Protecting the natural beauty of the region and providing reliable service is a balancing act for utility companies in the Pacific Northwest, requiring Puget Sound Energy to spend more than $12 million this year, up from $10 million last year, on vegetation management programs.

"Washington is known for its beautiful trees and lush vegetation," said Sue McLain, senior vice president of operations for PSE. "This is a blessing and a curse because most of the power outages in our Puget Sound service area are tree related. The towering trees and their limbs and branches are downed by storms and fall into our lines, resulting in power outages."

PSE works throughout the year to manage vegetation by pruning or clearing trees and branches from electric transmission and distribution lines and corridors. After last year's record storm season, this year's efforts have focused heavily in areas that experienced high volumes of tree-related outages, such as Whidbey Island. The expanded 2007 efforts will require PSE to spend $2 million more than last year on storm-related and other vegetation management activities.

In recent years, PSE has spent $10 million annually on vegetation management with $500,000 of that amount devoted to planting power line friendly trees. "We are committed to planting the right trees in the right place to balance our need for reliable power and to sustain the region's natural beauty and reap the environmental benefits from having trees in our communities," said McLain.

To put the power of reliability into the hands of customers, PSE has developed a vegetation planning guide called "Planning Trees." The print and online handbook helps customers evaluate landscaping opportunities and is a how-to for planting trees and shrubs and tree care solutions. It also lists recommended trees and shrubs to plant near power lines.

PSE also conducts the Tree Watch program in which PSE will remove from private property, after receiving permission from the property owner and local government, diseased and dying trees identified by arborists of being at risk of falling onto power lines. And it's done at no cost to the property owner.

The service has made a big dent in reducing power outages. Since it began in 1998, the Tree Watch program has cut the number of tree-related power outages by more than 20 percent. If you think you may have a tree or other vegetation that poses a threat to utility lines on your property, contact PSE at the above number and request a Vegetation Management inquiry. PSE will arrange to have an arborist make a site visit within two weeks to determine if the tree in question is currently at risk.

PSE is a seven-year Tree Line USA award recipient from The National Arbor Day Foundation. In conjunction with Arbor Day, this past April PSE pledged to donate a tree to every Tree City USA city in its service area in recognition of last winter's severe storm season. In addition, PSE will sponsor for the fourth consecutive year, the state's Arbor Day Poster Contest for fifth-graders. Employee volunteers also participate in various community activities to celebrate Arbor Day and demonstrate the company's long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship and neighborhood enhancements.