Trees and electrons don't mix.

People in the East and Midwest learned that the hard way in 2003 when branches shorted out an Ohio power line, triggering the nation's largest electrical blackout.

Mother Nature taught her most recent followup lesson last year with a rare Halloween weekend snowstorm.

During that phenomenon, soggy accumulations pushed numerous trees and branches onto transmission wires, plunging 388,000 PPL customers in the region into darkness.

PPL, under federal mandate, had already started working on a stepped-up program to clear vegetation away from high-voltage transmission lines.

It's been notifying some county residents that tree trimmers will be working on or near their properties in the near future.

The utility also announced last week that it's boosting its 2012 "vegetation management" budget by $12 million, to an unprecedented $45 million.

Overall, the utility will trim along 1,295 miles of lines in its Lancaster region in 2012, an increase of 326 miles over last year.

Ramped-up trimming nationwide has sparked friction with some tree lovers.

In Conestoga, Julie Saurbaugh understands the need to cut.

But she said she also has "a very strong attachment" to the 47 trees she's planted with her husband, Robert, in the past 10 years.

Two of the couple's white ash trees stand in a PPL power line easement that passes behind their home.

The Saurbaughs would like to move the trees about 35 feet closer to their house.

But one of the ashes has grown to 10 inches in diameter.

The job has been put off in hopes the ground will freeze and support the heavy equipment needed to move the tree.

With prolonged cold nowhere in sight, the Saurbaughs have asked PPL for an extension until next year.

Julie Saurbaugh, who is a Lancaster Newspapers Inc. employee, said she hopes to see her trees grow toward maturity.

"I just love trees," she added. "The bigger they are, the better I like them."

Branch on a wire
Storms in recent months have slammed Lancaster County trees –– and electrical lines.

After Hurricane Isabel 13 years ago, according to PPL executives, Hurricane Irene last August and the fluke snow Oct. 29 were the second and third most disruptive storms in the utility's history.

At a hearing before state lawmakers last fall, PPL weathered sharp criticism for how it handled customer calls about widespread power outages during Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in September.

The utility, swamped by more than 100,000 calls per hour during the height of Irene and the snowstorm, has pledged to spend $3 million to $5 million to upgrade its call handling and response system.

Government regulators have long linked trees to serious service failures in the nation's mostly above-ground electrical grid.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. blames trees short-circuiting wires for the bulk of major U.S. blackouts over the past 15 years.

In 2003, 50 million people in the eastern U.S. and Canada abruptly lost power after FirstEnergy Corp. transmission lines in northern Ohio came into contact with tree limbs.

Investigators also tied the debacle to human error and computer failures.

Still, the falling limbs sparked political fallout.

The federal government developed a mandatory vegetation control program for utilities and, in 2007, granted NERC the power to enforce new reliability standards by levying stiff penalties of up to $1 million a day.

The federal rules apply to high-voltage 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt lines, which PPL spokesman Joe Nixon called "the backbone of the transmission system in this country."

The company consequently launched a proactive program "to comply with these standards," Nixon said.

Tree workers hired by PPL are in the third and final year of a "wire zone-border zone" campaign to clear corridors for the utility's 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt lines, Nixon said.

About 1,000 miles of corridor have been cleared using "best practices," he added, and the rest of the work is scheduled to be wrapped up in July.

PPL covers 29 Pennsylvania counties. It maintains on a rotating basis 50,000 miles of power lines, including lower-voltage neighborhood distribution lines strung on roadside poles.

Distribution lines are not affected by the federal standards, Nixon said. Trees along those lines will be maintained as before with "directional pruning."

The utility's 138-kilovolt and 69-kilovolt transmission lines are not covered by the government mandate either, Nixon said.

But last fall's snowstorm damaged eight of the company's 69-kilovolt lines, he added.

Trimming along these smaller transmission lines will thus also be increased and pursued "in a more aggressive manner" than previously, Nixon said.

"What we've done in the past was selective vegetation management. That isn't adequate to ensure the long-term ... reliability of the power grid."

Nixon noted that transmission line rights of way must be adequately cleared to improve access for utility workers and because the current from the lines can arc to nearby trees.

The lines handle heavier loads and thus sag closer to the ground in very hot or very cold weather, he added.

Property owners along transmission line corridors are being told about tree trimming plans through two mailings and, in some cases, personal contact by contractors.

According to a recent PPL letter sent to some county residents: "Trees and shrubs that we have allowed in our right of way in the past now must be cleared." Some low-growing vegetation may be allowed to remain or fill in the outer edges of PPL's right of way.

"We understand that this work may not always be popular with landowners," the letter continued, "but it is the right thing to do."

PPL brochures list compatible species, such as dogwoods and blueberry bushes, that can be planted for wildlife habitat near the power lines.

Neal Pedersen, owner of Penn Grant Services Inc. in Lancaster, said he transplants trees marked for PPL felling at least once a year.

People call him because they realize "a tree has a lot of value" as a "giant air conditioner" that also pumps out oxygen, soaks up carbon dioxide and beautifies the view, said Pedersen, who is working with the Saurbaughs.

Critics of accelerated trimming have said the programs go too far by ignoring aesthetics and clearcutting trees that need only be pruned.

New York-based writer Jessica Francis Kane invented a term –– "arbotchery" –– and created "an illustrated catalog of abuse" for describing what happens when she says neighborhood trees are "hacked, whacked, and chopped into unnatural shapes in the name of the power company."

Joyce Nettke, a Strasburg Township birdwatcher and attorney once involved with establishing a recreation trail along the former Enola Low-Grade Line, said she's heard no complaints about PPL's high-tension lines initiative.

However, she said, news of the expanded policy makes her apprehensive.

"They've been conservative about [trimming] until now," Nettke said.

Contact Sunday News staff writer Jon Rutter at jrutter@lnpnews.com.