Behind the scenes – what’s it like to be a Utility Vegetation Manager?
Matt Churches is our North American Business Area Manager here at NM Group. He has a bachelor of science in Forestry, is a Certified Arborist and Utility Specialist and has been working in UVM for over 16 years. During that time, he’s worked with over 30 different utilities, all over the USA. He has shared with us his experience of being a Utility Vegetation Manager:
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As a Utility Vegetation Manager, what were your responsibilities?
Overall, managing the clearing and maintenance of trees and other vegetation around utility network assets. Overseeing the execution of the vegetation management program to successfully achieve safety and reliability for the network, while meeting financial objectives. Also to ensure compliance with federal, state and local regulations.
Is the role primarily office or field based?
Every day is different. Sometimes you are in the air, patrolling transmission corridors by helicopter. Other days you are visiting with irate customers, listening to their concerns about the way their trees were trimmed around the power lines. Crew visits, audits, quality control, and customer notification are other responsibilities that are part of the job. A fair amount of time is also spent in the office looking at budgets, planning trim cycles, developing bid packages, and making sure safety stays at the forefront of the team.
What would a typical day look like?
Every day would be different, but generally a combination of contract administration, proposal administration for new cutting contracts and reporting on activity and project progress; tracking and monitoring department goals. The close management of resources and budget planning is a huge part of the job.
Another aspect is responding to issues and queries relating to vegetation practices and providing technical expertise related to rights-of-way maintenance, arboricultural practices and integrated vegetation management programs.
The role also involves supporting the development, evaluation and implementation of new methods or vegetation management. Innovation is definitely key.
Biggest challenges facing a vegetation manager?
Ensuring compliance, while staying in budget, is probably the number one challenge. Increasing labor rates and budget squeezes mean this is likely to become an even larger challenge in the future.
It’s also a very busy job, oftentimes with several conflicting priorities pulling you in different directions. So I would say time management is pretty important.
What would make the job of a vegetation manager easier?
Detailed and comprehensive online network data allows more and more tasks to be able to be completed from the desktop. Anything that reduces time in the field has both employee safety and cost efficiency benefits. NM Group’s 3D asset management software Caydence® is a valuable platform for greater understanding of the network and context and relationship between assets.
Any intelligence regarding the height, area, volume and even growth rates of vegetation really helps with informing scoping for tree cutting. Trimming schedules and level of cut back becomes more targeted and prioritized, saving on operational expenditure and helping you to better predict costs. It also removes uncertainty when tendering for cutting contracts – increasing competition and helping to further drive down costs.
How can new technology impact the work of a utility vegetation manager?
Bringing digitization and especially data mobility in the field is a substantial improvement. Preventing the loss of vital records and improving consistency will have considerable impact for the efficiency of vegetation management operations.
The use of virtual and augmented reality in vegetation management will be a really interesting advance. I have experienced a real industry buzz, with genuine excitement around the possibilities for this technology.