Tree maintenance and removal
1. Hot tip
If there are trees on your property with limbs overhanging primary electric wires, the Long Island Power Authority may want to trim them. "LIPA's Line Clearance Program trims tree branches away from electric wires, helps ensure public safety, minimizes electrical interruptions and outages and limits damage from severe storms," says Vanessa Baird-Streeter, LIPA's executive director of communications. "It also provides a zone of safety so that our line workers can do their jobs."
2. The program
The Line Clearance Program focuses on trimming trees along an entire electrical circuit, which can be several miles long. Circuits that experience the most tree-caused outages are handled first. Line clearance work is performed all year long. LIPA won't trim all trees, but they will clear tree limbs that threaten electric wires. LIPA also tries to do something called "directional" trimming, Baird-Streeter says. That means they can trim the tree to grow away from and around the wires. These trimming practices were developed by the U.S. Forestry Service and are endorsed by the International Society of Arboriculture.
3. How to make a request
Responses to an individual homeowner's line clearance request is first limited to emergencies - if a broken tree limb is actually leaning heavily on a LIPA wire or has caused a wire to come down. However, nonemergency requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Call 800-490-0075 for more information. "If you have a tree that you know you want to take down completely, but it has limbs that threaten primary LIPA wires, call LIPA before you call the tree company," says Francis Hefferin of Hefferin Tree & Landscape Contracting in Port Washington. "LIPA is extremely responsive and proactive to a homeowner's request for an inspection. Be aware that not all tree companies are certified to work around electrical wires, and even when they are, they may play it safe and call LIPA first."
4. Permits
While limbs threatening electric wires don't require town permission to remove, any further trimming or tree removal may require a permit. "Tree removal rules vary from village to village," says John Dominsky, clerk and treasurer of the Village of Great Neck. "We require a permit application to be filed with the building department. I recommend bringing in a photo of the tree to help expedite the permit application," Dominsky says. Failure to obtain a permit for tree removal or substantial alteration can result in a summons leading to a fine, or requirement to replace the tree.
