PG&E conducts aerial inspections for potentially dangerous trees in Northern Santa Barbara County

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is conducting aerial inspections this week for trees that might pose a risk to power lines throughout Northern Santa Barbara County.

The helicopter patrols are part of the company's Vegetation Management Program, which helps identify and detect dead or dying trees.

Throughout the week, a team of licensed arborists are scheduled to fly above the terrain visually inspecting trees that are in close proximity to the power lines.

"We do a lot of flights in order to more efficiently inspect circuits in our territory to determine the health of trees, so we're out there looking for dead or dying trees and determining whether or not they need to be addressed, whether or not they can actually impact the high voltage power lines," said Tammy Wise, PG&E Los Padres Division Vegetation Management Manager. "We're also looking for green trees that could be growing into high voltage power lines."

The aerial inspections will be conducted at low altitudes, giving arborists an optimal viewing distance so they can more accurately access the health of a tree.

"If we find something that looks of concern, whether it might be a green tree that might be growing into the lines, or a dead or dying tree, we will take a picture of it with our cell phone," said Wise. "It's an application that will actually put a GPS coordinate on that picture, so that then we can go out and identify that tree on foot, access the tree from the ground and potentially mitigate the hazard."

On Monday, inspections for the Vegetation Management Program began in several areas located in the Santa Maria Valley.

"We did identify a few dead trees in the Sisquoc area," said Wise. "We'll be sending out an inspector to go and access those to see whether or not they have an impact on the conductors, on the pole, on the guy wire, anything of that nature, and we'll be sending a tree crew out to mitigate that risk."

Inspections continued Tuesday in the Buellton area, with patrols taking place around the city, as well as to the south and west.

On Wednesday, inspections are scheduled to take place in the Santa Ynez Valley, with the final flight looking east of Santa Maria, along the Highway 166 corridor, from Tepusquet Canyon to the Huasna Valley.

"When our customers see low-flying helicopters, especially, sometimes our helicopters, they have to circle around a certain property to really get in there and take a look at the tree," said PG&E Communications Representative Carina Corral. "Sometimes that takes a little maneuvering and that can worry some customers when they see a low-flying helicopter, especially doing circles."

PG&E said depending on the weather conditions, flights will originate from the San Luis Obispo Regional Airport between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

For more from Dave, follow him on Twitter below: