08/31/2026
Arborist Jerry DeBarge, our owner, has worked with trees in Southwest Louisiana for more than 25 years. He understands why people are upset by some of the severe pruning we're seeing lately.
As someone who loves and works to preserve trees, he shares much of that reaction. But he also believes there's another side of the issue worth discussing: the long-term conflict created when large-growing trees are planted beneath power lines.
Here's Jerry's commentary in the latest American Press:
Like many people in Southwest Louisiana, I have been watching the controversy surrounding the pruning of trees along utility lines.
I have spent more than 25 years working with trees in this region. I love our trees, especially our old live oaks, and I have built my career around preserving good trees whenever reasonably possible.
So I hate seeing a beautiful tree severely pruned around a power line.
But that reaction also highlights an uncomfortable truth: The power line isn’t in the wrong place. The tree is.
In many cases, the conflict began years or decades ago, when someone planted a tree capable of growing 50, 60 or 80 feet tall beneath infrastructure that would always require clearance pruning.
From that moment on, a conflict was inevitable. And it is an expensive conflict. Crews have to return repeatedly to manage it, and those maintenance costs become part of the cost of providing electricity. Ultimately, we all help pay for a planting decision that may create expense for the entire life of the tree.
Utility pruning is different from ordinary residential pruning. Its primary purpose is maintaining safe clearance and reliable electrical service, not preserving appearance. Proper directional pruning can leave a tree one-sided or create a V-shaped canopy. That may be difficult to see, but appearance alone does not mean the work was improper.
More frequent, less severe pruning might look better, but it would also require crews to return more often and increase costs. That does not excuse unnecessarily severe pruning. Cuts should be made properly, unnecessary damage should be avoided, and only as much live canopy as reasonably necessary should be removed. Utilities and contractors should be held to accepted arboricultural standards.
Safety is another important consideration. Tree work is dangerous, and working around energized conductors adds significant risk. In Southwest Louisiana, hurricanes make the consequences even more serious. Maintaining clearance before a storm is difficult; dealing with broken trees tangled in power lines afterward can be more dangerous still.
The crews doing this work did not create the conflict between the tree and the power line. They are managing it under difficult and hazardous conditions.
The better solution is to prevent the conflict in the first place.
We need to stop planting large-growing trees underneath power lines.
Live oaks, pecans and other large shade trees should be planted where they have room to develop their natural crowns. Where trees must be planted beneath or near utility lines, choose species whose mature size fits the available space.
No amount of good pruning can permanently solve the problem of putting the wrong tree in the wrong place. If we truly love trees, we should give them room to become the trees they were meant to be.
So when we see a severely pruned tree, we should ask not only, “Why did they cut it like that?”
We should also ask, “Why was a tree that would someday become this large planted underneath a power line in the first place?”
If we start asking that question today, perhaps the next generation will see fewer trees that ever need to be cut like this at all.
