Living in the Texas Hill Country is something our members take pride in. With centuries-old oak trees and ranches rich in family history, it is a place worth preserving. PEC shares that sentiment with our members, which is why our vegetation maintenance team works diligently to keep this area clean and beautiful.
In a service territory spanning 8,100 square miles, the vegetation can be quite diverse. No two cities are the same. But as challenging as that can be, it’s a service our crews take pride in.
“We have 30-50 crews at any given time working, and they’re moving at a very reasonable pace considering the amount of work that goes into taking care of our members’ property,” Vegetation Maintenance Manager Ryan Krause said.
We understand the importance of trimming trees with branches too close to lines, but we also share our members’ passion for this land. We strive to be proactive in our vegetation maintenance while keeping the beauty and environmental value of our trees at the forefront of our minds.
This team’s diligence and hard work has paid dividends. Krause noted that since September 6, 2023, vegetation-related outages have only accounted for about 2.5% of PEC outages. That’s incredibly small compared to some regions, which is 25-50%, according to Geospatial World.
Recently, our vegetation management team and its contractors have received multiple compliments from our members for their efforts to maintain the lines while also being mindful of their land when performing a job. Craig West, a member in Lago Vista, applauded our team for addressing his and his neighbors’ concerns about oak wilt before performing maintenance work on their trees.
He lives in an older area of Lago Vista, which means centuries-old oak trees have been growing around the utility lines there for some time. While he understands the need to trim these trees to protect the infrastructure, he was concerned that doing so might cause oak wilt to develop and spread.
“Unfortunately, we do have oak wilt within a quarter mile along the same street that connects to our property along the lines, so we just wanted the crews to be mindful of this,” West said.
He was glad he was allowed to witness how careful the crews were in ensuring their vegetation was pre-treated, and he complimented how well they cleaned up the property after the job was complete.
“They cleaned up every piece of brush, and I was delighted with their ability to do things right in addressing a very important need to prevent line breaks in the event of a storm,” West said.
Another member also commended this team’s ability to kindly and accurately address concerns about tree health before their branches were cut back.
We understand the importance of keeping vegetation healthy and this beautiful region of Texas clean, so our teams are sure to pre-treat trees and sanitize tools before cutting branches, audit tree spans after work, and pick up brush before leaving the members’ property.
“Our vision statement in the vegetation maintenance department is that in our cooperative spirit, we are safety-focused and membership-driven,” Krause said. “Our members motivate us to do what we do.”
If you would like to learn more about our vegetation maintenance effort, visit pec.coop/trees.
