Excel takes out more trees due to East Coast power outages
by Laura Adelmann
Thisweek Newspapers
Sandra Lintz of Burnsville still tears up when she remembers the thick, beautiful spruce trees that recently lined her back yard.
For years, Xcel Energy had trimmed the thick trees that were under the company’s power lines, but in May she was informed her trees would have to be removed.
Although Xcel said they would cut the trees and remove the debris, Lintz would have to pay for having the stumps ground out if she wanted to replant in that spot.
Of course, the neighborhood’s 57-year-old founding resident, known for her beautiful landscaping and overflowing flower gardens, wanted to cover the bare back yard.
PHOTO: Sandra Lintz stands in her back yard where she recently planted small trees in an effort to landscape the bare spot left when Xcel Energy removed four spruce trees last month. Power lines loom above. Photo by Laura Adelmann
Although she has created a fledgling garden area surrounded by
landscaping rocks, Lintz mourns the loss of her tall spruce trees and
is angry that Xcel Energy refused to trim her trees and instead opted
to take them out.
The tree’s shade helped her control her heating and cooling bills,
buffered noise from the busy street and attracted song birds to her
property.
When the trees were removed, workers threw bird nests out, she said.
“I’m just devastated,” Lintz said, explaining how much she cares for
her gardening projects. “I go to work, and my yard is my joy.”
Xcel has an easement under its lines, sold on Lintz’s property for $205 in 1953.
There are many such easements in the Keller Lake neighborhood at the
Apple Valley/Burnsville border where tall power lines run through
numerous yards.
Lintz said her real estate agent told her when she purchased the
property more than 20 years ago, that the lines would be buried within
10 years.
Brad Weidenfeller, supervisor of transmission vegetation management
with Xcel, said Lintz’s trees had grown too close to the power lines
and presented a hazard.
Xcel spokesman Tom Hoen said power outages on the East Coast were
attributed to trees interfering with power lines and the company has to
think of safety first.
To follow safety codes, Weidenfeller said trees must be maintained at a 20-foot clearance from electrical conductors.
Trimming Lintz’s spruce trees to maintain that clearance level would
have required cutting them practically in half, an act that would
eventually kill the trees.
Lintz is upset she received no compensation for the trees and has
struggled to pay for the landscaping work she’s been forced to do.
“My yard was so beautiful,” he said, fighting tears. “I don’t have the
energy or strength I had before, and I can’t afford to pay somebody to
do (the landscape work).”
Although she said she didn’t feel it was fair for the company to take
the trees without compensating her for the loss, she said she couldn’t
afford to take legal action.
“I didn’t have the money to hire an attorney to fight a big corporation like that,” Lintz said.
In 2006, the city of Burnsville fought plans by Magellan pipeline
company to clear trees in a 50-foot path along a 2,500-foot east/west
easement located between I-35W and Burnsville Parkway.
The company wanted the easement for maintenance and inspections.
Alarmed residents had contacted the city, which would win a restraining order and threaten a lawsuit to save mature trees.
After officials with Magellan agreed to work with each homeowner to customize a tree-removal plan, the suit was dropped.
According to a Thisweek Newspaper article, the plan allowed for fewer mature trees to be removed.
Lintz’s neighbor Scott Culler, who has lived in the neighborhood for
about 20 years, also lost a tree in his yard due to Xcel’s power lines.
He said he was also upset to learn that his tree needed to be taken out but understood the reasons for it.
“I don’t like to have to spend extra money to re-landscape, but it is a
potential hazard and you have to be proactive about that stuff,” he
said.
But for Lintz, the loss of her trees that were a central piece of her landscaping has not been that easy to deal with.
Although it’s been about a month, Lintz said she is still upset and
feels her loss to the point she has difficultly eating or sleeping.
Neighbor Ann-Marie Varpness said Lintz was devastated as she watched
other trees in the neighborhood being trimmed or coming down.
“She was so shaking when they were doing my tree – she was afraid they
were going to come and do hers that day,” Varpness said. “Just watching
the others go down, I think, made it worse.”
As it went, Lintz’s trees stood until the next day. Se figures workers
to whom she had spoken were trying to afford her one last day to enjoy
them.
Laura Adelmann is at
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So it's like they came in and said "Delete Column." Heh. :-)