OP-ED: Warning: From tree lovers in Arnold!! You have to read this!!

  UPDATE:  As is our policy when the writer requests anonymity in their writing, we respect that.
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   PG&E has marked even more
trees for cutting throughout Arnold. They are even being more aggressive in marking trees that are totally healthy, not even leaning towards the power
lines and can be trimmed.

   They are even marking Giant Sequoias that are the largest trees in some neighborhoods and are totally healthy and fire resilient.

   All of these trees will be gone soon unless homeowners and property owners in Arnold know and exercise their rights.

   The legal requirement is 4' clearance from the line, the "guidelines" that PG&E is trying to implement is 12'.

   12 feet of clearance can be obtained through trimming and isn't even really necessary for fire protection.  What they are doing is trying to save money in future maintenance by completely removing trees.

   HOMEOWNERS have the right to say NO to this.

   PG&E lines in our area are TOTALLY un-insulated and they have no intention of upgrading for safety to either underground or even insulate the existing wire or put fault detectors which could in less than one second shut off the line.

   As long as PG&E is allowed to use ANTIQUATED equipment, failures, and therefore, fires will continue to be caused by them.  It has NOTHING to do with any fault of our trees!!!!!

   Their failures will continue long after ALL of our TREES are gone. The reason PG&E is doing this is because trees do not have LAWYERS.   Complete tree removal costs a lot less money.

   PG&E is also selling these trees to biomass or lumber mills to make money off of them. They may not tell you this is happening but there is evidence of this corruption.

   PG&E is paying dividends to stockholders instead of upgrading their facilities, even though they KNOW what is needed.  They are RESPONSIBLE for these fires due to their GREED and pure incompetence!

  PG&E is making the deliberate choice to keep UNSAFE, UN-insulated lines and instead to ruin people's property value due to the removal of their  cherished trees and to make the Arnold area ugly, unattractive with nothing visible by horrid power lines.

   Instead of the beautiful old safe and tall trees, instead of the stately, cooling and valuable landscaping addition, Ebbetts Pass will be an ugly hole just for PG&E!!!