Outages occur for a variety of reasons but one of the most common causes of power outages is trees and limbs falling on power lines. Just one tree limb can knock out electric service to dozens of homes up to several miles away. That’s why we have a comprehensive program to manage trees and brush that grow around power lines. Trimming trees is an essential part of keeping the lights on and ensuring you have safe and dependable electric service.

Our aggressive tree clearing program is cycle-based. This means you can expect to see tree trimmers in your neighborhood every four years clearing branches and other vegetation from power lines. Our tree clearing benefits you through improved service and fewer outages caused by trees.

You can play an important role, too: By planting the right tree in the right place, you help preserve your community’s trees while also benefitting utility customers.

More info: AEPOhio.com/info/treetrimming

Related information:

131 responses to “What’s your tree trimming policy?

  1. Yes I have a tree in my backyard who’s branches are up into the service lines the ones running from pole to pole, I notified Aep of this to see if they could maybe trim it back away from the lines.

    1. Hi Mark. So sorry for the delay in responding. I talked to our forestry team about your inquiry and someone will contact you very soon. Thank you for being patient!

        1. Hi Erica. Thanks for your question. AEP Ohio does not remove stumps after trimming or removing trees from our right-of-way.

          1. Hello
            Tree trimmers trimmed the tree near the power lines in our back yard and left a pile of branches shoved behind and against our garage. It was nowhere near the tree that the cut it from so they obviously were so sloppy and lazy that instead of cleaning up the mess that they made, they threw it back in a large pile behind our garage! We can’t even walk behind our garage. The people that did this work were horribly unprofessional and should be reprimanded.

          2. Hello Paul, thank you for letting us know. That is not the customer experience we want anyone to have with our planned tree trimming. We have shared your message with our forestry team and someone will be reaching out to you shortly.

  2. When AEP trimmed the remaining tree in our front yard that grows into the power lines, we asked if they could just cut it down like they did the other tree a few years ago and they said it would be a different crew and they would let them know. We never heard anything. Our neighbor now has trees marked for removal. Can they add our tree when they do our neighbor’s 3 trees? If we had been home when that was arranged, we would have asked them.

    1. I’m very sorry to hear you’ve had problems with your trees. I have sent your message to our forestry team and they should be contacting you very shortly. Thanks for your patience.

  3. Last year AEP removed 2 trees and trimmed others for clearance. My signed paperwork says circuit line 1002. AEP tree removal agreement says removal of brush and firewood. It all remains on my property, yet it came from the public right of way. I am a cancer patient and have been hospitalized during this year. Can you help get this finished up and cleaned up?

    1. Hi Gary. I’m very sorry you’ve had problems with this. I passed along your message to our forestry group and you should be hearing from them shortly.

  4. The tree removal crew showed up at my house around 9am on Wednesday April 8,2020 to trim branches around power lines. The crew was mulching the downed branches when I left my home around 5pm and I returned home at 7:30pm to find the crew had left a complete mess of downed branches in my driveway and all down side of my garage. So now I’m unable to gain access back into my garage to park my 2019 jeep cherokee back inside. I would like to know why your crew was so unprofessional as to leave downed branches in my driveway and laying against my garage on top of a lot of personal items stored beside the building! I work construction myself and its always been policy to make sure the mess is cleaned before leaving the job. I mean its not like they didn’t have enough time to complete the task considering they was here blocking my driveway and garage for at least 8 hrs. Totally unprofessional crew!!!

    1. Hi Jason. I do apologize about this situation and have our forestry team looking into it. A representative will be in contact with you by end of the day Wednesday. Thank you.

      1. I just went to the backyard of my house where there is a privacy fence. Three slats form the fence were knocked out when AEP cut trees and trimmed behind our fence. They left parts of the trees behind my fence. When they were trimming the wood hit my fence and knocked out three of the slats.. One branch is in bedded into my fence. Part of the fence is now leaning. I want someone from AEP to remove the logs left behind, fix the fence, and remove the branch imbedded into my fence.

        1. Hi Susan. Thanks for letting us know. I sent your message to our forestry team so they will be in touch shortly. Have a nice day.

