It took neighbors Joe Cola and Joe Rupp a combined 80 years to shape their properties, and the men said it took PPL Electric Utilities Corp. two weeks to wreck their work. Mr. Cola estimated the utility recently cleared 350 trees growing under power lines on his property, and Mr. Rupp said the total on his side was about 40 trees.
Mr. Cola works in Scranton and had taken solace in returning to his rural, insulated Stone Road property, where he had been planting pine trees since he bought the home in 1968.
"I had all the peace in the world," Mr. Cola said. "I had all the privacy in the world. Now I have nothing."
Before large swaths of the properties were clear-cut, PPL sent contractors every few years to "top" the neighbors' trees to keep them from growing large enough to interfere with power lines.
Joe Nixon, a spokesman for PPL, said in recent years, the utility had been clearing trees away from higher capacity - 500-and 230-kilovolt - power lines.
PPL officials learned they needed to do more "vegetation management" from hurricanes Irene and Sandy, when a large number of customers lost power for extended periods of time.
During significant storms, Mr. Nixon said 70 percent of outages are "tree-related," and during the 2011 and 2012 hurricanes, the utility suffered no outages along areas that had been cleared.
That led the utility to invoke its "right-of-way" easements, in effect since the lines were put in place, to clear trees around 69- kilovolt lines, like the ones that cross Mr. Cola's and Mr. Rupp's properties.
Mr. Nixon said a downed line can cause 1,000 people to lose power, and removing trees makes service more reliable for everyone.
That was little consolation to Mr. Cola and Mr. Rupp, who said the utility went too far by clearing trees that were not tall enough to disrupt the power lines.
The pair said they now appear to be on the hook to pay for removal of tree stumps and addition of topsoil to plant grass on the wrecked landscape. The neighbors also expect to have drainage and snow drift problems without the trees.
Mr. Nixon said the utility takes measures to minimize drainage problems and tries to work with owners to resolve other issues. Mr. Rupp expected the matter to be decided in court.
Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter