Tree service at Smith Mountain Lake

Before you cut anything near the water, read this.

Appalachian Power manages the Smith Mountain Lake shoreline under its FERC license, and a Vegetation Removal Permit is required to remove any vegetation half an inch in diameter or larger inside the project boundary -- the 800-foot elevation contour. In most cases where trees or shrubs come out, replacement plantings are required to keep the buffer functioning. People get caught by this every year, usually while trying to improve a view. Contact AEP shoreline management before the work, not after, and we will work to whatever the permit says.

Opening a view without stripping the lot.

The instinct is to remove trees. Usually the better answer is to limb up and thin -- raising the lower canopy and selectively taking interior branches opens the water view while the trunks and upper canopy keep their screening, their shade and, on these slopes, their hold on the soil. Clear-cutting a lakefront bank gets you a view for two years and an erosion problem for twenty. It is also the version most likely to run afoul of the shoreline rules.

Steep lots mean climbing, not equipment.

A lot of lake properties drop away hard from the road to the water, with the house tucked in below. There is frequently no way to get a lift to a tree, and felling downhill toward a house is not an option. Those removals are done on rope, piece by piece, sometimes with the rigging set to pull material back uphill and away from the structure. It is slower and it prices accordingly, but it is the only version that leaves the house intact.

Communities we cover

• Moneta
• Huddleston
• Union Hall
• Westlake
• Hardy
• Penhook
• Wirtz
• Goodview
• Bedford County shoreline
• Franklin County shoreline

Not on the list? We are probably still close enough — call and ask.