Industry Benchmarking

The Utility Vegetation Management in North America: Results from a 2019 Utility Forestry Census of Tree Activities & Operations report© describes the current state of utility forestry tree activities and operations. The intent was to enable industry professionals to compare and contrast their program with their peer North American utilities. The ultimate objective of this benchmark study was to further develop an understanding of utility arboriculture, advance the profession, and help utility vegetation managers improve their programs. Further, the study was designed to describe results from the 2019 base year – what utilities are undertaking and accomplishing in the management of vegetation in and near utility corridors. 71 of 210 utilities responded to a request to participate. Participants were determined using a combined list from CNUC and the Arbor Day Foundation Tree Line USA® database. From that list, 16 addresses were not deliverable, duplicates from merged companies with separate addresses or companies returning a non-completed survey. Thus, a total 194 valid utilities could potentially participate for a 36.6% response with participation.