The Right-of-Way Stewardship Council Recognizes Accredited Utilities at Trees & Utilities 2023

• 9/27/2023

At the Trees & Utilities Conference September 12-14 in Pittsburgh, PA, the Right-of-Way Stewardship Council recognized the Accredited Steward Utilities, including announcing two new accredited utilities and the re-accreditation of one utility.

Lewis Payne, Chair of the Council, and John Steelman, Co-Chair, first recognized Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for a successful re-accreditation. SMUD was first recognized as a Right of Way Steward in 2015, and re-accredited this year after successful desk and field reviews. Next, two new utilities who achieved accreditation in 2023 were recognized: ATCO electric, based in Alberta, and Liberty Utilities Central, which operates in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The six additional accredited utilities also recognized are Arizona Public Service (APS), FirstEnergy, New York Power Authority (NYPA), Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), and AltaLink.

With the two new accreditations, the ROW Stewardship Council has now recognized utilities for their effective use of Integrated Vegetation Management on more than 53,000 miles of transmission lines, providing service to 42 million people across 20 states and provinces.

Pictured Left to Right:  Dennis Fallon-UAA, Eric Brown-SMUD, Andrew Rable-APS, Jeff Disorda-VELCO, Darrell Gaudet-Altalink, Codi Van Maurik-ATCO, Lewis Payne-NYPA, and Hans Straight-FirstEnergy (Not Pictured: Liberty and BPA)