Downed trees cause half of all power outages in province    photo courtesy BC Hydro

Prince George, BC – Trees and power lines don’t mix…

According to BC Hydro, our province has three times more trees per kilometre of power line than any other utility in North Amercia.

And the utility says more than half of all power outages in the province are caused by trees.  Residents living in our region witnessed the impacts first-hand last weekend, when a powerful windstorm whipped through the area. 

Photo at right shows one Prince George neighbourhood where Fire Rescue was called out to deal with a tree falling over a transmission line. 

While trees contacting  power lines pose a fire risk, they can also become energized, posing a serious safety hazard.

BC Hydro spends more than $50-million dollars annually on vegetation maintenance to prevent outages along the 74-thousand kilometres of overhead power lines.  While that pruning is done year-round, the utility says it’s busy now doing a lot of that work, just before the seasonal growth begins.