Svmphoricarpos. Ceanothus. and Arctostaphylos are likely candidates. More 

 important to our utilitarian interests is the ease by which such thickets and colonies, if 

 intergrown with trees, can be converted to pure shrub-herb types lasting for decades. 

 This is best accomplished by stem-specific removal (/>7 5//u root killing) of trees within 

 the shrub clumps. Once removed (without baring the soil) by such techniques as 

 selective basal spraying, trees do not readily reinvade. 



Today's concerns about transmission lines involve more than just ROW vegetation 

 management, however. The 1970s saw a burst of novel issues. New legislation, 

 combined with new and bigger transmission lines, heightened public awareness. Into 

 the scene moved lawyers, landscape architects, environmental analysts, administra- 

 tors, and scientific specialists (most of them inexperienced). Add to this population 

 growth more avenues for public participation, more intra-species stress, and less 

 "vacant" land, and we get a broadening and intensification of issues. 



Now we hear about corona, ozone, electromagnetic force fields, and dioxins as 

 threats to farms, public health, and wildlife. Engineers now design and paint poles to 

 make them aesthetically less offensive. They experiment with new methods and 

 equipment to lessen land impacts. Computer-based constraint maps are used to route 

 new lines more wisely through the landscape. Watercourses and wetlands now 

 receive attention as "ecologically-sensitive" areas. Popular game animals and rare 

 and endangered species are also taken into account. 



Quite likely these are all valid concerns. Certainly significant dollar sums have 

 been expended on them. Some problems (e.g., ozone) have turned out to be non- 

 problems, while others, such as certain herbicide residues, remain troublesome. In 

 most cases the investigatory and mitigation benefits were (and are) assumed; cost 

 accounting has been inadequate; thus we see few evaluations of benefits versus costs. 

 It is my intuitive feeling that many of these issues are, or will prove to be, distractions 

 from the most legitimate concern of transmission line ecology — ROW vegetation. 

 This is because vegetation, due to its manageability, is directly or indirectly the key to 

 the condition of other components (soil, water, wildlife) and processes (filtration, 

 nutrient cycling, energy flow) of our corridor "ecosystems." Perhaps this opinion 

 only reflects an ecologist's bias, and if I knew more about physics, chemistry and cell 

 physiology I would accentuate pollutants and magnetic fields. 



The Decade: 1970-1980 



The following overview looks at the development of scientific knowledge within 

 subject areas of high concern to ROW managers. 



ROW Planning and Clearing 



This work involved the development and implementation of concepts, strategies, 

 and new techniques. It was research only in the sense of gaining experience with tools 

 new to the field, e.g., the use of computers for route selection, or helicopters for 

 transporting hardware and removing cut trees. The publication of scientific papers 

 on these experiences in refereed journals was uncommon. 



Computer advocates learned of a dearth of biological knowledge of our "average" 

 landscape. They also discovered the weaknesses of text book models (e.g., wildlife 

 population dynamics) when applied to long narrow corridors. The developers of 

 route constraint maps found landscapes constraining indeed, a fact most apparent in 

 the hearing room where each land-holder or land-protector had his say. Nonetheless, 

 because of such innovations routing and construction were more sensitively done 

 than ever before. 



The disposal of forest residues left by ROW clearing was often heatedly debated. 

 Each method had its protagonist; there were pilers, windrowers, chippers, and 

 drop-and-lopers. Those favoring slashburning succeeded in getting some utilities 

 (e.g., in New York) to make field measurements. Everyone learned about the 

 perplexities of smoke measurement, and the many variables of topography, weather, 



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