Asplundh Destruction

Lately AEP, the power company, has had Asplundh destroying trees along its right-of-way. Wherever there's a power line, the trees are not safe. This morning, Asplundh came to our road to do their destruction.

I heard them before I saw them. The noise was deafening. They were clearing part of the cow pasture across the road where the power line cuts through. You can see the pole to the left in the picture below.

There's a line of pines and cedars along the cow pasture, parallel to the fence. These evergreens provide both shade and a windbreak for the cows. But some, alas, are under the power line. Most of the trees are well below the line, they're just under it.

Asplundh isn't noted for doing a neat—or environmentally responsible—job. They just cut willy-nilly. It was bad enough when they only used chainsaws. Now they use a saw on the end of a long pole mounted to a truck.

First they sawed out the tree-tops which fell to the ground. Some fell on the fence, which wasn't in very good shape to begin with.

Later, they took chainsaws and leveled off the rest. They threw a lot of the trimmings into the pasture. Now the line of evergreens is gone. Note that you don't see any power lines over what they cut.

Then the big pole saw went back to do more damage. You never know when those trees will take a growth spurt and tangle themselves in the line that you can't see below because it's way over in the pasture.

I wonder if they'll go into the pasture to cut. There's a really big bull in residence who's protective of his territory. The photo below shows one place where the fence as down. The Asplundh crew went off to lunch without putting it back up.

A border collie inspects the damage.

Not a thing of beauty anymore.

A view from my deck of the machines of destruction.

A view from my deck a couple of months earlier—when the trees along the pasture were green and beautiful. And still there.

Update: After lunch they returned and, er. cleaned up. We figured they'd chip up all the trimmings and haul them off. Hope—they just dumped them into the cow pasture. In a few weeks, this brushpile will be nice and dry. One cigarette flipped from a truck window, and—well you can figure what might happen.

They snapped a fence post and the barbed wire was down. How did they fix it?

Here's how:

They propped up the snapped post with a piece of cedar they'd trimmed. Then they affixed the prop to a stump and the snapped post with barbed wire.

Notice that they left some barbed wire strands hanging loose. Is their "repair" good enough to contain the 1,500-pound bull that lives in the pasture? Time will tell. . . . 

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