Industry library
The material worth reading, and who wrote it
Standards, regulation, habitat research and the bodies that publish them. The consortium wrote none of this and takes no position on the paid ones beyond noting that they are paid.
10 entries · 4 sections
Standards and best practice
The written standards a program is measured against. Worth knowing that the principal IVM standard is scoped to electric utility right of way — the pipeline side has no direct equivalent, which is one of the gaps this consortium exists to work on.
Tree Care Industry Association
The consensus standard for creating and implementing IVM plans, including the wire zone / border zone concept. Explicitly scoped to electric utility rights-of-way.
International Society of Arboriculture
The companion publication to A300 Part 7. The standard says what; the BMP says how. Read alongside rather than instead.
ROW Stewardship Council
Third-party accreditation against IVM standards. Every accredited organization to date is an electric utility, despite pipeline being in the stated scope.
Regulation and compliance
What the law actually requires, as opposed to what a contract specifies. Most disputes about vegetation on pipeline right of way are really disputes about access and inspection obligations.
PHMSA, US Department of Transportation
Gas and hazardous liquid pipeline safety rules. Relevant here mainly for patrol, inspection and right-of-way condition obligations, which is what vegetation management is ultimately serving.
American Petroleum Institute
Operator-facing recommended practice, including guidance on conservation and land management alongside pipeline operations.
US Environmental Protection Agency
Federal baseline for herbicide use. State requirements are frequently stricter, and the state rule is the one that will be enforced against you.
Habitat and environmental stewardship
Right of way is the largest managed early-successional habitat network in North America. That is an argument available to this industry and it is consistently under-used.
University of Illinois Chicago, Energy Resources Center
Research and practitioner collaboration on managing right of way for pollinator and wildlife habitat. The most substantive body of work in this area.
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Species status, conservation agreements and habitat guidance. Directly relevant to right of way managed under a candidate conservation agreement.
Research and industry bodies
Where the underlying work is published, and the organizations that convene it. Listed because a practitioner should be able to find the source rather than a summary of it.
Utility Arborist Association
Free with registrationUAA
The established professional body for utility vegetation management. Professional development, research and industry events. Utility-centred, as the name implies.
EPRI
Independent research including vegetation management, reliability and remote sensing. Much of it is member-funded, but a substantial amount is public.
No member's whitepapers, marketing or product literature appear here, including the convening member's. A library that quietly routes to one company is not a library.