    2. They just did the same to me. The tree was butchered and cut at least 12 ft away from the top power line there was tree branches down everywhere all up against my house they removed the logs not vegetation branchs that my swing was on that wasn’t even close to the power lines I’m very upset with this company this is October 4th 2023 I don’t know what’s going on trimming the vegetation that’s in the power line does not consist of cutting big logs out of my tree that has been here for more than 70- 80 years we’ve had this tree trimmed for the last 25 years and nobody has ever cut this tree like this I am so upset with this company and on top of that they removed a swing that belong to my niece who had just died this past year I believe the the swing is not in working order we are going to try to hang it back up even though the branch has been taken very unprofessional very unhappy they were not even going to clean up the yard until I threw a fit and they come back and brought trucks and cleaned everything up this is not how you trim a tree get better help

  5. A few years ago AEP had agreed to cut down a tree on our property that is old, overgrown, and directly under the power lines, but we unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute. Can you tell me if they can re-schedule now?

    1. Thanks for writing, Gary. I’ve sent your request to our forestry group and someone will contact you soon to talk this over.

    2. We hired a tree service to remove 2 trees whi h had bra chest over power lines. They hD are remove the branches asplunch did.an axing job and made the local company’s job hLf o what the would need yo do. My question is, is the local company charged for.thos? Thank you

      1. Thanks for notifying us, Sally. I have sent your message to our forestry team and you should hear from someone soon. Have a nice day.

  6. AEP tree clearing crew left branches all along my son’s property line along a chain link fence.
    Afraid create home for snakes and other vermin. Also makes him look like a bad neighbor to adjoining property owner Brookside Drive Portsmouth

    1. Hello, George. Thanks for writing. A member of our forestry team said she will be reaching out to you soon to learn more about this issue. We appreciate the heads up.

  7. If a very large dead branch is located above pole to pole wires, will AEP cut the limb off?

    1. Hi Kathy. I have passed your message on to our forestry team and you should hear from someone shortly. Thanks for writing and have a nice day!

      1. Hi, AEP was out recently 7/8/2020, due to a transformer that blew. They trimmed some of my tree to remove it from the line, however there is still a lot of heavy branches touching the lines including the main one to my house. Are they able to trim this tree more. Also where they fixed the downed line there is a line that is hanging close enough for someone to jump up and touch it.

        1. Thanks for your message. I have passed it along to our forestry group and someone should contact you very soon. Have a nice day!

  8. Hello,
    Back in 2012, we lost power for 8 days – we live in the heavily forested area of northern Clintonville. Well, two years later – sometime around 2014 – I received a letter in the mail from AEP – and the letter stated that after the 2012 outages – they re-evaluated each service area and AEP was now initiating an “aggressive tree trimming campaign” to include the “problematic” Clintonville area. Well, here it is – 6 years later (2020) – and absolutely NO ONE from AEP has shown up in our neighborhood. Then recently, one day – I believe back in the first week of April of this year, 2020, – I receive an anonymous phone call from someone claiming to be from AEP – and that low and behold – they were coming to our neighborhood to start trimming trees – and my God – they might even need access to my back yard!
    Well, here it is 60 days later – and absolutely no one has shown up! As though I was really naive enough to believe anyone was actually going to come – after 8 years?

    Well, since we don’t live in the Worthington/Riverlea subdivision- I guess we won’t actually be seeing any tree trimmers – after all, when the storms hit back in 2012 Riverlea was one of the first areas to be trimmed – while ignoring the rest of the surrounding neighborhoods – and why was that? Well, gee – guess how many high level AEP employees live in old Worthington? Certainly more than live in my neighborhood. So for now, 8 years later – I’ve just decided to wait this out until the next wind storm arrives! Party on Wayne! Part on Garth!

    1. Hi Tom. I’m sorry to hear you’re disappointed with us — I can assure you that we have been doing tree trimming in Clintonville! I am going to pass this message along to our forestry group and someone will be in touch with you very soon. Thanks for writing!

  9. A tree on my property in Linden was completely butchered. It is a spruce tree and instead of removing or trimming it they just cut the top off of it completely ruining any ornamental value to the tree. I have never known any professional to trim a tree like this. This is an example of hack and slash to save time rather than actually having an educated or informed professional do the job correctly. I would love to have it removed as soon as possible because it is hindering future landscaping plans.

    1. Hi Jonathan. I am really sorry to hear about this. We try to take great care when trimming trees so this is incredibly disappointing. I passed this message along to our forestry group to find out what happened. You will hear from someone shortly.

