A Brownwood resident who owns a century old Sycamore is upset about Oncor trimming his tree.

“What they call trimming trees, I would call butchering trees,” said the tree’s owner Michael Degal.

This 100 year old Sycamore tree sits in Degal’s front yard.  Degal says Oncor Electric has come to trim his tree twice before in the past few months, without notifying him. Oncor arrived at his door this Wednesday to trim another 10 feet and four inches off the tree.

“To get that ten foot, they told me a few different ways they could structure the tree up and try to preserve it and try to make it look like a tree,” Degal shrugged. “Which is kind of out of the question at this point.”

Ken Harris with Oncor, says tearing down trees isn’t his companies motive.

“We have to look at it from a standpoint of the safety and reliability, because it not only serves one customer, it could serve several hundred customers past that point,” Harris said. “So we have to do if from the reliability of it.”

Degal says he supports Oncor’s decision to protect its power lines and employees who operate on them, however he wants to know why this is the first time his tree has needed trimming since the poles were put in decades ago.

“They claim they’ve got a responsibility to maintain and keep up their easement? If you’ve got a responsibility, you’re responsibility doesn’t start 50, 60 years later after you’ve got a full grown tree,” Degal said. “Their responsibility started a long time ago, not today.”

Degal believes the tree will die from infection from its now open sores. He has been told he will be responsible for any reconstructive trimming.

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