Not all vegetation is created equal. When it comes to maintaining a circuit, it’d be great if you could trim it all the same amount and it would all grow back at the same rate, accommodating a predictable maintenance cycle. The problem is that scenario doesn’t exist. Grass grows faster than vines. Vines grow faster than trees and so on.
 
In many vegetation management programs, vines are handled in a reactionary manner in conjunction with the maintenance cycle of a circuit. If a crew comes across a vine, they’re asked to cut and treat it. The other time a vine is addressed is after it’s already caused an outage. Waiting on a vine to show itself or do damage before it’s addressed is like waiting until your starving before you grab your gun and go hunting for something to eat.
 
With the rapid rate at which vines grow, they are continually going to beat your cycle. With this in mind, vines should be treated differently than other vegetation and given a greater sense of urgency. A targeted approach that focuses in on this unique plant species is necessary. That targeted approach is the deployment of a vine patrol.
 
Many of our utility customers have utilized the focused effort of a vine patrol to locate, cut and treat the vine problems on their system. This approach not only further solidifies your system reliability, but also helps you stay on a more defined maintenance cycle. If you don’t enjoy surprise outages or banking on happenstance, a proactive approach is the solution. The solution is Edko.