Oct 19, 2009 10:25 pm US/Central
Residents Upset By ComEd's 'Scorched Earth' Policy
PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Residents of Palos Heights are trying to keep ComEd from clear cutting trees and bushes in their neighborhood.
CBS
Residents of southwest suburban Palos Heights are fighting to keep utility giant ComEd from turning their backyard oasis into a dead zone. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports that ComEd has already cut and sprayed to death miles and miles of green space beneath its towering power lines, from northern suburbs to south.
Residents of Northfield noticed trees, bushes and brush, dead or dying, back in August. But by the time they saw it, it was too late to do anything about it. Now, people in Palos Heights are trying to avoid the same fate.
Sharon Hughes of Palos Heights e-mailed CBS 2 about Palos "being mutilated by Commonwealth Edison.....leaving a path of devastation."
"I'm devastated," Hughes said.
Hughes and her neighbors had tended the land beneath the power towers for decades. They trimmed trees and bushes; cut the grass much as they would their own backyards. Because it was. Even though they knew this day might come.
Sue Munin of Palos Heights said that ComEd tried to do this 10 years ago but residents were able to stop them. But not this time.
"No, not at all. They're coming through and clear cutting everything," Munin said.
From the air, you can see the expanse of green space they're trying to save, in a community designated 'Tree City USA', where trees and bushes dot the wide strip of land beneath the power lines.
Just a few blocks south, there's the aftermath of what can only be called the same scorched earth strategy we saw up north, where ComEd said it had to maintain access and protect those power lines from towering tree branches.
"These trees were planted illegally in the right of way," said ComEd spokesman Pete Pedraza in a statement. "They need to be addressed. If they grow to full maturity, they could interfere with power."
Tree City's mayor has tried to reason with ComEd.
"We don't have leverage to make them reconsider at this point," said Mayor Bob Straz of Palos Heights.
Coincidently, the same battle was waged in west suburban Burr Ridge exactly one year ago. Mature trees on the ComEd right of way were history until neighbors there got together and said, "not in my backyard."
"They did definite trimming, but they didn't clear cut," said Betsy Levy, who was active in the Burr Ridge campaign.
As a result, the backyards of Burr Ridge look much the same as they did years ago. The reprieve saved the trees, but may have cost ComEd money, which is what many suspect is the reason for the new strategy.
"Once it's done, you know, 50 years have to go by before they'll ever have to do it again," Levy said.
Palos Heights is looking for the same reprieve from the death sentences the pink ribbons now hanging from trees, both big and small, represent.
Even those, Sue Munin point out, have stopped growing.
"It's done, it's 20 feet tall, that's the maturity level of a Hawthorne tree," Munin said.
The people of Palos say they've pleaded their case all the way to ComEd Chairman Frank Clark; to no avail. ComEd plans to power up the chain saws a week from Monday.
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