April brings showers for May flowers, and it’s also the month of Earth Day and Arbor Day.
Want to be involved?
Plant a tree.
Better yet, plant a tree or bush native to our region. But, please, no Doug firs or other tall trees near the power lines. Snohomish County Public Utility District is on a campaign to get people to enjoy local flora that won’t fall on power lines and turn off the electricity.
The high winds last month caused branches to blow off many sorts of conifers, causing huge problems for the PUD and its customers. In 2015 alone, the PUD spent $11 million on storm restoration, PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos said. And a large part of that damage was caused by falling trees and branches.
As recently as 25 years ago, the PUD policy was to just go out and top trees that had to the potential to wreak havoc with the power lines, said Mike Munsterman, tree and vegetation management superintendent with the utility.
“Now we have our arborists going door-to-door asking people to let us remove or trim their trees,” Munsterman said. “We have thousands of miles of lines to try to protect. That’s a lot of doors to knock on.”
The program seems to be working. The PUD has issued 80,000 plant nursery certificates worth nearly $2 million to people willing to replace tall trees with ones that won’t grow above 25 feet.
Sadly, sometimes the offending tall trees aren’t that close to the power lines, he said.
“A 70 mph wind can blow massive tree branches 200 feet,” Munsterman said. “I have a lot of big trees around my house, too. We need to coexist with trees and keep the power on.”
If a property owner won’t let the PUD take the tree down, the utility has a right to trim the tree away from the power lines.
“But topping trees isn’t good. This damage causes lots of problems,” Munsterman said.
Cass Turnbull of the Seattle-based group PlantAmnesty agrees. The nonprofit’s primary goal is to educate people so they won’t needlessly butcher trees of all kinds.
Turnbull applauds the PUD’s efforts to just remove trees near power lines.
“The line clearance guys get yelled at if they top the trees, take the trees out or do some pruning,” she said. “Trees and power lines are a problem without a good solution.”
Replacing old Douglas firs with smaller native trees is the best way to go, she said, even though the stark landscape after a tree is removed can be shocking.
“Yes, at first you have to look at those butt-ugly wires,” Turnbull said. “But eventually your smaller tree will mature and block the view without messing with the power lines.”
Bad tree pruning is a problem in the Northwest, as it is around the world. Someone even topped the tree under which it is said that Buddha reached enlightenment, she said.
“Humans have a deep need to control nature,” Turnbull said. “I have seen people actually take the flowers off a cherry tree, and those blossoms were the reason the tree was planted in the first place. People just do not know how damaging bad pruning is.”
Earth Day, 45 years old this month, had a theme this year focused on tree planting. The effort will continue through the next four years with a national goal 7.8 billion trees planted by the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020 to help combat climate change.
Arbor Day, begun in 1872, is celebrated nationwide on the last Friday of April, though our state traditionally observes Arbor Day on the second Wednesday.
The state Department of Fish &Wildlife is urging people to plant native bushes and trees as well.
Trees clean the air. They provide shade, food and harvest income. And they are homes for wildlife.
Native trees and bushes, once established, don’t require as much water or tending and are often longer-lived than other species.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
Suggested trees
The PUD suggests that people choose from the following list of natives for planting near power lines:
Red elderberry
Red-flowering currant
Red-osier dogwood
Salal
Salmonberry
Mountain ash
Snowberry
Twinberry
Vine maple
Cascara
Huckleberry
Indian plum
0cean spray
Oregon grape
Pacific crabapple
Pacific ninebark
— If you have property away from power lines, Fish &Wildlife suggests:
Big-leaf maple
Garry oak
Pacific dogwood
Native birches
Native hawthorns
Native pines
Douglas fir
Western hemlock
Learn more
Information about landscaping from a state wildlife biologist is at wdfw.wa.gov/living/book.
Learn how to plant a tree at www.arborday.org.
Watch a video about smart planting by PUD arborist Rich Lloyd at vimeo.com/156762006.
Look at the PUD’s Tree Book at www.snopud.com/trees.
To have your tree assessed for safety by the PUD, call 425-783-5579.
To learn more about pruning and PlantAmnesty, go to www.plantamnesty.org.
Hear Cass Turnbull talk about “The Seven Myths of Site, Selection and Care of Trees” at 7 p.m. May 5 at the Edmonds Public Safety Complex, 250 Fifth Ave. N., Edmonds. Free admission.
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