Vegetation management—including tree trimming and cutting and spraying—is an important aspect of WIEC’s goal of delivering power to you that is safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible. In fact, our vegetation management program can help reduce outages caused by things such as branches falling on lines during storms, shrubbery interfering with voltage levels or weeds in right-of-way areas making access to equipment difficult.

Western Illinois Electrical Coop. will prune or spray a tree only when the tree poses the safety and reliability risks of coming into contact with power lines. Our employees carefully follow guidelines according to recognized industry standards.

We need to take care of trees or brush that could pose safety or reliability issues before someone is injured or experiences a power outage. This applies to trees with branches that could come into contact with power lines during heavy winds or ice, as well as trees with branches that could bounce into power lines on windy days, causing blinking lights or momentary outages.

We realize that property owners value their trees. Our crews are very diligent in trimming or spraying only what is absolutely necessary. National standards require that a minimum distance of 10 feet from energized or potentially energized electrical equipment must be maintained. The crews also identify expected growth patterns of trees between one pruning and the next pruning cycle; some faster-growing trees may require more clearance than others.

WIEC has 1,208 miles of overhead line in four different counties. We have devoted time and money to routine vegetation management programs that have paid off by having fewer outages, better system reliability and shorter outage times. We are committed to doing all we can do to keep the lights on.

For questions about WIEC’s vegetation management policy, please contact our office.