  10. AEP left a card on my gate to my property, the card mentioned cutting and trimming trees but the back was not filled in. I have numerous trees marked on my property for removal and trimming. I am concerned based on all the negative comments on this site about crews leaving brush and trees after cutting. This will not be the case for my property, I will not allow access if this is how the crews operate.

    1. Hi Jeff. Rest assured our crews are considerate and careful when trimming trees around our power lines. They don’t remove brush and limbs during storms because there is a pressing need to get the work done as quickly as possible, so perhaps that’s what you’re referring to. In any event, I have sent your message to our forestry team so you should hear from one of representatives soon. Thanks for writing. Have a nice day.

  11. I have lived in my home for over 40 years and in those years I have removed huge branches that grow over my yard. The tree is in my neighbor’s yard and it’s a mulberry tree that has been hit by lightning at least three times and has split down the middle. There are now two trees still connected at the ground and one of the trees is ready to fall into my house. I have begged the two different owners to cut it down or trim it to no avail. Now I am disabled with no money and no means of saving my yard. The mulberries are messy, attract insects and smell horrible once the sun hits them. I can’t own a pool because I can’t keep up with the mulberries. I had a security light installed from AEP but the mulberry tree kept tearing the light and fixture down. Finally, AEP said they would no longer fix it so I lost the only security light I had. I used a flashlight at night to get to my detached garage when I needed to leave. Now it’s 2020 and the tree AGAIN has limbs that are sitting on my electric wires. I’m just waiting for another bad storm to take out the wires to my house. AEP has said to me over and over and over that it is not their responsibility and too bad for me. I’m tired. I don’t know what else to do.

    1. I’m so sorry to hear about this. It sounds frustrating. We will look into it right away. I have sent this message to our forestry team and someone will be in touch with you very shortly. Thanks for letting us know.

  12. AEP came and trim some trees by my work and cut up the wood and left it there are we allowed to take that?

    1. Hi Carie. I’d like to look into this first because I don’t want to give you the wrong answer. I have passed your message along to our forestry team and you should hear from someone soon. Thanks for your question.

  13. Aep came to trim my neighbors tree that had a broken branch on the line connecting to my house. They did some extensive trimming and left a huge mess all over my driveway and even drug some across my alley into another neighbors yard blocking off their driveway also. I called to inquire what was going on and was told a cleaning crew follows behind the trimming crew to take care of the mess. The so called cleaning crew still hasn’t shown up and I have to park a block away from my house and my neighbors are pissed at me about the mess in their driveway. Completely unprofessional and beyond disrespectful.

    1. Hi Heather. I’m so sorry this hasn’t gone well for you. We try to complete the tree trimming process as quickly and professionally as possible so it’s disappointing when a customer is upset. I have sent your message to our forestry group so they can look into this. You will hear from someone shortly. Thanks for notifying us.

  14. We called AEP for tree removal (its but a small tree) last night, we need high speed internet and they wont run a line til its gone. We are in south Columbus near Lockbourne Rd. Whats the average ETA someone is out with everything going on during this pandemic?

    1. Hi there, thanks for your inquiry. I’m forwarding your question on to the correct department for assistance. Someone will be in touch with you via email to help!

  15. AEP is currently removing trees on my property. They topped trees that they had no reason to. They took out trees they weren’t supposed to and now they won’t take the wood. This is my backyard and your policy states that you do take the wood from landscaped property ie yards. The AEP rep talked to my wife telling her that you don’t take wood (in violation of your policy) and had her sign off on it. You have destroyed my plan to shade my house and fraudulently convinced my wife to sign a paper stating the wood would be left. I am highly upset at the dishonesty.

    1. Hi Tim. I’m very sorry you’re upset. I’m not sure what happened so we will look into it right away. I passed your info on to your forestry team and someone will follow up with you very soon. Thanks for alerting us to this situation — we’ll try to make it right.

  16. My neighbor’s trees are growing to the point of entanglement with power lines. The trees reach over and through the power lines and hang across my property, very close to my house. 1. Will AEP trim the trees safely away from power lines, and 2. Will AEP clear debris from my property?

    1. Thanks for writing in. I’ve passed your question on to our forestry team so they will reach out to you soon. Have a nice day.

