While browsing through some of the readings, one excerpt in “Preserving Important Landscapes” by Genevieve P. Keller and J. Timothy Keller sprang out at me as something that is usually overlooked when speaking of preservation of natural environments. It stated that, “Telephone lines were sent underground or to the rear of the parking areas although clearly visible in the early twentieth-century photographs used for facade alterations.” This made me wonder how often it is thought of on how electricity in a natural environment that is being preserved can affect the visual aesthetics of that area. Certainly by burying the power lines you are ridding the viewer of the sight or knowledge that electricity is being moved through that area. However in some cases the power lines may play a key role in how that era looked and how items of that era (if preserving both a building(s) and the landscape around it) looked and were constructed to accommodate overhead power lines.
The role the power lines play in the visual understanding of that era are only a part of the whole picture when it comes to discussing electricity and nature. About the only time you see electricity and nature playing together is during a thunderstorm , so how do you incorporate something man made into a natural environment. Safety of course is a key player in this all, preservation or not. By burying the power lines you certainly decrease the chances of storms or winds causing problems by knocking down lines and hurting property, people, and the natural environment. As the natural environment, especially trees, grow and take up more space and intrude on the space of the power lines, trees are trimmed, and other vegetation cut and pruned to make way for the electricity, many times the vegetation is cut improperly and the end result leads to the damaged plant being cut down and removed all together…quite the opposite of preservation. Though burying seems to be the safest route for both people and nature, don’t overlook what must be done to get those power lines in the ground. Hundreds of yards of dirt and vegetation must be dug up and uprooted to make way for the electrical lines; yes it will eventually grow back but that may lead to problems such as roots damaging lines and natural erosion exposing lines causing possible harm to humans and wildlife.
Of course at the center of this all lies cost, if preservation is happening on public land then it will cost the tax payers, if on private land then it will cost the land owner, either way someone will have to pay. When dealing with overhead power lines one must think of the cost of towers and poles that will be built to hold the lines, proper weather resistant cable housings to protect the lines, as well as maintenance of the lines. So burying is obviously cheaper right, well it’s much more than just digging a hole and sticking some power lines in there. Power lines have to be buried at a specific depth, encased in a protective tubing to ward off damage to the lines, and every so often the lines need to surface to a transformer or other serviceable space so maintenance can be administered when needed.
This is an interesting view of preservation. I didn't think about the power lines as a part of our landscape. You did mention that the nature has to be alter in order to maintain the current power lines, but isn't there a certain nostalgia to the lines by themselves?
ReplyDeleteI think running the power lines underground can pose more problems then it solves. For instance we can trim trees when they are above ground, but we have to dig up the earth to get to the power lines. Which could ruin the wildlife and the plants that have grown over the lines.
This was a very interesting point and a good way to look at preservation.