For West Oregon Electric Cooperative in Vernonia, the threat of trees and limbs falling onto power lines from federal land is not a hypothetical one. That's just what happened to the 3,800-member system in September 2020.
A large limb about 100 feet up a tree on public land managed by the federal Bureau of Reclamation fell onto the co-op's power line near Hagg Lake, igniting a fire that forced residents to evacuate the area and ultimately burned 150 acres around the lake. Fortunately, no one was injured and no homes were destroyed.
General Manager Billi Kohler says she worries constantly about the possibility that it could happen again and end in disaster. The co-op serves heavily forested, rugged terrain, where its 30-feet-wide rights of way end just inches from long rows of trees rising 200 to 300 feet high on federal land. “It's inevitable that more trees are going to fall into our rights of way," Kohler says.
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https://www.cooperative.com/remagazine/articles/Pages/Wildfire-Mitigation-Co-ops-Coast-to-Coast-Battle-Existential-Threat.aspx
