An arborist wearing a white hard hat and highlighter yellow vest was just under 50 feet in the air at arms-length of powerlines as he sawed down oak tree limbs from a bucket truck in St. Petersburg this week.
Duke Energy customers may be witnessing this scene outside their homes, as the utility aims to prevent the catastrophic outages experienced last hurricane season by trimming trees near its power lines.
The utility reported 1 million outages across Florida after Hurricane Milton in October.
“It was just extremely impactful … we brought in thousands of resources to work on cutting and moving the debris so we could restring the lines 16 hours a day, seven days a week, until we're able to get it restored,” said Tamron Fernandez, Duke’s head of distribution vegetation management.
He said the lead cause of the damages was fallen trees and flying tree debris. So, the regular maintenance trimming Duke is doing now is meant to prepare as best they can for hurricane season, which starts June 1.
"We are out here trying to do the best that we possibly can to protect the homeowner’s property, protect the trees, as well as ensure that we're able to provide that safe and reliable electricity," Fernandez said.
"We want to make sure that we do get the clearance to protect our power lines, but do it in the most responsible way possible, so that we're not injuring the tree and that the tree can heal back as well as possible to make sure that we're not leaving any risks out there for the homeowners."
The trimming is decided based on the voltage of the wire and where it's situated, although customers can also make requests to trim any limbs they're concerned about.
Fernandez added that it's impossible to be 100% hurricane-proof while continuing to support the urban forest.
Duke is giving away 1,000 trees on Friday for Florida Arbor Day. They say it's to encourage "planting the right tree in the right place to keep the power flowing."
“Whether it's for our power lines or whether it's for the homeowners, selecting a tree that's proper for the area … that you know what the mature height is going to be, you know what the risks associated with that tree will be,” Fernandez said.
“If it's a weak tree you want, but maybe something that's beautiful for your landscape, make sure you're planting it away from any type of structures, any type of targets that it could hit.”
