Utility Chomped Some of My Forest

The power company contractor, Asplundh, came through this week to clear under the big power lines that are my northern border. First time since I’ve owned the property. Based on the mature size of trees they cut down, I’d say they cut deeper into my property than ever before.

What’s done is done and they did leave me a lot of firewood. But dang, it’s a lot of destruction all at once. They exposed spots where a wash begins, and deforesting there is going to further the erosion (dotted lines.) Shaded area is where they clear cut. Circle is where I took the picture from.

From a permie standpoint, what would you do? Or even, how would you feel? I do not actively use this part of the property, being hard to get to past the wash. But now access would be a lot easier. Would you try to plant anything here? It’s the north side of the forest so it will never get a ton of sun. Lot to the north is vacant, used for hay. Any thoughts welcome.    

I actually worked with that company for a short time and can tell you they care nothing for what happens to someone's property. They're told to cut in a certain distance and just denude everything for that range. I know other companies are sometimes more mindful, but even then you end up with mangled trees and erosion-prone spots of land. For the short term, I would replant a ground cover that grows quickly to hold the soil together, then maybe plant some smaller shrubs and dwarf trees to ensure they never grow large enough for them to interfere with the lines in the future.

This kind of situation is why I often tell people to hire someone themselves to cut away growth before the utility companies send someone. It lets the cutting happen in a much more controlled manner and both you and the utility are happy in the end.

Another thing to consider when replanting is that another company may come through and clear the growth 10 years from now with a sprayer.  They might not deliberately spray smaller plants but you probably won't want to eat the fruit.  So I'd lean towards replanting with wildlife supporting plants and things that won't get tall enough to attract the attention of the clearing crew.

Like it or not, utility corridors are subject to periodic clearing. It's necessary for reliability and maintenance. Around here, they consult with the landowners beforehand and try to accommodate their concerns. But if a landowner is adamant, the utility has the hammer.

It's curious that they did the full mulch job. Perhaps they're considering repairs or modifications to the line, and need access for big trucks?

The worst part is that it will be an instant weed patch. I wonder about getting ahead of the curve and spreading hay or clover seed ASAP.

On the one hand, it's frustrating. On the other hand, it's an opportunity.

Edit: D. Logan beat me to it!

D. Logan nailed it!  I like his advice.

It does look like they left quite a bit of mulch for you.

Got more of "the scoop" yesterday. Turns out this was an extra-big clearing because the utility is going to entirely replace the poles and power lines. Why? Dunno. But they need more room than normal to drop new poles and get all the equipment in to do this work. Should be quite the production and I'm glad they're accessing this from the neighboring property and not my own! So I'll wait till all that is over and work on protecting the drainage primarily. Good news is, they didn't destroy a young pawpaw grove up there and now those trees will get more sun. Maybe I'll plant more since they don't mind the shade.

Thanks for the good thoughts. Knowing what I know now, I can be assured that if I manage this area better myself then they won't destroy it as badly for decades.

Bryan Elliott wrote:
It does look like they left quite a bit of mulch for you.

The mulch they left me is a bit chunky for my taste! But hey, the piles of firewood are nice. Just have to collect and process them, which I'm a lot more comfortable with than felling trees.

The good news about that chunky mulch is it will help suppress the weeds.  And when they replace the poles it should cut down on the rutting of the mud.

Unless you had some high value trees that you were planning to harvest crops or lumber from eventually I wouldn't get too upset, and look on it as an opportunity to do something with that part of the property that would have been all but impossible to initiate without them clearing it for you.  

Obviously no point in doing much until they complete the pole replacement work, but as others mentioned, a ground cover, green manure, etc type of planting in the spring will help keep weeds from taking over.  Probably a good idea to ask the power company what you can plant in there so that they won't just mow it down once every few years.  

I recently learned the farm supply outlets/stores that sell feed and grain can also order special blends of seeds and the prices are very reasonable compared to a retail store.  Talk with the people at the counter and look over the list of available seeds.  You could get a blend of clover, wheat, barley, oats, Rye, or many other varieties all combined in a 50 pound bag.  Or you can get a few different blends so you can have different plants in different areas.  Tall stuff might be great at your property lines, shorter stuff and flowering plants could have their own areas.  If you can't borrow a pull behind broadcast spreader you could use the hand powered spreader.  Have someone drive the atv with the bag and you can walk behind and scatter the seeds.

One point to consider, if there are walking paths or trails through or across this area you might want to keep the clover seeds, and any flowering seeds, off the trail.   Bees are great creatures but some people don't like walking through clover covered with bees.

Do you have any use for pasture? If I knew an area was gonna be chomped periodically, I'd consider uses that were aligned with access. And, once the new poles are in, one would hope that another really major disturbance is a very long ways off...

D Nikolls wrote:Do you have any use for pasture? If I knew an area was gonna be chomped periodically, I'd consider uses that were aligned with access. And, once the new poles are in, one would hope that another really major disturbance is a very long ways off...

Along these lines, what is the acreage of that strip they cleared?  If it's enough (a couple maybe 3-4 acres) to run a cow/calf pair, or a few ewes and their lambs that might be a great way to utilize that space.

Or rent to a neighbour as summer pasture, for cash? Horse people are certainly known to spend on their darlings ...

