Electric company removing ash trees
Crews working for West Penn Power will be working all summer to remove dying ash trees that could come down on power lines in Washington and Greene counties.
Emerald ash borer
The emerald ash borer is a small, green killer of trees – and a sworn enemy of West Penn Power.
“An adult insect can fly, lay eggs in the bark, and larvae get inside the tree and begin to kill it, which happens dramatically,” said Todd Meyers, spokesman for the local utility. “An ash tree can fall without warning.”
Trees, he said, “are still the No. 1 cause of outages for us.” So to diminish that threat, and to maintain efficient energy flow, the company is removing trees near West Penn Power lines that were damaged by that nefarious beetle. Thousands are being felled along 4,500 miles of power lines in 24 counties across Pennsylvania, including Washington and Greene.
“We’re trying to get to the trees before they get to us, and we take them out on our dime,” Meyers said.
West Penn, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., has removed 7,700 trees this year and plans to fell another 3,300 by year’s end. Meyers estimated that the company has taken down about 20,000 during the three years the program has existed.
“There were about 160,000 ash trees standing along power line rights-of-way, with a high mortality rate, so we have about 140,000 to go.”
The $1.5 million initiative is part of West Penn’s $31 million vegetation management program.
West Penn has been eliminating dead ash trees throughout Washington and Greene counties in 2015, and will continue to do so the rest of the year in the Canonsburg, Houston, Washington and Wylandville (North Strabane Township) areas. Meyers said his firm has been working in the Bobtown and Ruff Creek regions of Greene, and will be in and around Mount Morris late this year.
Work also will continue in three Allegheny County communities bordering Washington County: Bethel Park, Floreffe and Upper St. Clair.
Tree work will not be limited to those locales, he added. They will be removed where necessary.
According to a news release, West Penn said it keeps municipalities apprised of scheduled tree removals and notifies customers living along rights-of-way of upcoming vegetation management. It has tree contracts with Asplundh Tree Expert Co., Davey Tree Expert Co., Jaflo Inc., Lewis Tree Service Inc., Penn Line Service Inc. and Townsend Tree Service.
The power company has about 720,000 customers in 24 counties in Western and Central Pennsylvania. And it has to contend with way too many emerald ash borers.
“They look like a Hot Wheels green,” Meyers said of the insect version of The Green Monster.
This distinctive beetle originated in Asia and has been on a fast track in the U.S. since first being identified there in 2002. It was initially found in Michigan and is now in 23 states.
It was first detected in Pennsylvania in June 2007, in Cranberry Township, Butler County. That’s courtesy of the Penn State College of Agricultural Studies, which added that Washington (2009) was among the first counties in the state where the ash borer was found. The first recorded Greene sighting was in April 2014.