FAYETTEVILLE -- A utility company has postponed plans to use a chemical growth regulator on trees near power lines in Fayetteville after residents raised questions.
Southwestern Electric Power Co., a subsidiary of American Electric Power, hired EDKO Vegetation Managers of Broken Arrow, Okla., to treat the trees with a growth-restraining chemical. By slowing the growth of limbs, the treatments would lessen the need to prune trees away from power lines, a utility spokesman said.
EDKO notified residents by putting fliers on their doors. SWEPCO and city government offices received calls last week requesting more information and raising concerns about the possible effect on the environment, utility spokesman Peter Main said.
In light of the reaction, the utility formally notified the city Thursday that plans to use the chemical regulator in Fayetteville were on hold indefinitely, Main said. The utility may begin using the method elsewhere first, he said.
The utility and the city will confer on the best way to answer questions and provide more information to affected landowners, Main said.
Jeremy Williams of Fayetteville is a private forester who runs the Tree Climber Tree Service. He said a growth regulator is a hormone that is injected into the soil at the roots of a tree. He has worked with a growth regulator before but rarely uses it, he said. It has little effect beyond the tree it is applied to, he said.
"The only environmental regulation about it that I know of is that you can't use it on a tree that is beside open water," he said. "It's not hazardous. I think the biggest warning they give you is that it could be a skin irritant to the people working with it if it's not handled properly."
The regulator reduces the spaces between the appearance of buds on a tree, which has the practical effect of shortening the growth that extends branches. It is considerably healthier for the tree than cutting off a branch, which leaves an open gash, he said.
The purpose of the regulator is to restrict the growth of branches over power lines, which cause power failures when those limbs fall during severe weather, both he and Main said. The regulator would not eliminate the need for pruning, but would reduce it, Main said.
"The biggest side effect on the tree is an unintended benefit," Williams said. "It makes the tree more drought resistant. Shorter limbs means it needs less water."
Metro on 11/22/2015