The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly has authorized Borough Mayor Peter Micciche to enter into a Memorandum of Authorization (MOA) with Homer Electric Association to address trees “dangerous to above-ground utility infrastructure” on KPB land or rights-of-way.
The ordinance comes after a spate of windstorms dating back to the fall of 2023. During these storms, many dead trees were blown over onto powerlines, resulting in several extensive power outages. For some HEA members, the outages lasted for multiple days.
The MOA will allow Homer Electric to preemptively attack what it calls “danger trees” to mitigate some potential power outage hazards in the future.
According to the ordinance, “Certain trees situated on KPB land and KPB road ROWs, which are outside of utility ROWs, pose an elevated risk of contact with electrical conductors.”
The “danger trees” are deemed to have no commercial value for the purposes of the KPB code provisions applicable to the disposal of commercial quantities of materials and forest resources.
Presently, HEA may only clear encroaching vegetation outside of the company’s rights-of-way if and when permission is obtained from the property owner.
“This is a Memorandum of Agreement similar to what is already in place with Chugach Electric,” said Borough Land Management Officer Aaron Huges. “We’ll provide them standing authorization to enter onto borough lands and road rights-of-way to conduct hazard tree mitigation work.”
A memo accompanying the ordinance states, “The Kenai Peninsula Borough and Homer Electric Association, Inc. share the common goals of keeping communities safe and resilient to power disruption and reducing wildfire risks as identified in the KPB Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The current spruce bark beetle situation impacting many KPB communities highlights the need to be proactive and to work together to optimize our capabilities in responding to the changing forest conditions.”
Per the new deal, for emergency danger tree response, such as wind storm events, no prior notification by HEA to KPB is required for the utility provider to take mitigating action.