Power Line Maintenance

The last 2 days the local power company, Avista, has been on the golf course removing and pruning trees that are encroaching onto the power lines and creating a safety hazard.

Just like roads and right-of-ways, power companies have a right-of-way directly underneath the power lines where they can remove or prune any vegetation that is growing, and there is a right-of-way that extends out 50' of the transmission line.  Some trees were limbed and 6 trees were removed.  They chipped the branches and we ground the stumps.

You see with the tree below, over the years the power company keeps trimming the top and we keep trimming up the bottom so we can play golf and get our maintenance equipment underneath.  Over the years it creates a very poor looking specimen and removal is the best option, allowing us to re-plant a lower growing species that will not get as tall.

Or with this location on the right side of #9 fairway, the greens committee is currently discussing the idea of adding a couple fairway bunkers to the right side.

Most of the trees removed have very little impact on the playability of the course, except this one on #9 is the only critical one.