Boone Electric Cooperative’s primary goal is to provide safe, reliable power to our members. To succeed at that goal, the cooperative maintains an aggressive Right-of-Way program. The majority of outages across the cooperative system are caused when trees and limbs come in contact with power lines. Keeping those trees from making contact will help to lessen both the number of outages and their length.

The cooperative maintains nearly 3,000 miles of distribution line (including more than 2,000 overhead miles) to ensure our service reliability. Three in-house BEC crews and up to 14 contract crews make their way along the distribution lines, trimming trees back a reasonable distance. Crew members clear the right of way in a variety of ways, using the safest and most efficient method – they climb trees and trim limbs with a chainsaw, use the chainsaw from the bucket truck, or attach a hand saw to a long pole for hard-to-reach limbs. They also use bush hogs and other ground-moving equipment to clear the corridor beneath the power lines.

The tree trimming crews each work a circuit around Boone Electric’s service territory. The Right-of-Way Department’s goal is to clear the rights of way near all of the co-op’s distribution lines in a five-year rotation. By the time the crews return to areas trimmed just a few years prior, new saplings have grown and new limbs sprouted. The tree trimming work is never ending.

In the early summer, crews spray an environmentally safe herbicide to help clear new growth under the power lines.

The cooperative informs landowners before applying the herbicide, which is safe to animals and humans. In 2009 the department hired a contract crew to use a low-volume spray aimed directly at tree saplings in a particularly dense area of north Boone County. The contract crew sprayed under nearly 350 miles of power lines.

BEC contracts crews from several outside tree trimming businesses to help maintain cooperative rights of way. Each of these crews will have a sign on their truck, signifying them as a contract crew.

Arbor Row
Asplundh
Busy Bee
Wright Tree

Taller-growing trees planted too close to power lines can increase the cooperative’s maintenance costs. Click here to view a map of the proper planting areas for trees around your home.

When the cooperative must remove a tree that it interfering with power lines, we will replace the tree at no charge. Members can choose from several species of trees or bushes. A local nursery contractor will then plant the new species a safe distance from power lines.

To report a tree that may be interfering with a power line, call Boone Electric Cooperative at 449-4181 and ask for the Right-of-Way Department