  17. AEP/CNUC wants to cut my five trees down at the road, right in front of my porch/house. I love them as ugly as they are (due to the “U” shaped trimming you’ve done for the last 20 years. Can they be cut back very short and like was done some years back?
    My Main question is, are they going to clean up the “entire” mess and grind out the stumps too?? I don’t need them creating a mess and make my property look hideous or create an extra expense for me to hire a stump grinder. (I’m not putting up with a bunch of stumps in my front yard.) If they’re gonna do a job they should do a complete job and not half ass it. I’m asking this question ahead of time because I know they’re notorious for doing a half ass job when it comes to trees. No matter which tree trimming company is used.
    We are not young people.

    1. Hi Billie. Thanks for asking. Our forestry team should be able to best answer your questions so I forwarded it on to them. Someone will reaching out to you soon so please keep an eye on your email. Have a nice day.

    1. Hi Ajack. I will have a forestry representative contact you to learn a little more about your issue. Thanks for writing and have a nice day.

      1. Crews are working in my neighborhood and just cutting down every tree instead of timing them. They are even going to cut down my 6ft dwarf spruce which has grown maybe 4 inches in last 8 years because “one day it might get big”.
        A tree which was just supposed to be trimmed has had every branch on the southern half cut all the way off the trunk.
        I was also told when they were marking trees, if the were going to remove any, they would remove the stumps. Now I’m being told “maybe, if we could fit the equipment trough the fence” and “we will write down you have requested this”.

        1. Hi John. Thanks for alerting us. I have sent your message to our forestry team and you should hear from someone soon. Have a nice day.

  18. Need to have some branches trimmed over the wires in my back yard. The next storm will take down the wires. I need some help.

  19. The utility crew that just did a cleaning in my neighborhood tore my lock off my fence gate and then cute down several of my trees to the stump. Im pretty upset by this situation. 1) because they could have damaged my fence by pulling the lock cord over the gate 2) i have chickens that free range my backyard, they could have escaped and 3) why didnt they just trim back the tree? Why did they cut it to the stump? They were well established mulberries

    1. Hi Kelli. I’m very sorry to hear about this. I have passed your message on to our forestry team and you can expect to hear from someone soon. Thank you for alerting us.

  20. Hello,
    A couple years ago Aep send a tree trimming service trim trees around the lines in the back of my house. They cut my mulberry tree( we use it for food)as it’s limbs were close to the lines. It was a healthy tree. A new transformer went up as well. When they cut it, it caused it to become diseased and start putting out black sap. In 2020 it did not produce fruit for the first time in decades. It is dying due to how it was trimmed. Can I talk to someone about coming to cut it down as if it falls it will take out power lines to a couple houses. This tree was fine until they trimmed it back and I’m sad it will need cu down. I appreciate the help. Thank you

    1. Hello Nicole. You can contact our forestry team directly by calling (614) 883-6987. They will be able to answer any of your questions.

  21. Hello,
    Recently workers came into my yard without permission to trim the trees near the pole. I wasn’t going to make an issue with them jumping the fence to do this as I view this as helpful, but they left all of the trimmed branches laying where they fell. I have had a difficult time calling to contact customer support. I would think cleaning the mess that was made would be standard.

    1. Hi Ryan. Sorry to hear about this. I have sent your message to our forestry team and someone will be in touch with you very soon to try to sort this out. Thanks for letting us know.

  22. I believe the tree that we planted is our responsibility. Tree planting is good for the environment to maintain good air quality. But where to plant the tree is another thing. We need to make sure that the tree we plant will not cause damages to our properties and lives of other.

  23. I have several trees along the roadway and the power line that have a blue circle painted on them. I was hoping that marked them for removal, as one, higher than the power poles, has a rotted out base and is full of holes. A neighbor told me that the tree service for AEP had come and gone, trimming some trees on his property. What’s the explanation?

    1. Hi Irving. Thanks for sending us a note. I have alerted our forestry team and someone should be contacting you shortly with help. Have a nice day.

  24. I had a team come in last Thursday and trim several trees back. I had an ASPLUNDH guy come up the driveway when I was going to work, but when I arrived back home later they hadn’t cleaned up any of the mess. How would I get them to come back and clean up the mess, and also get the sign they left?

    1. Hey Joe. Sorry to hear about that. I have sent your message to our forestry group so you should hear from someone shortly. Thanks for letting us know.

  25. I want to make sure that my trees grow stronger. It makes sense that having them properly trimmed would be important! I wonder if I could work with a specialist to ensure that my trees get trimmed correctly.

