[burritas]

Maine's trees are tiny compared to the PNW. Most of them would hardly graze the line if they fell over.

It's really difficult to prune, say, 50 miles of Douglas-fir that stands easily over 150-200ft and grows right next to the lines -- many of their limbs are fatter than any tree I saw in the northeast. You'd have to get a crane and block the road off, and one tree could take a good part of a day. Can't fell them either, generally speaking, as you get into all sorts of disputes and the environmentalists will send you to hell 50 different ways with lawsuits.

[nine_k]

If the fir stands 150ft high right next to your power line, you have failed to proactively prune it.

[burritas]

Well the tree was there a few centuries before the line was. And like I said, it's impractical to fall them.

[nine_k]

That is, it was impractical to fell them while building the line initially? The risk was considered too low for the cost of cutting and towing away large trees in a wide enough corridor?

[burritas]

The lines and paved road got put in during the old days of logging, I'd assume it was considered financially impractical for a number of reasons, likely from a legal perspective, due to many private property owners, along with a mixed bag of county, state and federally-owned land sprinkled in there, for a town of around 100 people or so. Things just kind of went along from there.

Nowadays it's all that plus environmental lawsuits.