How City Light’s Vegetation Management Team uses LiDAR to keep the grid safe

Anabel Roza is Seattle City Light’s Vegetation Management & Wildfire Mitigation Manager

Every year, utilities across the country report vegetation-related outages. In fact, some of the worst wildfires in history have started when trees touched power lines. In a region like ours, where forests and infrastructure often overlap, the stakes are high.

That’s where the Vegetation Management team comes in. If you’ve driven past one of our transmission corridors — those wide strips of land with towers carrying high-voltage lines — you’ve likely seen some of our work. But our job is more than just trimming trees. It’s about protecting the power grid and preventing outages or wildfires. (Read more about our Wildfire Preparedness here.)

By staying proactive, we’re working to keep our communities