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gigabit fiber internet woes

 
master pollinator
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This past late winter our electric company installed fiber for Internet. It has killed many of my shrubs and trees. Fortunately, most were volunteers at no financial cost. There were no nasty spraying involved.

Observe.




Watching the land under the power lines, I've been trying to figure out what may survive there. These are not the complete lists. Will add as more are seen.

List of the dead
Wild cherry trees
An apple tree
Chinese privit
Wild roses
Black locust
Hybrid willows (type unknown)
Goldenrod!
Poke salat

List of survivors
Pine trees
Oaks
Callery pears
Elderberries
Redbud trees
Weigela
Spiderwort
Passion fruit
Some spiky plant with spearlike leaves like yucca

Seen below is live privit at 15 feet away from the power lines. To the left, that tangle of dead sticks is mostly privit.



Has anyone else had success with trees under these circumstances?
 
steward and tree herder
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What do you think has killed your trees Joylynn? I'm confused.
 
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Wow, that is pretty crazy. My first thought would be that they sprayed something. I know you mentioned there was no spray involved, so I'm not sure what would cause that.
 
Steward of piddlers
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I wonder if the line was stretched on the ground/physical traffic might of caused damage?

I'm not sure what winters look like in your neck of the woods, do you get freezes?
 
Joylynn Hardesty
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There is a change in the energy field below the lines. I myself standing directly under the new lines can feel the new field. I believe that the new energy field is the cause of deaths. We have had 5g from a different provider hung from the same poles that did not have this effect. I believe that different plants have different tolerances.

I've observed over the years the effect of the bad spraying that the electric company has done. It is not the same kind of scorched earth damage.
 
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I have had a similar experience.  The company used a full fledged trencher that ran over everything in its path and sliced up the roots. Fortunately, the overall damage was minimal because they did follow the path I laid out for them.
 
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That’s very weird. And disturbing. If they do that to plants, wh…..

I have not seen any effects like that from energy only but only a few subtle observations. I don’t know if they mean anything yet. I still wonder if it’s some chemical, whether sprayed intentionally or not.

However I can feel the road from about fifty yards away. Unfortunately I live in that fifty yard space. When I get free of it it is an immediate relief. Could be air pollution? There are of course cables going all along the road.

I also think it’s weird that fiber would have issues. We have it here and I don’t notice this effect happening. But maybe I should pay closer attention.
 
Matt McSpadden
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Joylynn Hardesty wrote:There is a change in the energy field below the lines. I myself standing directly under the new lines can feel the new field. I believe that the new energy field is the cause of deaths. ...



This is definitely a strange phenomenon. Fiber should have little to no energy radiation that I am aware of. Electrical lines and traditional copper lines sure... but fiber tends to be one of the lesser options.
 
M Ljin
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I wonder if it’s something they used on the wire, or poles, like a preservative? Or they could have used a different, less effective herbicide?
 
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Matt McSpadden wrote:Fiber should have little to no energy radiation that I am aware of.


That's what I thought too, since it's just a beam of light passing down a glass(ish) rod. I know that fiber is sometimes used to replace copper for people with EM sensitivities, but I don't know the details. This is fascinating.

Any chance that they sprayed something harmful to plants, not in order to harm the plants but just as part of the installation? Like, I don't know, a lubricant or weatherproofing or something? (x-posted with the above suggesting a similar idea.)
 
M Ljin
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Sorry, I’m flailing a bit. It seems inexplicable. Soil compression?

Let’s see… the ones that survived or at least some of them are really hardy, sandy soil loving plants mostly. Elderberry is mysterious. I don’t know, scrap that idea?

Pines and oaks like their ectomycorrhizae, that jumps out at me. Apples and cherries are less mycorrhizal as far as I know (or endomycorrhizal). But so are elderberries, pears, etc. Goldenrod seems to like fungal soils. Confusing.

How do you kill wild roses??? The only way I know is herbicides, assiduous cutting, or let trees grow up over them. Or maybe desiccation.

However… I actually don’t see that many by roadsides. You’d think you would see more… however apples love the roadside.
 
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I'm in the 'sure looks like they sprayed' camp I guess.

We went round and round with the power company 'vegetation managers' at our old place...no one ever asked permission and it was sneaky as the power lines were on another part of the property....the guys who sprayed just did as they were told.

Sometimes spraying will not kill everything in it's path and your photo seems to show a clear 'dead' area in a line...
I wonder how you are so certain an herbicide wasn't used?
 
Joylynn Hardesty
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They ran the lines late winter. The trees and everything leafed out as normal. They slowly struggled and died out late July.

The last picture shows a row of dead privit. The dead portion is 10 feet away from the lines, which run to the left. Between the lines one the dead privit is 10 feet of mown grass. 5 foot dead then you see everything to the right is green. There is no reason to spray 10 feet away from the lines.

This pattern of death is consistent along the highway power lines, also in locations extremely difficult to access.

Hunny is almost always home, on alert for strangers wandering around on our place. Oddly I kinda wish they had sprayed, because most of this would recover.
 
M Ljin
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That is very helpful.

Could it be leaching down chemicals every time it rains from the cable?
 
Nancy Reading
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I'm wondering about something that leaked from their machinery -- like hydraulic fluid? Or compaction is another possibility as suggested above.
 
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Was the work done overhead or with buried cable? Also, sometimes they control understory growth by spraying from a truck hauling big tank in the back. With the nozzle the truck just drives along the road slowly and you may not even notice it passing by.
 
M Ljin
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I actually noticed this happening here too—only some of the plants dying under the large wire thing.
 
Joylynn Hardesty
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It is over head wires that were installed. If a truck had driven in my yard, they would have gotten stuck, leaving deep ruts as evidence. There is no road on this property line. Next door had 5 foot tall weeds that would have been crushed, along with the truck getting stuck. The damage to my plants is similar to those a long the accessable roadside..

In better news, three purchased fruit bearers  have new signs of life.
 
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