As the supervisor of vegetation management at City Utilities of Springfield, I have seen firsthand just how important it is to make sure the community is involved and educated in utility vegetation management. Over the years, we have been working to engage with the community, and recently, we have received beneficial assistance from our contractors.
In Springfield, City Utilities has been bringing the community together and providing education on vegetation management through various events. From working with schools to improving environments for pollinators to giving back to the veteran community, we have been working to raise awareness about vegetation management and foster relationships within our community. Not only does this help us easily complete current and ongoing projects, but it will make future work easier and help us continue our community engagement.
Community Engagement Events
Alternative School Career Day
A local school in Springfield hosted a career day for its students to highlight the different career paths open to them. My team at City Utilities attended to teach the 115 attending students about careers in arboriculture. We were among many companies that came and spoke to students, including the State Conservation Department highlighting women and forestry, and a local tech company demonstrating how drones can be used by tree care companies.
The city forester in Springfield came out to talk to students about the work that is done each and every day, and a tree trimmer attended and did a climbing demonstration. Nolan McElroy and Dan Monfils from ACRT explained to the kids why vegetation along power lines must be managed along with general information about the utility vegetation management industry.
Arbor Day Poster Contest
Every fall, the State of Missouri holds a poster contest for fifth graders to highlight Arbor Day. City Utilities partners with the City of Springfield, Missouri Conservation Department, and Missouri Community Forestry Council, visiting each Springfield school that participated in the contest. We plant a tree with the students and teach them about Right Tree Right Place and the history of Arbor Day, and then the winning student for each school receives a prize. This past year, our team visited over 19 schools in the Springfield Public School District and educated over 800 students on these important issues surrounding utility vegetation management.
Veterans Cemetery Maintenance
Every year during the weeks of Memorial Day and Veterans Day, members of the Springfield community go out and tend to the trees and flower beds found in the Missouri Veterans Cemetery. This tradition was started by a city worker who noticed that the cemeteries had very few trees, and the ones they did have were in bad shape.
Members of the community and City Utilities gather each year to help with the maintenance of vegetation. We send out a representative each year to prune trees and shrubbery, and more of our team members come out to help lay mulch and take care of the flower beds. While this is an extremely large cemetery and there is a lot of work to be done, with all of the professionals and members of the community that come out, we can get the job done in a very short amount of time.
City Utilities also participates in Saluting Branches' annual day of service each year. This initiative brings together arborists and tree care professionals to volunteer their time and expertise to care for the properties dedicated to our veterans.
Native Plant Restoration
Many entities in our community have garnered an increased interest in pollinators and native plants Following suit with them, we have started some projects in native plant restoration. McElroy has helped further establish pollinator plots on City Utilities’ properties, including on solar farms, that were started by the previous vegetation supervisor at City Utilities, Scott Gunzenhauser. These efforts have helped pollinators and other wildlife reclaim their habitat that has been lost. Hopefully, in the future, we plan to expand this effort to create pollinator plots to showcase to homeowners so they can see the positive impact they have on our local environment.
Fiber Project — Everest
Recently, City Utilities completed a major fiber expansion project. This project helped the Springfield community gain faster, easier access to the internet. Our team needed some assistance to get this massive project accomplished, so we called in ACRT. We have been working with ACRT for eight years now to help us with our vegetation management and community events. They stepped up to the challenge and helped us get this project through the finish line.
How We Meet the Utility Vegetation Management Needs of Our Community
As our vegetation management needs continue to expand, we’ve brought contractors in to help us with our work. All of our contractors have the same mission: to get on a cycle. We all want to make sure the system is as reliable as possible, so we have no problem working together to make this possible.
Our contractors, are responsible for managing much of the vegetation management, including 200 miles of transmission lines, 1,200 miles of distribution, pre-planning maintenance tree trimming, notifying customers of planned work, and more. This helps us ensure that all of the UVM work is getting done in a timely manner and our customers are receiving adequate notice of planned work and getting all of their questions answered.
Future Work
In the upcoming months and years, we hope to continue the great work that we have done with our contractors and community. From getting on a cycle to implementing herbicide programs to continuing community involvement, we have many plans for the future.
First, we implemented a herbicide program in 2020 which we are respraying currently and assessing its effectiveness. We will analyze these results and address how to best use this program to help improve our vegetation management. We are also in the process of starting a major pole replacement project that will provide up-to-date poles for power lines.
Additionally, we are making strides toward getting on a regular UVM cycle. There are some locations that haven’t been trimmed in over twelve years. In the upcoming two years, City Utilities will be implementing a cycle to address these problem areas.
In regards to getting the community more involved as well, we have a game plan. Our team is getting out more and more to educate the young members of our community about utility vegetation management and get them interested in the possibility of pursuing it as a career. Several individuals from one of our contractors, ACRT, are also getting more involved with the Missouri Community Forestry Council (MCFC) to teach some curricular topics to children in schools and provide necessary information to residents and homeowners.
Continuing to educate the community and build these relationships will help us understand the needs of our community and further foster relationships so we can best serve Springfield, Mo. We cannot wait to see what the future brings to the City of Springfield and the community.
