A Brave, New World Of Tree Trimming Faces Opposition

ESSEX Ken Bombaci is standing between his prized sugar maple and the electric company.

The utility sent letters to the neighborhood in December that it plans to trim back the trees all along Ingham Hill Road, a scenic dead-end lined sporadically by a low stone wall.

But nobody on the road made notice because the mailings were in nondescript envelopes, Bombaci said.

"The tree warden called me and said they are going to trim on your road," said Bombaci, a retired arborist who used to run Bombaci Tree Experts. "We alerted the neighbors, and everybody on the street decided they don't want their trees trimmed."

The refusal escalated to the town's tree warden, Augie Pampel, who backed the residents. And Connecticut Light & Power has appealed the tree warden's ruling, making it the first such petition under a new state law governing tree trimming by utilities.

It might not look like it, but the refusal and the appeal are lines in an escalating skirmish over trees in Connecticut.

Throughout the state, residents are questioning the logic of new tree trimming policies adopted by the state's two electric utilities in response to criticism over their handling of widespread and sustained power outages of recent years. While a harder pruning on trees is likely to decrease outages, residents say, is the loss really worth it?

Hundreds have packed public meetings. Thousands have signed petitions. Letters have piled into state officials' offices. In response, regulators are taking a harder look at the policies, which the utilities say are vital to keeping the lights on when severe weather is the norm.

Bombaci, in a red flannel shirt and drinking coffee one recent morning in his kitchen, casually listed off storms that failed to cause an issue for the road. Gloria, Bob, Sandy, he said, "We didn't lose power because of trees, we lost power because of equipment failure."

A tree fell on the lines during Irene but it fell from deep in the forest. "The history of the street with trees doesn't justify what they want to do," he said.

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A Brave, New World Of Tree Trimming Faces Opposition