by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
City Council member Suzanne Jenkins has introduced legislation urging JEA to halt all citywide tree pruning. According to Jenkins, JEA’s current policy is leaving many trees near power lines “totally topped out or lopsided.”
The bill is co-sponsored by Council members Jerry Holland, Lake Ray, Daniel Davis and Sharon Copeland, and the City’s Landscape Commission.
“It’s outrageous what they’ve done to so many trees in the community,” said Jenkins. “I get calls all the time from people in my district who are very upset by what’s happening, and it needs to stop. The policy is way too evasive.
“When you look at some of the trees now, they’re not even trees anymore. They’re bushes.”
Jenkins served on the Tree Commission, a group of Jacksonville residents and JEA representatives, five years ago. She said after “thorough investigation, expert testimony and thoughtful debate,” the group agreed JEA’s policy was too aggressive and subsequent changes were made.
“For a while, they actually scaled back what they were doing and it seemed to be working,” she said. “But now they’ve gone back to their old policy without even letting us know.
“I’ve talked to them several times and they basically told me they won’t stop cutting them so short and they won’t put the lines underground. It’s like they’re trying to have their cake and eat it, too.”
Nancy Kilgo, JEA’s director of local legislative affairs, said Jenkins was mistaken in thinking there had been any change in policy.
In a letter to Jenkins, Kilgo wrote, “JEA had, over the past three or four years, relaxed its practices, not the policy, in an attempt to satisfy the desires of the communities and citizens that feel so strongly about the trees in the right away.
“Although JEA continued to trim trees on a three-year cycle with additional spot trims . . . the relaxed practices occurred over time and were in no way formalized or meant to modify the long standing clearance policy and procedure.”
JEA spokesperson Ron Whittington agreed, saying the relaxed cuts had actually led to increased power outages and customer complaints.
In 2002 and 2003, JEA reported over 16,000 power outages, system-wide. Of those, nearly a third were caused by tree obstructions.
“Trees are the prime cause of power outages,” said Whittington. “And before long, it becomes a safety issue where we have to consider things like line breakages and, in some instances, damp trees becoming electrified.”
However, Jenkins and Ray said there may be other options.
“We’ve tried to explain that you can actually train a tree to grow around the line,” said Ray, who has consulted with urban foresters. “That way, JEA can avoid chopping out major portions like they have been recently.”
Ray added tree training can also reduce the number of future prunings and, ultimately, JEA costs.
“It’s actually less work for them in the long run and, again, much more visually appealing,” he said.
Whittington said the conflict has a long history and reaching any compromise would require “more information.”
“We’re in a very developmental stage right now, but there’s room to negotiate and we want to reach a common ground,” he said. “I can say we consulted with an arborist before we developed our policy because we want to be sure we’re cutting trees correctly and that we are appropriately notifying the property owners of any cuts we’re going to have to make.”
Whittington said JEA allows property owners the option of removing the entire tree and planting a new one in its place.
“We’ve given away over 500,000 trees in recent years,” he said.
The bill is currently under review in the Council’s Finance and Recreation, Community Development and Education committees.