    1. Hi Braden. I sent your message to our forestry team so you should hear from someone shortly. Have a nice day!

  26. I have a tree that no one will cut down for us. It’s directly behind our home, very close to and between our neighbors home and our Electric service line. I’ve had numerous companies come look at it to give an estimate and no one will touch it. It’s dead. Limbs have been falling. Last week a big limb fell bending the service pole off our home! How do I get this tree down safely?!

    1. Hi Alecia, a tree trimming company would need to take down the tree. Feel free to call one of our customer service reps if you need to discuss further, you can reach them at 800-672-2231.

  27. Thank you for posting such an interesting article . I’m a guy who helps plant trees and also encourages people to plant more trees in their neighborhoods.
    It’s so important that we all do our part to preserve our community’s beautiful urban forest. But it’s not enough just to plant a tree – they need care too!

  28. I want find out about someone checking out if our neighbor’s tree is hanging over some power lines?? Who can I contact??

    I live in New Philadelphia Ohio

  29. So how lazy can aep be? I called them last night to alert them of overgrown tree growth on a powering. Instead of cutting the tree they disconnect the power line and run it over the tree. They try and charge me a 150$ disconnect fee. They charge me a service fee each month for these services and then refuse to run these services. 10/10 wish monopolies weren’t a thing so companies like this didn’t exist

    1. Hi Victor. I’m so sorry to hear about your experience. We are looking to it right away. Expect to hear from one of our forestry representatives very soon — thanks for alerting us.

  30. I have 2 trees under a power line I would like cut down instead of pruned. One is mostly dead and the other is dying. AEP pruned these trees last year along with some others. It sounds like a different crew would handle cutting down a tree?

    1. Thanks for your note, Melanie. I have passed it along to our forestry team and you should hear from someone shortly.

  31. Hello,
    I had a few questions… On the road we live everyone’s trees have been trimmed besides ours and we just did not understand why? Our neighbor who has tree’s just like ours had a problem with their lines last year, where they started sparking and almost caught on fire. We just wanted to try and prevent this from happening to us. Any information would be greatly appreciated, Thank you so much for your time.

    1. Hi Melissa, Thanks for reaching out. Our forestry trim has a cycle for tree trimming in neighborhoods, and they clear away any limbs that could be a hazard with our power lines. Without knowing your address, it’s hard to give a specific answer on this. It may be that they didn’t find your trees to be a hazard to the lines. If you could please private message us on our AEP Ohio Facebook or Twitter pages with that information and your concern, one of our representatives will be happy to look into this further. Our best to you.

  32. Who is responsible for mowing/trimming the area under power lines? I have two power lines on my property and some trees are getting very tall and there is a lot of growth that needs to be cut/mulched down. Does your crew do this work?

  33. I am curious if aep will trim or cut back a tree we have in our yard that is very old and large. It hangs over our line into our house and has already been trimmed on the other side by aep once before where it almost touched the neighbors line. Will aep take a tree down completely?

    1. Hi there, thanks for reaching out to ask. It is the homeowner’s responsibility to trim or maintain any trees from their service drop line from pole to house. If the tree isn’t in the right of way area from pole to pole, or just outside the right of way being a hazard (such as a dying tree leaning into the primary lines from pole to pole), then we would not trim or remove it outside of maintenance areas. If a customer needs to have a tree trimmed or removed by a private contractor, they can call our Customer Operations Center at 1-800-672-2231 to have one of our service technicians come out to disconnect the service wire to their home. We will put it back in service once the work is safely completed. If you have any further questions about your particular issue, you can reach out to our forestry team at
      aepohioforestry@aep.com or call 1-614-883-6987 to the AEP Ohio Forestry line.

  34. You are doing an amazing job!
    It is important to maintain trees and vegetation near electrical equipment and high fire risk areas. It is a matter of public safety and for the reliability of the power grid. It’ll be really helpful to everyone if you can also mention what kind trees are best to grow inside the city.

  35. Thanks for the post on your tree trimming policy! I’m a big fan of being proactive and avoiding outages.

  36. Yes hi I was wondering when they would be trimming my trees in the back of my house in the alley? They had marked the trees with a Blue circle 🔵 and that was quite some time ago and now from where things have grown you can’t see the Blue circle anymore. So I was wondering when this will be taking care of?

