Utilities and cooperatives face constant pressure to deliver reliable power while safeguarding crews, infrastructure, and the communities they serve. Ask any utility manager what keeps them up at night, and the answer is almost always the same: potential outages and crew safety — both too often put at risk by overgrown vegetation.
Managing vegetation is complex because rights-of-way cut through forests, grasslands, and wetlands where brush and invasive weeds can grow rapidly. Left unmanaged, vegetation can obscure lines of sight, endanger workers, and contribute to costly outages when storms or high winds bring branches into contact with poles and wires.
Historically, utilities have relied on two main approaches to control vegetation: mechanical methods such as trimming and mowing, and broadcast spraying along entire rights-of-way. Mechanical programs can keep immediate hazards in check, but they are costly, labor-intensive, and the results are often short-lived. Broadcast spraying, meanwhile, can suppress broad areas more quickly, but it may eliminate desirable plants along with problem species and disrupt local habitats.
Increasingly, vegetation managers are adopting a more strategic approach: targeted herbicide application rotations. This method applies selective products to the broadleaf weeds and vegetation that threaten rights-of-way, controlling them for extended periods while leaving beneficial grasses and forbs intact. The result is a healthier, more stable plant community that requires less intervention over time.
The operational benefits are clear. A vegetation management program built around targeted herbicide rotations can reduce long-term costs, extend the intervals between maintenance cycles, and improve worker visibility and safety. Crews navigating a right-of-way free from dense brush move more efficiently, with lower risk of injury. Fewer emergency outages mean lower costs for utilities and more reliable service for consumers.
But the ecological benefits may be just as significant. When invasive weeds or woody species are suppressed, native vegetation has the chance to return and thrive. Across the country, utilities using herbicide rotations have documented the resurgence of pollinator habitats, the re-establishment of native grasses, and an overall increase in biodiversity. Rights-of-way that once served as little more than cleared corridors now function as ecological assets — supporting wildlife, stabilizing soils, and enhancing the surrounding landscape for nearby communities.
A utility in Tennessee, for example, shifted to a targeted program after years of mechanical clearing and broad-spectrum treatments. Within just a few seasons, crews noticed healthier plant communities and the return of pollinators across thousands of acres of rights-of-way. What had been a cost center began to double as a conservation corridor.
Why does this matter? Because rights-of-way are unique landscapes. They stretch for thousands of miles across the United States, intersecting forests, prairies, and wetlands. They also fragment ecosystems and, if mismanaged, can magnify ecological stress. By choosing vegetation management methods that encourage biodiversity, utilities can offset some of that impact — supporting safer, more resilient habitats while continuing to meet their operational responsibilities.
This is not about choosing between reliability and sustainability. Targeted herbicide rotations demonstrate that the two can go hand in hand. By joining forces with nature — rather than fighting against it — utilities can protect infrastructure, safeguard crews, and deliver reliable service while also restoring the ecosystems that surround their lines. In an era of heightened scrutiny on both grid resilience and environmental stewardship, that dual benefit is powerful.
The challenge ahead is cultural as much as technical. Herbicide use carries a legacy of misperceptions and mistrust, and vegetation management often remains an afterthought in broader conversations about energy transition. Yet the evidence is clear: when applied responsibly, herbicide rotations are a science-based tool that can reduce costs, extend maintenance cycles, and restore biodiversity along rights-of-way.
Utilities stand at a pivotal point. By embracing integrated vegetation management strategies that include targeted herbicide applications, they can redefine rights-of-way as more than corridors of transmission. They can be corridors of resilience — protecting infrastructure, empowering crews, and restoring nature along the way.
