Please note: this page and its links are from 1999-2000

  If you Don't Like a Clear Cut in Your Neighborhood...

PG&E wants to save money and remove trees, rather than do reasonable trimming. PG&E’s own policy document says: "Safety, service reliability, and cost effectiveness are best achieved when trees are removed, rather than pruned. Therefore, the vegetation management policy of Electric Transmission Maintenance is focused on tree removal."

Because PG&E has refused to negotiate a more reasonable approach to line maintenance, a group of Bonny Doon residents, calling themselves the Woodland Protection Group, has filed a lawsuit against PG&E to stop them from continuing this drastic approach.

The preliminary hearing is this Monday, November 29 at 8:30 a.m. and will take about 2 hours. The purpose of this hearing is to determine whether the case should continue and whether to issue a preliminary injunction to halt the cutting on the plaintiff's properties. It will take place at the Superior Court Building located immediately next to the County Building at 701 Ocean St. in Santa Cruz. The case will be heard in Dept. 1. Please come and show the judge that the Bonny Doon community cares, even if you can only attend for the first hour.

Additional information about PG&E’s clear cutting project, the future of this project, the lawsuit, and ways that you might help us rein in PG&E may be obtained by sending an email to the Woodland Protection Group, by phoning 454-9102, or checking elsewhere on this website.

Here is an index to pages of relevance to this issue:

   a bit of background, plus a lot of photos of the devastation, plus PG&E's 
       own guidelines for cutting around power lines

   a copy of the Public Utilities Commission guidelines on tree cutting

   the text of PG&E’s Vegetation Management Policy

   current status of legal issues

   FAQ on legal issues

   the text of the Temporary Restraining Order petition against PG&E

   a sample declaration text (how to lend your testimony to the effort)

There is a mailing list which you are encouraged to join if you'd like to stay up to date on all this. To join the list, contact the Woodland Preservation Group <trees@rbi.com> and request to be added to the list. List administrator David Gelphman will take care of it from there. 

If you would like to contact the group directly, for those interested in obtaining more information about the tree cutting here in Bonny Doon, the lawsuit, how to contribute money for the legal action, and more, the phone number is: (831) 454-9102 -  this phone number has an answering machine/voice mail. Your message will be responded to by one of the steering committee members.