Southside Electric Cooperative has tree contractors on its system working year-round to prevent vegetation from causing power interruptions. In doing so, contractors often create a large amount of brush. How they handle that brush is all dependent on whether the area is maintained or unmaintained. SEC handles clean up from maintenance trimming differently depending on where the brush is located. The main difference comes from what is maintained versus unmaintained right of way.
An area is considered a maintained right-of-way if a member regularly mows it with a lawnmower, and so long as it does not require any brush control maintenance from the Co-op between trim cycles. SEC strives to leave the areas that are trimmed looking the same or better than we found it, so in a maintained area, all brush left will be chipped and hauled off. Any wood from removed trees will be cut into firewood sized lengths and stacked where the tree was removed. The goal is to have all brush in maintained areas chipped within three business days from the time it was cut. However, it can vary depending on the weather and ground conditions.
An area is considered unmaintained if it is not mowed with a lawnmower, and/or if it requires any sort of brush control vegetation maintenance from the Co-op between trim cycles. In an unmaintained area, we will mulch any brush inside the right of way with a forestry mulcher, or bush hogged with a tractor, and it will stay there. Any wood that is left from a tree removal will be dropped along the edge or outside of the right of way and left in the condition it was cut in. Brush in unmaintained areas is mulched as quickly as possible, and again the goal is to have it cleaned up within 3 business days.