BWL cuts down trees to make room for power lines

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - "We never liked to cut down trees," said Brett Kaschinske. "Trees are very important to parks, and Parks and Recreation and yet, we all know that we need reliable power for South Lansing."

Lansing Parks Director Brett Kaschinske says some of the trees that once lined the Benjamin F Davis Park, are now in the right of way of future power lines.

"Trees are being cut to increase reliability on the South side," said Emma McGlocklin, Lansing Board of Water and Light. "It's a part of Lansing energy tomorrow. We're trying to get out of Eckert while modernizing our grid and updating our aging infrastructure."

Since 2020, Board, Water and Light has been trying to replace the Eckert Plant with substations. The power lines will extend from the Central Substation, down through Martin Luther King Boulevard and West Jolly Road to the Wise Substation.

"We're only clearing enough trees for the path we need to replace our polls and replace the transmission lines," said McGlocklin. "The trees take your eyes off those other things like power lines but they cannot coexist at that level, at that size or in there because we saw when we had the large ice storm here in a number of years ago, you had trees going on power lines," said Kaschinske.

On the other hand, we asked the Parks Director if this project hinders the city's tree canopy goal which is currently at 31%.

"Anytime you remove trees, yeah, it takes a hit to the tree canopy, but this is something too, trees in the right of way are very difficult," said Kaschinske.

Lansing Parks and Rec and BWL are both on the same page when it comes to improving the city's tree canopy count. Although, there was no definitive answer to whether those trees or any will be re-planted in the future but it's something they'll discuss when the project is completed.

The South Reinforcement Project started with the city of Lansing back in 2020. If you have any questions, BWL says, to reach out to its tree trimming department.