Crabapple trees can co-exist with power lines.

But when it comes to trees and power lines, we’ve learned this combination can co-exist if the proper trees are planted. See our Landscaping information or our Slide Show for even more details.

Our more than 80 years of experience prompted a program where trees are cut back to keep power lines clear. This practice enables us to help maintain safe, reliable service for our customers. Between 1996, when the company reorganized the line-clearing program, to 2002, the total hours of outages associated with trees has decreased 66 percent.

Since 1997, Idaho Power has been recognized annually for this work and community involvement as a "Tree Line USA Utility" by the National Arbor Day Foundation. This award commends the company for caring for the health of trees while removing branches and limbs growing too near power lines.

Idaho Power also participates in the practice of recycling the urban forest. What this means is the company helps remove dead, diseased and dying trees and in turn plants young healthy trees that will filter the air better and produce more oxygen for us to breathe.

You may notice us clearing lines in your neighborhood and have questions about our line-clearing operations. This information is designed to help you understand how and why we prune trees. Our Frequently Asked Questions have even more details, as do our brochures Trees & Reliable Electric Service (PDF 2M) and Tree Planning and Planting Guide (PDF, 896KB).

We Clear Our Lines To Protect You

Falling trees and tree limbs can cause high voltage wires to break or sag to the ground, in some cases causing life-threatening situations for motorists and pedestrians.

We also want to protect our line crews, who often are exposed to dangerous situations when they are called out to repair a tree-related outage during stormy weather.

Vines growing on power poles are dangerous and illegal.

We Clear Our Lines To Protect Electrical Service

When tree branches come in contact with power lines they often cause outages. Again, that happens most often in windy, stormy weather.

Idaho Power estimates that a large percentage of all electrical outages in the company’s service area are caused by trees that fall onto power lines or tree limbs that come in contact with power lines. Some outages are momentary, causing digital clocks to blink or computers to lose data. Others last longer, sometimes affecting essential services like traffic signals and hospitals.

Many people are not aware there are laws against attaching signs or any other material, including plants, to utility poles (see photo at left) without authorization from the utility (Idaho Code 18-7029 and 18-7031; Oregon Code 164-365).