankruptcy before June 30 to participate in California’s victims’ compensation fund, a multibillion-dollar pot set aside for wildfire victims, designed to cushion utilities from large wildfire claims. Half of the relief fund is paid into by utility companies, and half is paid by customers through a monthly surcharge of about $2.50. More than 80,000 people are seeking to tap into the fund, projected to total $13.5 billion.