By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Tall trees are being cut down along the railroad tracks in Westport as the power company Eversource carries out its “vegetation-management” program, sparking anger among neighbors.

Constituents are complaining, said Matthew Mandell, a Representative Town Meeting member from District 1. The railroad tracks running through his district abut people’s homes, which are left exposed when the buffer line of trees comes down.

“They’re completely denuding it,” he said of the Eversource project. “They’re really making it an eyesore … Where is the infrastructure and the beautification?”

Maintenance lacking

Although Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich agrees that Eversource hasn’t been maintaining the trees for years, at this point they need to be taken down to protect the primary wires that bring power to Westport and other Connecticut towns, he said.

“If you want reliable power, you have to do aggressive clearing,” said Ratkiewich, who has been with the Department of Public Works for more than 30 years.

Eversource has not regularly maintained trees along the railroad right-of-way, as a result, “When you have trees that are 60 feet tall and growing into the wires, they have to come down,” he said.

“It’s a shocker for some people.”

Trees vs. reliable power

Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said the tree removal and vegetation management program will take about three to four weeks to complete. 

“We understand our customers’ concerns [but] there are some very tall trees within that right-of-way that need to be removed,” he said. The project covers 18 miles through not only Westport, but Norwalk, Darien Stamford and Greenwich.

The trees have to be removed “to reduce the possibility of power outages, public safety issues and disruption to train service along these tracks,” Gross said.

“Our customers expect strong, reliable service. This work is necessary to prevent power loss for tens of thousands of customers,” he added. “Connecticut is one of the most heavily forested states in the country and trees are the number one cause of outages.”

Eversource does have a plan to replace the trees, but it will take time, and the replacement vegetation will be low growing and will not provide as much shade, according to Ratkiewich. But he agrees the overgrown trees need to be taken down immediately to protect power lines during storms.

Climate change, severe storms mean tree management is critical

“Climate change is real and has adverse effects on weather,” Ratkiewich said. “And things are getting worse.”

Mandell said neighborhood residents have been unhappy with the proposed tree-cutting project for months, and attended meetings with Metro-North and Eversource to protest since last summer.  

“Eversource and Metro-North never maintained these trees for years,” Mandell said. “Now they’re just cutting them all down. How do you do it more reasonably?”

Ratkiewich said he understands that for people who have lived near the railroad tracks many years, the tree cutting has been upsetting. “The problem is that people have lived there for 30 years or more without any removal by Eversource, and now they’re taking the trees,” he said. 

“It’s compounded by the fact that a lot of people are working from home, and a lot of people have moved into town recently,” and don’t understand what is happening, he said.

Town focusing more attention, money on trees

For the past 10 years, the town of Westport also has been more aggressive about taking down or pruning trees on public property and rights-of-ways, he added. 

After extensive damage caused by increasingly powerful storms, such as Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Super Storm Sandy in 2012, and a fatality in town caused when a tree fell during a 2013 winter storm, the town adopted a more vigilant tree-management program. 

About $100,000 of the American Rescue Plan Act funding allocated by the federal government to Westport will be earmarked for the town’s tree removal and management budget, Ratkiewich said.

“It’s a regional problem for power companies, not just Westport,” he noted. 

Residents are angry when they lose power, such as with Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020, when Westport was one of the towns hardest hit by widespread power outages. 

But now, residents are angry that trees that can bring down power lines have to go. “You can’t have it both ways,” Ratkiewich said. 

“This is a necessary evil to make sure that the main port lines through the southwest corridor are intact.”