On Your Property Toolkit

Please contact OPPD’s Forestry Department.

Also, state law requires you to have underground utilities located and marked before beginning any digging project. Please call Nebraska 811 or 1-800-331-5666 Statewide.

OPPD will trim or remove trees that interfere with or have a potential for interfering with existing OPPD lines, or that obstruct the route of new lines.  OPPD does NOT trim the following:

• Trees interfering with service wires (wires that run from OPPD poles to the customer’s house or building) or yard light wires. Arrangements can be made to have wires temporarily removed or disconnected to permit the property owner or a contractor to trim or remove the tree. Please contact OPPD several days in advance to ensure the availability of a crew, Monday-Friday.
• Trees near streetlights, streetlight wires or yard lights.

The following criteria are used to determine when and where tree trimming is done.

• Reports of electrical outages caused by trees
• Areas where trees have been damaged by storms
• During routine circuit maintenance
• Periodic inspections by OPPD personnel
• Reports from customers indicating potential tree/power-line problems

All branches and wood cut from the tree will be removed by OPPD. Trees will be cut as close to ground level as possible, however OPPD will not remove stumps. Fallen trees or limbs are the responsibility of the property owner, as well as the disposal of all limbs and wood resulting from the trimming of storm-damaged trees for OPPD’s service restoration efforts.

OPPD will assist in the trimming and removal of trees near electric wires. When a request to assist is received, an OPPD representative will complete a visual inspection to determine the scope of OPPD work and schedule a time to complete the work. OPPD’s assistance may include one or both of the following activities.

• Temporarily reroute, de-energize or removal of electric wires that may be hazardous to workers
• Trim tree limbs close to wires to ensure tree can be safely removed or trimmed by the property owner or contractor

In this case, OPPD is not responsible for clearing and removing wood from the property owner’s premises or cutting the wood to size. The customer or contractor will be responsible for removing brush that is blocking sidewalks or driveways.

The provision of right-of-way easements grant OPPD the authority to trim trees without property owner permission to provide for a safe and reliable electric system. However, OPPD respects the property of its customer-owners and will notify the property owner of the need for work before trimming is done. In unusual or emergency situations, it may be necessary to trim trees without first notifying the property owner in order to restore service or eliminate safety hazards.

OPPD recommends the removal of trees that will require extensive trimming on a regular basis but will not proceed in removal without the property owner’s permission.