pursuits are sacrificed. To evaluate a decade of applied research there must be a frame 

 of reference, explicit statements of management objectives. Within such a frame of 

 reference, research can be pursued by scientists to provide better knowledge and 

 methods to help managers overcome obstacles to their goals. 



The best statement of goals is this: ROW management for the lowest costs, for the 

 most years, within the engineering needs, with the highest conservation values.^ This 

 is merely a call for efficiency in the delivery of services without harm to (and possibly 

 actually benefiting) the environment. This was a revolutionary idea in the 1950s, and 

 remains so today in some quarters, because it was applied to a situation in which a 

 "state of war" existed. The battleground was RO Ws where resurging resilient brush 

 was pitted against the attacks of stubborn men. The utility engineers were using 

 herbicides, their newest technologic weapon. The brush fought back with stone age 

 "tools," genetic adaptability acquired through a million-plus years of natural 

 selection. 



The following statement of objectives in one form or another has been widely 

 adopted among those utilities that have bothered to formulate ROW policies. The 

 concept, because of its importance as a research and management framework, 

 deserves a closer look. 



Contemporary ROW management is more than just "brush control" to maintain 

 line security. Society is asking the ROW manager (or utility forester) to be a resource 

 manager. His job requires the creative artful application of scientific knowledge to 

 achieve a number of goals: 



1. Maintenance of line security and reliability. This involves keeping tall-growing 

 vegetation out of the Wire Security Zone and maintaining adequate access to 

 facilities. 



2. Employment of vegetation control methods that have minimum adverse 

 impact on the environment or on non-target organisms. This involves selecting 

 from among alternatives a feasible method(s) that is compatible with a given 

 set of environmental conditions. 



3. Maintaining a methodological regime that, over the life of the line, results in 

 the lowest pro rata cost for vegetation maintenance, thereby lessening the cost 

 of energy to customers in the long run. 



4. Employment of a methodological regime consistent with the above goals that, 

 as an ancillary benefit, produces a vegetated environment that has high 

 conservation value. This includes the development and maintenance of wildlife 

 habitat, and the aesthetic, recreational, educational, and food and fiber values 

 of the ROW resource to their highest practical levels. 



In practice, it is unlikely that all these goals can be fully met simultaneously. In 

 achieving one, certain aspects of others may be sacrificed; the task is a balancingact. 

 This implies that the manager knows what environmental values justify modification 

 of engineering specifications, because such plans are seldom altered without charge. 

 Sometimes it is deemed necessary to relax economic standards (i.e., keeping costs 

 down) in order to preserve a resource of uncommonly high worth. Making such 

 trade-offs is subjective and interpretational, as is the handling of values; it involves 

 cooperation, negotiations, disputes, and compromises with other specialists. There is 

 no valid mathematical formula (nor is there likely to be) for "objectively" dealing 

 with this web of dynamic factors. The degree to which ROW professionals solve these 

 problems depends heavily on talent, interest, motivation — and on a proficiency with 

 the Egyptian Equation. Now to research. 



THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST 



The Early Years 



"No more research is needed . . . enough is already known radically to change 

 existing policies, so as to effect both economies for the managing organization, and 



208 