Regarding the last 3 posts: It's less than a quarter acre on my side. The empty lot adjacent is 9 acres of somebody elses hay, so doubting that I can make any worthwhile cash "renting" my extra quarter acre. I like the idea of seeding, and I believe I might seed it with shade tolerant wildflowers so I can cover the land in something beneficial and low growing (if anyone has a problem with bees, they have a problem with me!) And maybe some pawpaws to help pollinate the native grove right inside my treeline. Planting pawpaw trees is a gamble, but I'm willing to bet the utility will not have to clear as far into my border for decades now that I know this is a total power line replacement.

Here's a fun update: I walked up the trail the other day to find THIS! Somehow the utility company snuck in, cut the fences, dumped several loads of dirt, and put up gates. All must have been during weekdays while I was at work.
I cannot complain too much, because this gives me much better access to the northern edge of my property. But dang. Let a guy know what you're planning maybe!?

Frustrating that I cannot get a date on when they're doing the actual powerline/pole replacement work (I tried tenaciously on the phone) so I don't dare plant anything up there. But I did throw down 40 pounds of sunflower seed that would have otherwise gone to waste.

It has been a fun lesson on just how far a company can go with their utility easement.  

It's a good lesson to all of us what companies/gov'ts can do without bothering to even consult with a property owner!

Did the sunflowers germinate?

Hopefully the work will be done in enough time to get some fall planting done. If you're worried about erosion, consider trying to score bales of old hay/straw or fill coffee sacks with the wood chips and put them down on bare ground that might react badly to heavy rains or runoff. Even simple branch/log "dams" in key spots to slow and spread the water has been done by other members with good success.

If this were my property, I would look at my deed to see where that easement is actually at. Once a utility company gets an easement they can do anything they want with it including letting other utilities, etc use the easement.

To me, that gate looks rather strange as to why would the utility company go to the expense of putting up a gate?  Making a road, etc.

Has the Utility Company leased the land to someone to run cattle?  Or what? This might be worth investigating as to what is going on.

Lack of communication really P/Os landownders. Some companies don't give a single solitary damn, but sometimes it's less arrogance/malice and more of a "Whose Line is it Anyway?" gong show. Sometimes both, to be fair. It doesn't cost anything to reach out to the company in a reasonable way; many are a little more sensitive to P/O'd landowners these days and will try to reciprocate within reason.

Here's how a large project flows: The utility company chooses a principal contractor (PC) to complete a construction/upgrade job from start to finish. The PC contracts other companies, large and small, to handle various tasks. So, the fence work would be done by a sub-contractor, and possibly a sub-contractor to a sub-contractor, and they are well known for showing up and doing stuff without consultation. They assume the big boys have done all that peoply talky consulty stuff; they're certainly not being paid to do it.

I'll bet you a six-pack that the fancy gates will disappear once the work is done, replaced by simple wire gates.

You mentioned erosion concerns: if this is directly due to the company's activities, it is their responsibility (not yours) to mitigate this. You know the land better than they, and they may not have flagged this issue. Again, it is worth reaching out in a reasonable way with your concerns and firmly request that measures be taken. My 2c.

watching this as the wv property has high tension lines running through the middle... my thoughts are to use that land as pasture.

That may be wise. From what I've read, the electrical grid will need to triple in capacity to support reductions in fossil fuel use. On the ground, that means every existing corridor is potentially set to expand.

Erosion: This has not proven to be the issue I thought it would be. All the shredded trees (wood chips) left behind have done a decent job of protecting the soil. And since they took the trees down right before the big flush of spring growth, a lot of greenery has sprouted up and further held the soil together. Turns out this utility is one of the last in the state NOT working with the conservation department to seed native pollinators under clear-cuts BOOOO!

Gates: The gates replace the parallel fencing that bordered an abandoned railroad grade that runs out that corner of the property. They did a legit job of anchoring them in concrete, and the gates will provide access for work further along the line. Just not a surprise you want to find on your own land!

Communication: Only by bothering workers do I know what's going on. Line and pole replacement to update the grid. I'm thankful that it's the border and not the middle of my property. Getting ahold of their "right of way" department has proven to be difficult, but I'm going to get back at it again because I'd really like to know when the actual replacement work is happening.

One more surprise in what I hope is the END of this long project: They finished the power line work and came back to smooth out the ruts from the equipment and seeded the ground with god-knows-what!

I had left a big laminated note with my name and phone number, essentially asking them to call me before they did anything final crazy things. Glad I did, because otherwise they would have torn out a culvert I had convinced them to put in. Guy said they'd just come back to clean up the ruts, but made no mention of seeding. I hope this mystery grass isn't a pain in my butt. I would have done natives. Guess I still can.  

I can't really tell what colour the seed is in the picture, but decent chance it's rye. If it's got a greenish tinge to it, that's what it is.

We've got power lines on part of our property, too. We clear the parts we care about ourselves. Some of it is really steep, awful stuff to work on, so we let them do what they want there 😁.  

The year we moved to our property, we found the access road to the powerlines, which we also use part of to access our house, had been completely rebuilt in a couple sections. This was excellent!  There were two foot deep ruts in places and one big section was under water for a few months of the year before they came in.

We never hear from them before the contractors show up, but if I contact them they're always pretty helpful. It sometimes takes a while to filter through to one of the field guys that actually knows the local area. They're awesome for real world info and solutions that the office guys can't help with.

A person I work with had a high power pole put in his front yard.   Why yes, across the road was an empty field.