In the electric utility industry, vegetation management plays an integral role in reliability and resiliency. For this episode of the Line Life Podcast, we are featuring an interview with Dr. Anand Persad, the founder and director of research with Tetra Energy Sciences Research and Consulting.

I interviewed Dr. Persad at last year's Trees & Utilities conference in Fort Worth, Texas, to learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the utility vegetation management (UVM) industry. He has written several articles about UVM for the T&D World website, magazine and annual Vegetation Management Supplement, which we publish in partnership with the Utility Arborist Association (UAA) each June.

To learn more about utility vegetation management, make sure to register for the 2025 Trees & Utilities conference this September in Knoxville, Tennessee. The 2025 T&D World Vegetation Management Supplement will be available in the UAA booth. I look forward to seeing you there! Also, if you have an idea for an article for the 2026 Vegetation Management Supplement, please email Amy Fischbach.

Years ago, I first met Michael Stremel, who recently retired from a career in the line trade at Midwest Energy. He first started competing at the International Lineman's Rodeo as an apprentice back in 1988, and he has been involved in the event as both a competitor and a volunteer for the International Lineman's Rodeo Association (ILRA). ever since. He has about 49 years of experience in the electric utility industry and enjoys volunteering for the ILRA. Over the last few years, he has partnered with Doug Flick to pay it forward and raise funds for the ILRA Linemen Scholarship Fund through an annual gun raffle during the International Lineman's Rodeo Week.

Line crews often encounter wildlife while working in the field and constructing and maintaining infrastructure in their service territories. For example, Cooperative Energy in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, discovered a threatened population of gopher tortoises in their rights-of-way (ROW). After applying herbicides and investing in an integrated vegetation management (IVM) program, the utility was able to dramatically increase the population of these tortoises and carpet their ROWs in native grasses and wildflowers.

This article, which was authored by Logan Martin of Corteva Agriscience and Wes Graham and Brad Morris of Cooperative Energy, first appeared in the June 2025 Vegetation Management Supplement. T&D World partners with the Utility Arborist Association (UAA) to publish this supplement each June. If you have an idea for an article for the 2026 Vegetation Management supplement, a comment on this audio story or a suggestion for a future guest for the Line Life Podcast, please email Field Editor Amy Fischbach. I look forward to hearing from you!