    1. Hi Robert. Thanks for alerting us. I sent your message to our forestry team and you should hear from someone soon. Have a nice day.

  37. When I bought the house I had 3 big trees removed, but the one that sat back in the corner, I left there but i notice that the tree has branches, some live, some dead that go from house wrap thru the branches. I wanted to cut the few dead ones i could reach but i was told I should check with AEP first since the wire is going to a pole behind the fence. Would AEP move those branches around the wire?

    1. Leroy, I apologize for the delay in responding. I just sent your inquiry to our forestry team and you should hear from someone very soon. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

  38. I have 2 pine trees in my backyard that are touching electrical wires. Can you contact me on how I get them removed?

  39. Do you clean up after three triMming? You all left branches from 2 different trees (one from each of my neighbors property) and left a lot of the the mess in my driveway. Again neither tree is mine!

  40. You put a new pole in the back of my house with a transformer spring of 2021 and it is now surrounded by tree branches. Would love for some one to come out an eyeball it – may need to be trimmed back.
    Thanks
    Erick Zanner

    1. Hi Erick! Thanks for letting us know. I’ve alerted our forestry group and you should hear from someone shortly.

  41. There is a lot of foliage on and around a transformer on a utility pole behind my house. On an earlier occasion I had a power outage caused by similar foliage on this same transformer and I am worried that it might happen again. Could someone take a look at it?

    Thanks for any help with this!

    1. Hi Mark. Thanks for writing. I sent this to our forestry group and you should hear from someone shortly. Have a great day!

  42. Hi, I have a tree that I inherited when I bought my house 7 months ago. It was hit by lightening and your lines go right down the middle. The tree trimmers in the area will not touch it, they said call you to have the tree removed. The branches are wrapped around the lines and some very large branches are going to take the lines down.

    1. Hi Jackie,

      Thanks so much for letting us know. I have sent your note to our forestry team and you can expect to hear from them shortly.

  43. 2/21/23

    We just had an unsatisfactory interaction with AEP and their tree trimming contractor in our area – Asplundh Tree Experts. We live on a six-acre woodlot with an AEP line along one side that butts up against a road and city/county bike path.

    I returned home from a work trip on Saturday night and discovered a large telescoping tree trimming machine parked in our woodlot beside the bike trail under the power line. There we no markings on the machine that identified it as belonging to Asplundh Tree Experts or AEP. I decided to come back the next day (Sunday) and have a closer look – what I discovered is that machine had been trimming trees near the power line, and it had been parked in our shrubbery and on top of our younger trees in the evening. I spoke to my family who had been home, and they indicated that the crew had been working along that power line up and down the street several days during the week and parking the machine in our forest every night. At that time, no one from AEP or the to-be-identified contractor had contacted us in any way.

    This situation concerned me for three reasons: 1) we have a adolescent son who spends a lot of time in the forest – tapping maple trees right now – and without any knowledge of what was happening with the tree trimming, he could have been put in serious danger (he walks around with noise cancelling headphones tending to the trees!); 2) there is quite a bit of completely unnecessary damage to the shrubs and small trees where the machine was parked (it could have been parked on the grass next to the street if someone had have spoken to us); and 3) it was completely unclear whose machine was on our property, and I seriously contemplated calling the police to help sort that out because it looked to me like trespassing.

    Instead of calling the police, I left a note on the machine, and the next morning (Monday – Presidents’ Day) the contractor called me. He refused to take any responsibility for anything and said that he had tried to contact us by coming to the front door and knocking on it. He said that “someone who doesn’t speak English opened the door and then closed it”. Then he says he walked away without leaving anything, and he did not attempt to reach us by telephone (AEP has several numbers for us). We did have a visiting school teacher from France (who speaks English) last week who spent one day at home sick – so it is possible that this interaction did happen, although no one involved made us aware of it. My interaction with the contractor was unsuccessful, so I asked him for his AEP supervisor’s contacts, and he gave me the name and number for someone at AEP.

    I immediately left a message with the AEP contact (it was a holiday), and he called me back this morning (Tuesday). He simply reiterated the information given to me by the contractor, and forcefully insisted that the contractor had tried to contact us. He did admit that the contractor was not successful in contacting us, and he apologized for the fact that we were not contacted, but nothing else. At that point the conversation was clearly finished, and I hung up.

