• Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

Xcel Clearing Trees Like Mad

SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

sandyut

Legendary Pitmaster
OTBS Member
★ Lifetime Premier ★
Joined
Feb 18, 2015
Messages
7,913
Reaction score
6,921
Location
Colorado
Trying to get back to some kind of normalcy...and back to you guys who were a huge help in pulling us through, and continue to do that.

With all the wind storms and fires many new norms up here. First PSPS (public safety power shutoff) from Xcel - I get it, we have a generator and Starlink, so they dont affect us much.

But a few weeks back they started cutting every live thing under the powerlines and removing all trees within 10' of power poles. They chip everything that will fit in the chipper, but leave the logs on the property. They left us logs so big and heavy I had to cut them up to move them. And I couldnt give them away. Luckily our neighbor was having some fire mitigation done and I asked the crew if they would take the logs with them for a $50. They said for sure. win/win and they are finally gone!
 
Hi Dave , it will be a long time for any normal...Normal.

As for the cutting around the power poles , even here they clear close to 20 feet on either side of the big power line runs. My friend's yard that backed on the power line property was nice and covered for years. And when the family went to sell his big home after he dided 2 years ago. Bad timing as the Power corp came in and cleard miles of there power grid trees and everything else.
That was a very big eyesore. Really took away from the back yard area. It was just a big shock, once it looked like you were set in the woods .... after the cuts it looked discusting. They did sell the property, thank god the rest of the property was really nice ( this was a 2 3 milliuon $ piece of land )


Gled you got rid of the downed logs

David
 
Hi Dave,

Like your solution, definitely a win on all sides save for the $50 but worth it to remove an eyesore that would have permanently remained. Power companies around here are similar, they cut down what has to be but leave without cleaning up after themselves. Only diff is if it's smaller stuff they usually have a chipper on site.

Really good to see ya stepping back in!
 
If you can get solar and a Tesla Power Wall or two, you can never worry about what Xcel does or doesn't do again. Between that and the generator you'll never have to worry about them again.
 
Hi Dave , it will be a long time for any normal...Normal.

As for the cutting around the power poles , even here they clear close to 20 feet on either side of the big power line runs. My friend's yard that backed on the power line property was nice and covered for years. And when the family went to sell his big home after he dided 2 years ago. Bad timing as the Power corp came in and cleard miles of there power grid trees and everything else.
That was a very big eyesore. Really took away from the back yard area. It was just a big shock, once it looked like you were set in the woods .... after the cuts it looked discusting. They did sell the property, thank god the rest of the property was really nice ( this was a 2 3 milliuon $ piece of land )


Gled you got rid of the downed logs

David
Could not agree more...But we are trying.

I guess we are not alone with the tree clearing for fire safety. Hope it helps, its gonna b a dry hot summer.
 
Hi Dave,

Like your solution, definitely a win on all sides save for the $50 but worth it to remove an eyesore that would have permanently remained. Power companies around here are similar, they cut down what has to be but leave without cleaning up after themselves. Only diff is if it's smaller stuff they usually have a chipper on site.

Really good to see ya stepping back in!
Hey Matt,
Interesting for sure to hear this is more common than we thought. They sure left a mess, 4 50gallon bags of small branches and junk, then the logs. Felt bad for a couple ladies down the street, they are elderly and the tree cutters left an immoveable log in the street gutter (which is dirt). So i drug it out of the ditch with my truck and cut it down to size. I really feel like these guys could have tried a little harder. But what ever.
 
If you can get solar and a Tesla Power Wall or two, you can never worry about what Xcel does or doesn't do again. Between that and the generator you'll never have to worry about them again.
We have solar. No batteries tho. Not sure how long the batteries last, but we have had a few 4 day outages. So the generator is priceless.
 
They came through here last year and cleared out everything that was in the easement , including 3 river birch in my yard . 1K worth of trees I had planted 2 years before .
They didn't leave a mess though . Cleaned up everything and even ground down the stumps .
The guy also hauled off an ash tree I had cut down in the front yard for nothing .
 
I wouldn't mind if they did the same where we live on the lines in our next of the woods. We use our wood stove to keep the house warm in the winter. Though didn't go through much wood this winter. I've been cutting trees down, dead and dying, on our land for 14 years now. I wouldn't mind going to the neighbors and getting their downed trees on the road side. Better than having to hauling up a somewhat steep hill. We only lost power once this winter due to wind.

Glad to hear you are getting back to somewhat of normal!
 
With hurricanes and such down here they trim the lines every 3 to 5 years and they trim the areas hard. They do come back and clean up the mess including logs if there are any. As often as they come through there aren't usually many logs
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Back
Top
Clicky