What’s that helicopter doing over SLO County? Fly along and see
If you see a helicopter buzzing overhead around San Luis Obispo County this month, it’s probably a PG&E team conducting aerial surveys for dead or dying trees.
The company began the flyovers on Oct. 13 and expects them to run throughout October and possibly into November, it said in a news release.
The flights are occurring over transmission lines, identifying areas to reduce fire threat in both SLO and Santa Barbara counties.
On Tuesday, The Tribune rode along on a flight to see what the company is looking for.
“Today, we were patrolling the transmission lines in our high-fire threat districts, looking for trees that have the potential to strike our facilities, whether that’s the transmission lines themselves or the support structures or the towers the lines are laid on,” David Perry, supervising program manager for PG&E, said about the flight.
The helicopter flew from Paso Robles to San Luis Obispo and then to the South County through the Huasna Valley, tracing the power lines and looking for potential issues.
“Specifically, we were looking for dead or dying trees that showed signs of distress, or already died off since the last time we inspected about six months ago,” he added. “Due to the drought in California, we have a large amount of mortality in our trees within the state, something we’re trying to address and identify.”
After checking those lines, the team swung back around for a look at Diablo Canyon.
The patrols are flying to and from Paso Robles between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and are will occur in the following areas:
- Morro Bay
- Templeton
- Cayucos
- Atascadero
- San Miguel
- San Luis Obispo
- Oceano
- Arroyo Grande
- Nipomo
- Sisquoc
- Santa Maria, including rural areas of eastern San Luis Obispo County
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
