Bark Beetle Crisis Overview and SCE Tree Removal
In San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and Los Angeles counties, hundreds of thousands of trees, weakened by years of drought in mountainous regions, are dead or dying due to widespread infestation by an insect called the bark beetle. On March 7, 2003, an executive order by the governor proclaimed a state of emergency in the three affected counties. A 2005 proclamation extended the 2003 emergency proclamation to affected areas of Los Angeles County. However the emergency condition in L.A. County was later found to no longer exist and a proclamation was issued on May 18, 2011 rescinding the emergency for the impacted areas of the county.
On April 3, 2003, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) directed SCE and other affected utilities to take all reasonable and necessary actions to remove dead or dying trees threatening power lines.
This unique situation poses a potential hazard to the people and property in the communities, as well as to our electric facilities. SCE, along with federal, state, and local agencies, is part of a large-scale effort to remove the dead, dying and diseased trees.
In May 2003, SCE began cataloguing and removing dead or dying trees near its power lines. Over the last several years SCE has removed many thousands of dead, dying and diseased trees. Today, due to the prolonged drought and continued bark beetle infestation, trees are still dying. Therefore SCE inspects each affected community minimally once every 90 days and in some instances more often to identify and inventory newly dead, dying and diseased trees. Inventoried trees are removed by SCE within 2 to 3 weeks of identification.
If you want to call our attention to a dead, dying or diseased tree(s) on your property that you believe could fall into SCE's electrical lines or facilities please call us at 1-800-640-3652 and let us know. We will dispatch an inspector to your property to determine if the tree qualifies for SCE removal. If the tree qualifies for removal, we will add the tree to our inventory for our contractor to remove.
In order for our tree removal crews to work safely and efficiently, it may be necessary to temporarily interrupt or shut down some power lines for up to 24 hours in extreme cases. We will attempt to notify you of scheduled tree removal and outages before work begins so you can prepare appropriately for your after-dark lighting and perishable food storage needs. During this difficult time, we ask the continued patience of our valued SCE customers.
We encourage you to watch for various kinds of communications we provide to property owners in the affected areas regarding our activities and progress, as well as the tree removal activity in your area. Door hangers and direct mail are the major ways we communicate with property owners. Also use this Web site as a reliable source of information.
As your friends and neighbors, all of us at SCE know this process is inconvenient and we thank you for your patience and cooperation. Everyone involved is working together for the long-term protection of our treasured forests and the many people who live and visit there.
