Adding to your landscape? Plant the right tree in the right place
Trees and shrubs are a critical part of our environment and provide many benefits, from absorbing pollutants and cleaning the air we breathe to providing shelter and food for wildlife.
When adding trees to your landscape, it’s important to plant the right tree in the right place. Choosing trees that won’t grow into or fall onto power lines when they grow to their maximum height helps prevent tree-related outages. This generally means large trees should be planted at least 50 feet away from electric utility wires.
Large trees close to power lines can pose a threat, particularly during damaging storms, when branches or whole trees can fall and take down power lines and cause outages.
We’re committed to providing the safest, most reliable and most affordable power to our 1.5 million customers, and we work year-round to prune trees that can cause disruptive power outages. Customers can do their part by following the right tree, right place approach.
We don’t prune or remove trees on or beneath the service wire between your house and our utility poles. We can de-energize the wire and lower it to the ground for work to be done. Call us at 1-800-342-5775 at least five business days in advance of the work.
Here are some other things to remember when adding trees or other vegetation on your property:
Avoid planting trees and other vegetation near power lines when possible. Check out the graphic on the right for recommended spacing between trees and power lines.- Click here for a list of recommended tree and shrub species for planting near power lines.
- Plant tall-growing trees at least 50 feet from power lines.
- Don’t plant anything near neighborhood transformers.
- Call 811 at least three business days before digging to make sure the area is checked for underground utilities, including underground power lines. For more on safe digging, visit www.pa1call.org.
- Have qualified professionals prune trees near power lines. Contact with power lines can cause serious injury or death and electricity can “flash over” if someone gets too close.
- Visit the Arbor Day Foundation’s website (https://www.arborday.org/planning-selection-location) for additional resources and information about tree planting.