The Utility Arborist Association (UAA)  established the need to gain better understanding of how best to determine optimum vegetation maintenance cycle periods and the tradeoffs between the relative costs of preventive vs. corrective maintenance as its top research priority.  The TREE Fund’s Utility Arboriculture Research Fund funded a project which addresses this question.  The project was funded in two stages.  The presentation being proposed will be a final report of findings from both phases of this project.   

A quantitative assessment model was developed in the first phase of the investigation, and findings reported at UAA/ISA Annual Conference in Toronto in 2013.  This initial phase of the investigation laid the foundation for a proof of concept assessment and demonstration. 

Work on the second phase of the project is currently underway and will be completed in Q2 2015.  This second phase of the project is intended to validate the algorithms that were developed in Phase I.  Initial testing is being done using a logical strawman surrogate intended to represent a hybrid virtual vegetation management program.  The final step will be to validate the model by completing a pilot demonstration using data available from a participating utility vegetation management program.