    There are all kinds of things wrong with this series of interactions – most notably the possible danger that people on our property were exposed to. I hope that this description of events can help AEP and its contractors improve their service and safety. I do not want or need anything from either AEP or Asplundh Tree Experts.

    1. Sam, thank you for sharing this with us. This is certainly not the customer experience we want anyone to have. We have forwarded your message to our forestry team and they may be reaching out to you to discuss further.

  44. I called AEP about a big silver maple that had tipped out of the ground from wind and was being held up by another tree, The whole works in close proximity to the power line. The AEP rep came out and said they would saw down the tree and chip up the smaller branches, leaving the larger limbs for me to remove. The contract trimmers came today with the chipper, sawed down the tree and left a 5 foot stump. The smaller branches are all over the place and no attempt was to chip them up. I called AEP about the promise to chip the small stuff and was told their only responsibility was to keep the trees off the wires. I am disappointed that they did not use their chipper like they indicated. I will find someone to get the big wood and normally I could cope with the smaller stuff but I am 80 years old with a replaced shoulder and a hernia. Please do not tell people you will chip the small stuff, bring a chipper, and then leave a mess.

    1. Hello Gary, thank you for letting us know. Someone from the forestry team will be reaching out to you to get more information.

  45. I have a very large sycamore tree in the front of my property. It is out of the right of way, but will certainly take out the power line in front of it when it comes down. It will likely not survive another year. Several months ago I contacted AEP Forestry via email to inquire about it and as of yet have heard nothing. This morning a AEP crew installed a new pole and larger transformer on my property near this tree. The guys said that AEP would not remove this tree, only trim branches. I am wondering how to get ahold of someone about this tree. It is located in Harrison Twp. Ross County Ohio. ( Londonderry address)

    1. Thanks for checking in, David. I have passed your message on to our forestry team and someone should be in touch with you shortly.

  46. Hello, Asplundh and AEP are refusing to remove a dead tree in my drive next to the the three phase power line. They say it’s not possible. Isn’t AEP required to remove the dead trees? Thanks.

    1. Hi Sally. Every situation is different and a forester must review to determine whether the tree’s proximity to AEP Ohio equipment poses a concern. Generally, we will only remove trees that pose a threat to our power lines or equipment. We have forwarded your message to our forestry team and they will be reaching out to you.

  47. I have a large electrical box in the back right hand corner of my property. AEP came out yesterday and cut out and completely butchered the entire bottom right half of my Canaan Fir tree that sits to the left of the electric box. Instead of just trimming the edges to get access to the door of electrical box (the tree branches were in front of the door but they could easily have been moved to the side if they needed access. I did the same (moving branches to the side) when I was cleaning dead leaves from under the tree because I just mulched that tree last week. The worst part is that they obviously used tree trimming snippers that were not sharp so they left all the cuts completely splintered on my tree. They then proceeded to shove the cut branches back into the tree so it looked like it wasn’t trimmed! Or perhaps they were just being lazy and didn’t want to clean up the mess. My tree looks absolutely horrible now and I am requesting that AEP pay for an arborist of my choosing to come out and check my tree to make sure it wasn’t damaged and to clean up the splintered cuts. I have multiple pictures of what they did to my tree and I also have Ring camera video of them working out near the tree. They were lazy and also walked through my front yard and then across the middle my left side front landscape bed kicking mulch everywhere when they could have used the sidewalk like normal respectable human beings would. I have also filed a complaint with the PUCO.

    1. Hi Bethany. I am so very sorry this work didn’t meet your expectations. I have informed our forestry department and someone should be reaching out to you very shortly.

  48. I have big tree branches hanging on my electric lines. Im afraid it will cause more damage. How do i get these off my electrical lines?

    1. Hi Alescia, thanks for letting us know. We’ve shared your comment with our forestry team and someone will be reaching out to you soon.

    1. Thanks for reaching out, Andrea. We’ve shared your message with our forestry team and they’ll be in touch.

  49. Just had trees behind our home trimmed and the workers left a heavy pile of branches behind, nothing we can do with it, very unprofessional. Also trimmed way more than what was necessary, beyond aggressive. Also all lines should be buried when possible, that would remove the need for this nonsense every 4 years, long term cost savings for aep would be ridiculous, upper management could put that savings right into their pockets, win win.

    1. Jamison, sorry to hear about your trees. I informed our forestry department and a representative will be in touch with you shortly to discuss this.

