Morrell Falls, Montana
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Right of Way & Easement Areas

Tree Trimming

If you have trees growing near or into our primary, high voltage electric lines, we will come out and trim or cut the trees free of charge to you. Trees that grow too close to power lines can be an extreme safety hazard for children and tree trimmers. Only qualified workers are allowed to work within 10 (ten) feet of an energized line.

If trees grow up into our overhead lines, they can cause outages or “blinks” to our customers. Blinks are more common today because of our protective equipment which is used to clear the temporary faults on our lines. These are annoying short outages, just long enough to make your electronics start blinking and cause you to reset your clocks.

If tree roots grow into our underground electric power lines, they can be hazardous also. MEC has a right of way crew and also may hire contract crews to maintain our right of way area, which reduces outages for our customers.

Tree Planting

Zone 3 (20 feet or more from pole): plant trees such as Colorado Blue Spruce, Norway Maple, Birch, Scots Pine. Zone 2 (10 to 20 feet from pole): plant shrubs such as Juniper, Red Twig Dogwood, Lilacs, Spirea, Nanking Cherry. Zone 1 (within 10 feet of pole): grasses, annuals and non-woody perennials are recommended.

If you are planting trees, please look up, and down, before you dig. Please call UULC at 1.800.424.5555 for a free utility locate of your property 2 days in advance of any digging.

MEC requires that our easement areas be kept clear of trees. We require the right of way be kept clear for ten feet either side of the pole line on overhead power lines and five feet either side of the underground power lines.

We also require special clearances around our underground equipment. We need a clear space of at least ten feet around our pad mounted transformers and pad mounted enclosures. The clear space is required for our personnel to access this equipment.

Remember… call before you dig!