Since moving to Richland Avenue in 1967, she has cared for the large trees in her front yard because they are the reason she bought the house, she says.

But once a year she can't stand looking at her trees because of the "terrible" trimming job PG&E does, she says. Other residents in her neighborhood have also complained to The Willow Glen Resident about the way their trees are trimmed.

PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith says, "It is necessary to trim trees that are within a certain distance of our line—about four feet—and are deemed to be a danger."

There is also a legal obligation, set by the California Public Utilities Commission, to keep the trees a safe distance away from the power lines. If there is a threat to public safety or electric reliability, the tree will be trimmed or removed, Smith explains. Each tree is individually evaluated.

The PG&E Vegetation Management Department keeps a database of all the trees in its service area that are close to the lines, surveys areas daily and trims annually. PG&E contracts with Asplundh Tree Expert Company and several other companies to trim the trees.

Before trimming the trees, a note is left on the homeowner's door. There is no cost to the resident, and within three days of receiving the note the resident can contact the inspector about any concerns.

Smith says each case is handled individually whenever concerns are expressed. But he has received no complaints about how the trees are trimmed.

Residential trees are trimmed differently than trees in the business district, says Ralph Mize, the San Jose city arborist for the department of transportation. PG&E instructs Asplundh Tree Expert Company to trim trees according to a "V-pruning" technique, which means foliage is trimmed away directly beneath the lines. The sides of the tree continue to grow. The city, which trims the trees in the business district, uses a "full canopy" pruning method, Mize says.

"Certainly PG&E needs to protect the high-voltage lines, but the more they cut back the more drastic the effect on the tree," Mize says. "The problem is, there might be big and fast-growing trees right under the power lines that need to be trimmed and then the sides will grow faster in order to fulfill the canopy requirement the tree has."

Willow Glen resident Karrie Whiteside calls the V-pruning "funny-looking and ugly." She is glad her trees were not trimmed and is "appalled" by the drastic pruning of her neighbor's trees.

Another Richland Avenue resident, who declined to be identified, thinks the method is more than ugly—it's "dangerous and unhealthy," he says, explaining that the trimming is so drastic it's unhealthy for his two sycamore trees.

In the past 27 years he has lived in his house, there have been only a few occasions when the trees were trimmed correctly, he says. He is afraid the side growth is so unhealthy that primary limbs will be strained, split and fall onto a car parked underneath.

He talked to an Asplundh Tree Expert Company employee's supervisor at PG&E while his tree was being trimmed and says he was told that there are "too many trees to trim and a schedule that must be met."

Mize agrees that overpruning is unhealthy for a tree. He is not aware of PG&E cutting back drastically, but occasionally the city does get complaints about PG&E trimming trees and "we go out and look at it with no cost to the homeowner," he says.

Repeated calls to the Asplundh Tree Expert Company for comment were not returned.

The company's website says, "As part of the world's largest vegetation control company, we draw on more than a century of experience in urban tree maintenance. ... Since 1928 the Asplundh Tree Expert Company has been dedicated to efficient, safe and cost-effective line clearance services to the utility industry. ... Our goal is expertise in trimming techniques, safety and customer relations, and we know that properly trained and supervised people are just as important as good equipment."

The company states that its employees participate in training programs to meet standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the American National Standards Institute. The company also states that a growing number of employees are licensed herbicide applicators and arborists certified through the International Society of Arboriculture.

But no matter how much experience the company touts, one Richland Avenue resident is still unhappy with the service he receives.

"I gave up complaining to PG&E a long time ago," says the resident. "In the past, when they spent two days here on the job instead of just one it looked nice. But it must be too expensive to trim the trees correctly."

Smith says that experienced contractors are hired and that the pruning is not done rapidly or drastically in order to cut costs.

"It is a safety issue for the individual living in the area. We prune so that the tree doesn't get tangled in the line," he explains. " It is also about reliability of power. We don't want trees impeding our lines and causing an outage during a storm like we had in December."

About 40 percent of the trees found in the PG&E service area need to be trimmed, Smith says. There are 5.8 million trees in its area so about 2 million are trimmed annually.

Several years ago Jacka hired a professional tree trimming company, which "did a good job." But it was expensive, and PG&E still trims the trees anyway, she says.

"I don't want to be without power, but if they would not trim back so far it would be better," Jacka says.

For more information or to register a complaint, call PG&E at 800.743.5000.