  50. Just came home to Asplundh doing a horrible hack job on my tree. We were not notified that any work would be done. I even pulled out of the garage in front of the workers while they were working on a neighbors tree and they said nothing about being from AEP or about working on my tree next (I assumed they had been hired by my neighbor). They cut well past the 10 feet from the power line mark, in a straight line and would have kept going further if I hadn’t come home and told them to stop. We have all of our trees trimmed by a professional arborist and these branches were not posing a threat to the power lines. They were pruned 2 months ago. Now my tree is lopsided and vulnerable to infection. I am beyond livid.

    1. Leigh, I am so sorry about this. Thank you for alerting us. Your message has been routed to our forestry department and someone will be in touch with you right away.

  51. Where does it say that trees have to be 75 ft away from the center line of a high voltage wire. I cannot find that in writing anywhere. I researched before I planted a couple of my trees on AEPs website under Right tree right place and now they want to cut down a dwarf flowering crabapple, a dwarf peach and an apple tree. Telling me they are within 75 feet of the center line . Can I have someone else come look at these trees besides the company who is taking them down. Are they getting paid by the tree🤔

    1. Good questions, Victoria — questions that are best answered by the experts in our forestry department. I have passed along your inquiry and someone from that team will be in touch with you very soon. Have a great day!

  52. Called AEP to look at my dear Gumball tree. Unfortunately they informed me since my tree is on the service line & 15 feet from the pole across the street, they do not service those tree and it is the Homeowners responsibity. I really do not think that is fair. We are penalized for buying a house that just so happens to be on the opposite side of the street where the poles are placed. On top of the my tree is the only one on my front street that is smack in the middle of all the wires. Did not appreciate the answer and no be!p from AEP. I am a senior citizen, disabled and on a single income, which is very hard to pay for tree service. Someone quoted me $3,500, just to trim the tree, REALLY!?!?!?! Thanks a lot AEP.

    1. Hi Sandra. The person you spoke with was correct regarding our policy. We inspect the lines every four years and trim all of the trees that fall within our clearance guidelines. Our goals when trimming are safety, minimizing tree-related outages and maintaining the health of the tree. The pole-to-house wire (service wire) is the homeowner’s responsibility to maintain. We maintain the pole-to-pole primary wires.

      If you choose to do the work or hire a private company, we can disconnect the service drop to allow for safe trimming or removal. Please call us at 800-672-2231 as soon as possible to schedule this service appointment as availability varies. If you have additional questions, our FAQ section may be of some help.

  53. By the way, only have lived in my house for about 5 years, so do not know when that Gumball tree was planted? Before of after poles and wires were put in place.

  54. We had emergency tree cutting services due to our neighbors trees being overgrown and growing into power lines. Our power was cut two days ago at 8pm and tree trimmers came around 10pm in our backyard and cut our neighbors trees back and left all of the debris in our yard. Now I wouldn’t be upset if we were the responsible party and were told to clean up the debris since they were our trees. However, these trees are not on our property and now all of the debris is in our yard because our yard has the power line. This is completely unfair to tell us that picking up the debris is our responsibility because our neighbors were the ones who had their trees overgrown.

    1. Hello Gina, we understand that you’ve reached out to our forestry team directly and they explained that we do not remove cut trees or limbs during emergency power restoration. Our tree crews are among the first responders as they work to safely clear trees from our lines and equipment and move to the next location as quickly as possible to allow our line crews to restore power. In these instances, property owners are responsible for removing tree debris. Hopefully you can work with your neighbor to come up with a plan to remove the debris.

  55. Arborist advised me that our tree is now unsafe after “Trimming” was completed to clear from power lines. They have removed half of the tree from the top. It is starting to lean and arborist reported the tree has stress fractures. A good storm or snow could cause the tree to come down. Since they have caused this; they need to either remove the other side of the tree or remove the tree entirely.

    1. Michael, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Someone from the forestry team will be reaching out to you.

  56. I totally agree when you say that it is important to invest in tree branch trimming services to keep the lights on and ensure that the electric service is safe and dependable in our area. It seems like the homeowner must keep their plants they can care of with the help of a contractor specializing in that area. Doing so will save us from having branches reaching the electrical systems or utilities to prevent accidents and the start of fires.

    1. Thanks for the heads up, Nick. One of our forestry representatives will be in touch with you soon.

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