Staff Writer 

Every spring, Rick Landry watches the tree trimmers work their way down Route 1 and eventually branch out onto Pine Point Road. 

This year, Landry was particularly excited to see Central Maine Power subcontractors begin annual trimming. He’d planned to hire an independent arborist to trim the backside of two large maples in his front yard after the trimmers passed his home on Pine Point Road. 

“I was going to have somebody come in and even it out on the other side,” he said. “Just to try and keep them symmetrical-looking.”

Landry’s plans were largely inspired by the anticipated arrival of an out-of-state visitor he said first showed up in summer 2006. Landry said he noticed the woman taking pictures of the trees when he arrived home one afternoon. The woman explained she was attracted to the color of the leaves, which was unlike any others she had seen.

“Now she comes and takes pictures of the trees every year, about the same time,” Landry said. “I don’t know her number, just her name.”

This year, Landry’s visitor is in for a surprise.

Last week, he said he arrived home while Lucas Tree Experts employees were working in his front yard, diligently trimming the two maples nearly to their trunks.

It was Earth Day.

“It was more shocking than anything else,” Landry said. “I’m a practical man. If I have to choose between four days without power or having symmetrical trees, I’ll take the former, but did it have to be this bad?”

Central Maine Power Spokesman Gail Rice says it does.

“We send out a notice as a bill stuffer in February, I think, which is pretty early in the year,” she said. “Our crews trim 15 feet above the lines and eight feet to either side.”

Rice said many homeowners may be surprised at the amount of trimming going on this year, as the company is catching up on a major tree-trimming effort that has been put on a five-year, $23 million rotation. 

“Tree contact is the number one cause of outages in Maine,” she said. “The trees had grown more than what was optimal. We’re really trying to get the cutting cycle down.”

Scarborough Public Works Director Mike Shaw said Central Maine Power have a responsibility to maintain utilities located in a town-owned right of way and the 15- and eight-foot buffers “made sense from a safety standpoint.”

“I made the mistake of assuming they were going to do something similar to years past,” Landry said. “I was here five years ago and it was nothing like this.”

Rice said the “industry standard” buffers can cross over right of way boundaries and into private property to ensure the safety of power lines.

“We need to keep eight feet clear of our lines,” she said.

In addition to inhibiting his newly discovered bird-watching hobby, Landry said he was worried the damage to the trees may hurt the resale value of his home. 

“In this town, you try to do everything you can to be a good citizen,” he said. “I pay my taxes, I have to get a permit to build a shed, and to see such a disregard for aesthetic quality – it’s just shocking.”

What of the leftovers lining Pine Point Road? While the public works department has extended debris pickup from last year’s ice storm to May 2, Central Maine Power contractors are supposed to chip wood debris smaller than three inches in diameter, Shaw said. As for the larger wood, he said some property owners offer to dispose of limbs at no cost, or the landowner can keep the wood.

“It’s an old blue law that’s left over from when people used to burn wood a lot,” Shaw said. 

Landry said he will most likely burn the wood that the trimming crew left behind, but it’s not enough to satiate his desire for a good-looking front lawn.

“People have stopped and asked me ‘What happened?’” he said. “I’m no arborist, but that can’t be good for the tree.”

Rice said concerns or questions about tree trimming can be addressed by contacting Central Maine Power’s vegetation management department at 1-800-972-8600 to be placed on a special notification list.

“If people are concerned about the aesthetics they can get on this list,” Rice said. “We absolutely understand it’s a delicate balance between what we need to cut and how to keep reliability where it should be. We do need to do this trimming but we are willing to talk to people.”

Staff Writer Nate Jones may be reached at 282-4337 ext. 233.