When a storm brings a tree down on a power line, first on the scene are often the professional tree trimmers. These individuals have specialized knowledge of power circuits, electrical hazards and tree species. 

With wildfire rates rising, and the demand for utilities’ infrastructure hardening, utility arborists are on the front line. 

Puget Sound Energy (PSE), Bellevue, Wash., has increased the frequency and intensity of vegetation management in higher wildfire risk areas to prevent the possibility of ignitions when trees interact with electrical infrastructure, said Gerald Tracy, media engagement program manager at PSE. 

That puts utility arborists in hot demand. How they are trained and deployed varies among regions. The densely forested Pacific Northwest is an area where they are getting the most intensive training and setting examples for other parts of the country. 

The Northwest Line JATC, Battle Ground, Wash., puts individuals through two years and 4,000 hours of training on tree and vegetation management and the electrical systems they grow around. Physical training ensures they can handle rigorous tasks, from climbing trees, to using advanced aerial lifts, to rope access rescues and in-depth electrical training. 

“The biggest push right now is around fire hardening,” said Scott Barnes, assistant director for NW Line JATC’s tree program. 

Up and down the West Coast, Barnes has seen a new mentality take root for improving fire prevention around utility lines. This shift for utility companies followed the deadly Camp Fire in 2018 that swept through Butte County, Calif. That wildfire, the most destructive in the state’s history, was started by electrical transmission lines, strong winds and dry conditions. Since then, utilities have been allocating a larger percent of their budget to examining the transmission and distribution lines for foliage.

Additionally, more storms have increased the likelihood of power outages caused by downed trees or limbs on live wires, which must be cleared before line repair work can be done. 

“We’ve seen growth” in fire trimming demand, Barnes said. “It’s uncalculated really at this point; we are growing faster than ever before, and it’s all around this fire hardening.”

A decade ago, the Utility Arborist program averaged about 90 apprentices for each two-year program. The number is now averaging 350, and it is expected to settle above 500 apprentices. Crew ratios historically consist of a foreman with at least five years of experience, but today apprentices are being promoted from journeyman to foreman much faster, putting some pressure on work sites as older workers retire. 

With that in mind, the trainers, employers and utilities seek to empower young workers to ask for extra help when they need it. The utilities, contractors and training program have formed a partnership to provide the support. 

“The utility and the contractors have done a great job of helping that young foreman,” Barnes said, by offering a way to reach out for support. They’re encouraged to say, “I don’t know how to do this,” if a new challenge arises. 

With the 2024–2025 winter at hand, Barnes said, that continued training and support is paying off. 

“I think we’ll be much more prepared this year. Some of the cohesiveness [between employers, trainers and the new foremen] has actually gotten stronger over the last couple of years as this change in workforce happened,” he said.

Working around America’s biggest trees 

NW Line JATC covers Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Northern Idaho—an area with unique terrain and challenges when it comes to utility safety and reliability, said Keith Blakeslee, training coordinator for NW Line JATC’s tree program. “We’re very different than the rest of the country,” and that has meant developing one of the most comprehensive training programs. “The focus is on the highest-caliber training possible,” he said. That affects how the program is taught and what equipment is used. 

“We’re investing in everything from the books to the equipment and the time spent with that person,” Blakeslee said.

There are clear reasons for needing that additional training when it comes to the forests in the four-state area. 

“Our trees aren’t like [those] anywhere else,” he said, considering the towering Douglas firs, cedars and sequoias. 

The skills it takes to remove or trim them proficiently around an energized primary wire are unlike anywhere else in the country, Blakeslee said. “There’s people everywhere doing a good job, it’s just we’re focused on doing the best job.” 

That’s in part due to the hiring utilities’ expectations. He said they want an educated labor force—both because of wildfire danger as well as the numerous large trees that require experienced crews, he said.

PSE requires tree crews working on the system “to be line clearance qualified tree crews that have the training and knowledge necessary to work within proximity of high-voltage overhead electrical lines,” Tracy said. “PSE requires its contract tree crews to comply with all applicable regulations and vegetation-related industry standards, including ANSI A300 and Z133.1.”

