Hazardous trees represent a significant liability to the general public, cities, counties, utilities, and State and Federal agencies. If left unmanaged, hazard trees can cause personal injuries and fatalities, damage to public and private property, power outages, and threats to the nation’s critical infrastructure. In fire-prone states, hazard trees can also fall onto power lines and become the source of damaging wildland fires. 

The UAA is currently interested in developing industry accepted procedures for identifying hazard trees during power line inspections. Initially, these guidelines would be developed to address hazard tree issues in fire-prone states. In the long-term, these guidelines could be expanded upon and adopted as either national or international guidelines for inspections for hazard trees. These procedures would include the standardization of survey protocols and inspection practices.

As part of the ongoing Hazard Tree Identification Protocol Project the UAA is interested in getting your opinion on various aspects of identifying and mitigating hazard trees.