For immediate release February 23, 2022

JOHNSON CITY – BrightRidge has been recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation for its 18th year of participation in the Tree Line USA program.
Tree Line USA is a national program designed to protect and preserve America's urban forests by disseminating best practices in tree trimming that recognize the need to deliver safe and reliable electricity while maintaining healthy community trees.
Tree Line USA standards require training employees in quality tree-care practices, educating the public about planting trees for energy conservation, and helping homeowners’ plant appropriate trees near utility lines.
“A leading cause of outages in our service area are fallen trees and limbs,” BrightRidge CEO Jeff Dykes said. “BrightRidge has always maintained a well-funded approach to right-of-way maintenance, but we need the help of our customers through right-of-way trimming and planting only low-growing vegetation near power lines. Tree Line USA is a smart approach that allows us to reap the many benefits of canopy cover for our local community, balanced by the need to keep the lights on.”
Properly maintained trees benefit citizens through increased service reliability because maintained trees will have healthy root systems that decay less, have less structural weakness, and ultimately result in fewer downed lines during storms.
"Trees are essential to creating more urban green spaces in communities across the United States,” said Dan Lambe, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. “In addition, they provide important benefits to residents, including clean air, clean water, and vital tree shade. Service providers like BrightRidge demonstrate how trees and utilities can co-exist for the benefit of communities and residents."
BrightRidge achieved the Tree Line USA recognition by meeting five program standards: quality tree care, annual worker training, tree planting and public education, a formal tree-based energy conservation policy, and participating with annual Arbor Day celebrations.
More information about Tree Line USA can be found at www.arborday.org/TreeLineUSA.

About the Arbor Day Foundation
Founded in 1972, the Arbor Day Foundation has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees, with more than one million members, supporters and valued partners. Since 1972, almost 500 million Arbor Day Foundation trees have been planted in neighborhoods, communities, cities and forests throughout the world. Our vision is to lead toward a world where trees are used to solve issues critical to survival.

About BrightRidge
BrightRidge is a publicly owned electric utility serving more than 81,000 customers in Washington, Sullivan, Carter and Greene counties. It is the 10th largest local power company in the Tennessee Valley Authority service area. BrightRidge Broadband offers nation-leading 10GB symmetrical broadband delivered via fiber to the premise to more 23,000 locations in its service area.