In the past, there may have been a fundamental misunderstanding of what these line clearance and utility arborists do. Until recently, power line clearance tree trimmers were categorized by the U.S. Department of Labor under “landscaping.” That has changed, as the demand has increased with appreciation for their work. Last year, a classification was added with the new labor code of utility arborist, which is considered a skilled trade. 

At the same time, federal regulatory agencies such as the Department of Labor have taken an interest in the work and potential health or safety risks. One example is the use of dielectrically insulated tools, which are what lineworkers use. 

Every day is different

Just two years into the arborist role for the electrical industry, Jared Paselk, an apprentice tree trimmer at Asplundh Tree Expert, Willow Grove, Pa., covers a wide swath of eastern Oregon. He is near the end of his apprenticeship with the NW Line JATC where he learned the techniques he uses around hot power lines, and the trees that grow near them. 

 “There seems to be a big push towards safety,” Paselk said. He pointed out that daily they’re working near hot power lines, ”often just as close as the linemen do, and we don’t get the joys of being able to shut off the power all the time.”

 Beyond maintenance trimming are the emergency calls. “Storm situations get really interesting,” he said, when a call goes out that a tree has knocked down a pole or is hung up on a power line.

Paselk recalled an ice storm last winter when the top of a cedar came down and the crew arrived to find it “just hanging on the three-phase [three-wire] line, just dangling there, bouncing on the wires.” They know what to do, but every challenge is slightly unique. 

“We roll up, we secure the scene, we do a job briefing [and] our linemen call in to dispatch to request a line crew so they can confirm that the line is deenergized,” he said. 

And the work begins. By the time their work is done, the arborists usually have acquired a lot of information about the line’s status, which can be forwarded to the line crew. 

“When we’re done with the job, we need to be able to relay information to dispatch so that when they send the line crew to come—after we’ve cleaned everything up—we can give them some information like, ‘hey, there’s some broken poles, there’s wires down, and a broken transformer here,’ just to give them an idea of what they’re going to need to bring back to the job site to repair the system,” Paselk said.

He credits his training for keeping him and his co-workers safe and effective. “I think the Northwest Line JATC is the top apprenticeship out of the entire country when it comes to just arboricultural techniques, basic work sites, safety gear including personal protective equipment and the training necessary to mitigate electrical hazards. Anybody who comes through that program knows the seriousness of the hazards, but also how to deal with them,” he said.

Paselk sees each tree as a puzzle, “and we spend our day-to-day figuring out how to pick that puzzle apart safely and remove hazards from our electrical system.”

That means physically demanding work, climbing, cutting and chipping. He added that when heights increase exponentially, workers leverage mechanical lifts and their own climbing skills. Bucket lifts can reach 125 feet, and sometimes trimmers step out of the bucket at its highest point, and then climb another 60 to 80 feet. 

“There’s some guys that have climbed 200 feet up into a tree just to chunk it down and remove it,” Paselk said.

Fitness training and skills

Richard Davis, a tree trimmer at Asplundh, agrees that the work requires physical fitness. 

“[The job is] kind of a hidden gem, honestly,” Davis said. He added that “cutting down trees is easy—it’s just when they’re around power lines makes it kind of difficult.”

Davis appreciates the safety focus on the part of his employer and the utility. 

“I don’t want someone on my crew who’s going to put himself in danger, or myself in danger,” he said. He has a 14-month-old waiting at home for him. “I’ve got to come home and see him every night. We take safety very seriously.”

For those best qualified for the work, there are a few considerations, Davis added. 

“If you’re afraid of heights, it’s probably not going to be a good job to do. And you can’t be scatterbrained.” One more thing: someone who scares easily might want to make a different job choice.

“I thrive in chaos, you know, I’m just in my zone,” he said. He is able to take that chaos and focus it into an orderly solution. Back on the ground, he said, “We’re literally like one giant family—even in that kind of high-stress environment, it seems like people get along great.” 

When it comes to the hardship of the physicality, the team supports each other through it.