The Line Life Podcast

Live from the 2025 Trees & Utilities: Featuring Dennis Fallon, Executive Director of the Utility Arborist Association

More than 1,500 utility vegetation management professionals joined forces in Knoxville, Tennessee, this September for the 2025 Trees & Utilities event, presented by the Utility Arborist Association (UAA) and the Arbor Day Foundation. During this episode, Dennis Fallon, the executive director of the UAA, shares his thoughts on trends and best practices in UVM and describes the highlights of this year's event.

For more information about the UVM industry, listen to the narrated articles from the 2025 Vegetation Management Supplement, which T&D World publishes each June in partnership with the UAA. You can check them out at linelife.podbean.com. Also, mark your calendars for the 2026 Trees & Utilities conference, which is slated for next September in Portland, Oregon. 

ICYMI: Monitoring Pollinators in ROWs by Drone from the 2025 Vegetation Management Supplement

T&D World publishes the annual Vegetation Management supplement in partnership with the Utility Arborist Association (UAA) each June. For the 2025 Trees & Utilities week in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, we are featuring the audio story, "Monitoring Pollinators in ROWs by Drone." 

This article explores research underway to leverage drone technology for responsible right-of-way vegetation management. It was written by Jill Rebuck of The Davey Tree Expert Company. To read more articles in the 2025 Vegetation Management supplement, visit the T&D World website. You can also submit an abstract for the 2026 supplement. We look forward to working with you to share stories about best practices, research and technologies in the utility vegetation management industry. 

Powering Navajo Nation: Featuring Benjamin Charley, Journeyman Lineworker for the NTUA

The Light Up Navajo program, which is organized by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) and the American Public Power Association (APPA), brings first-time electricity to homes on Navajo Nation. Lineworkers from across the country volunteer for one to two weeks each year to set poles and string lines as part of the humanitarian project. 

This episode features guest Benjamin Charley, a journeyman lineworker who has worked for the NTUA for the last 17 years. When volunteer line crews come to Navajo Nation, he often shows them how to use pressure diggers to set poles in the rocky terrain. He invites lineworkers to join the project and help to power more homes on Navajo Nation in the future.

To learn more about this project, you can listen to the narrated version of the article, "Mutual Aid Without a Storm," from T&D World's Lineworker Supplement.  You can also hear from two of the volunteer lineworkers who spent time on Navajo Nation: Arthur William Muñoz and Dean Frescholz, both section supervisors for Salt River Project (SRP) in Arizona. Lineworkers, thanks for all you do to not only power your own communities, but to support Light Up Navajo!

T&D Talk, Part 3: Sharing Strategies to Improve Storm Response and Grid Resilience for Field Crews

T&D Talk is a special series on the T&D World Line Life podcast channel. For each episode, companies can share their stories about how they are supporting the electric utility industry. Through their tools, technologies, products and services, they are helping lineworkers and fieldworkers improve their productivity and safety. The third part of our 2025 T&D Talk series, sponsored by Southwire, focuses on grid resiliency and reliability during the storm season. Our guest is Dr. Yuhsin Hawig, vice president of Applications Engineering for Southwire.

During the episode, she discusses how the frequency and intensity of storms are impacting electric utilities and how they can improve the wildfire resiliency of overhead conductors and make their underground systems storm-ready. For more information about Southwire, listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of the series or go to linelife.podbean.com. Thank you for tuning in to T&D Talk on the Line Life Podcast channel!

Embracing Trends, Technologies and Best Practices in Utility Vegetation Management: Featuring Dr. Anand Persad

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. 

 

Paying it Forward in the Line Trade: Featuring Michael Stremel, a Retired Midwest Energy Journeyman Lineworker

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. 

 

ICYMI: Protecting and Conserving Wildlife in Utility Vegetation Management

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!

Supporting Lineworkers on the Line: Featuring Duke Energy Line Wife Kara Pollei

Line families have come to Kansas City for the International Lineman's Rodeo for years to support their lineworkers during the day of competition and enjoy the camaraderie of the line trade. 

At the 2024 International Lineman's Expo, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with one of the line wives -- Kara Pollei, the wife of Logan Pollei, an apprentice lineworker for Duke Energy. After working in the police force, Logan is now working on the line and competing at the International Lineman's Rodeo. 

To read a profile about Logan in our Faces of the Future department, click here. If you know of an apprentice who we should profile in a future department and related podcast, please email Amy Fischbach, Field Editor and Line Life Podcast host. We look forward to hearing from you and putting your apprentices in the spotlight!