Eversource Tagged About 450 Trees Along Francestown’s Scenic Roads for Cutting or Trimming, and 168 Residents Have Signed a Petition

Eversource has tagged about 450 trees along Francestown’s scenic roads for cutting or trimming, and 168 residents have signed a petition asking for an independent review before any of them come down. The Francestown Planning Board heard both sides at a packed hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and sent the utility back to justify its list one tree at a time.

Eversource is due to return with that tree-by-tree assessment on Dec. 1, according to the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.

The Residents Who Want a Second Look

The petition was started by Kaela Malapan, who lives on 2nd NH Turnpike South. She first learned of the plan on July 14, when Eversource flagged trees on her property. She told the Ledger-Transcript she was prepared to allow certain trimming, but that what Eversource described instead was “a total removal of just about every tree” on her property along the edge of the road.

Malapan then denied Eversource permission to cut or trim any of her trees. Her petition asks the planning board to conduct further study and consider alternatives before approving the project. Malapan wrote on social media that the petition asks only for an independent review of the project. It had 168 signatures as of the Tuesday hearing.

Others spoke up in the same direction. Betsy Hardwick, chair of the Francestown Conservation Commission, said the commission opposes the project because of its effect on the scenic roads. Larry Ames of the Francestown Land Trust, which owns some of the affected land, urged the board to scrutinize how many trees would be cut. Many residents said they would accept the occasional power outage to keep the roads as they are.

Eversource’s Case for the Cuts

Two Eversource managers presented the plan: Ian Farley, the company’s New Hampshire vegetation manager, and Sam Bosse, a distribution engineering manager. They described a cyclical, five-year maintenance plan meant to cut outages in Francestown, which connects to circuits in Bennington and Greenfield. Farley said Francestown is one of the six worst-performing circuits in the state.

“The only goal of this project is to remedy reliability issues for Francestown,” Farley said. The aim is a tree-free zone around the lines, so branches stay off the wires and line workers can work more safely during storms. Bosse said the company has run this resiliency program since the 2008 ice storm, which left many Monadnock Region residents without power for three weeks.

Eversource spokesperson Sarah Paduano put numbers on the problem: roughly 750 tree-related outages affecting more than 36,000 customers in Francestown over the past five years. She said most of the targeted trees stand in town rights-of-way, and added, “Any trimming or removals require the permission of both the planning board and individual property owners.”

The company’s general tree trimming FAQ says trees cause roughly a quarter of service interruptions in a typical year, and more than 90 percent of outages in high-wind or heavy wet-snow storms. For scheduled maintenance, it lists clearance of eight feet on the sides, 10 below and 15 above the line. Eversource also held in-person site visits with residents, including a walk on Sunday, Nov. 8.

What New Hampshire’s Scenic Road Law Requires

The reason the planning board has a say at all is RSA 231:158. Once a town designates a road as scenic, work on it by a utility installing or maintaining poles and wires generally may not involve cutting or removing trees, or tearing down stone walls, without the prior written consent of the planning board.

That consent requires a public hearing, advertised twice in a newspaper of general circulation, with the last notice at least seven days before the hearing. The statute defines a tree as a woody plant at least 15 inches in circumference, measured four feet off the ground. Emergency utility repairs after an interruption of service are exempt, and towns may add their own, stricter rules.

A town can add decision criteria of its own, and boards in other towns have handled similar Eversource requests. A regional planning commission staff memo to the Nottingham planning board, on a request that was not an emergency, noted that the work needed written approval from the planning board. It described the hearing’s purpose, under Nottingham’s regulations, as giving residents a forum and ensuring the scenic quality of the road is preserved. Francestown’s board has not announced findings of its own.

Where the Francestown Planning Board Stands

The Nov. 10 session was formally a scenic road hearing at 6:30 p.m. in the town offices meeting room. The notice covers six roads: 2nd NH Turnpike South, Cross Road, Woodward Hill Road, Avery Road, Old County Road South and Clarksville Road.

The Ledger-Transcript reported no vote and no approval. After the hearing, the board asked Eversource to reassess which trees truly need to be cut or trimmed, judging each by its health, age and species. Many landowners have already approved tree cutting on their land, including along Woodward Hill, Avery, Stevens and Clarksville roads, the paper reported.

What Happens on Dec. 1

Eversource’s representatives are scheduled to return to the board on Dec. 1 with the tree-by-tree assessment. That list is the first real test of the 450 figure, since it asks the company to defend each tagged tree rather than the program as a whole.

As of Nov. 13, the town’s agenda page had not yet posted materials for a Dec. 1 meeting, so the time and format have not been confirmed there.

The outcome matters beyond one town. This site has covered similar fights, including 264 signatures in Empire, Michigan, gathered to stop a village from cutting up to 10 maples.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Dough4872 – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons