Lawrence resident Paul Ulasien has heard the phrase “the good die young.” But he doesn’t think it should apply to the trees in his backyard.

If Westar Energy has anything to say about it, though, that’s what will happen to the 10-year-old elm in the backyard of his home at 1136 Dubs Dread Court in west Lawrence.

Westar is about two-thirds finished with a project to remove overgrown trees from beneath its major electrical transmission line that runs from near the intersection of Kasold and Peterson drives to an area southwest of Lawrence near the South Lawrence Trafficway.

“Our only job is to provide safe, reliable electricity to customers,” said Karla Olsen, a spokeswoman with Topeka-based Westar. “It really is our responsibility to attend to trees that could impact our ability to do that.”

Ulasien, though, is having a hard time seeing how his tree is a threat to any power line. It is only about 8 inches in diameter and about 20 feet tall.

“It could fall over today and not even come close to the power lines,” Ulasien said. “It wouldn’t even come close to them in another five or six years.”

But the tree is on the Westar easement that runs underneath the power line. The problem is, that easement takes up a good portion of Ulasien’s backyard. That’s why when crews from Wright Tree Service, the contractor for Westar, came to tell him this week that the tree had to be cut down, he objected.

Paul Ulasien, 1136 Dubs Dread Court, is upset that Westar Energy wants to cut down trees in his backyard near a Westar power line. Because of a utility easement running through the neighborhood, the energy company has the right to cut down vegetation that may interfere with maintenance of its electrical lines.

Ulasien said he tried to compromise with the crews, telling them that they could trim a few limbs, even though Ulasien said it would still be several years before they ever got close to the high voltage line. The contractors, though, insisted the tree needed to come down.

“They were not being reasonable,” Ulasien said. “That’s when I told them to get off my property.”

Ulasien also contacted City Manager David Corliss. Corliss said the city can’t control Westar’s tree trimming because the work is on a valid utility easement. But Corliss said he called Westar officials. Corliss said Westar agreed to send out a vegetation specialist from its staff to look at any tree that a property owner believes should be saved before making a final decision on whether to remove it.

“That’s our general practice,” Olsen said. “We would hold off until we can evaluate it further to make the best decision possible.”

But Olsen said the company had some general guidelines on deciding when a tree should be removed, such as: The tree should be 14 feet in height or shorter at its fully mature state. In other words, a 10-foot-tall tree could be in jeopardy if it is a species that is certain to grow taller. Also, Olsen said the company is looking to remove all trees directly underneath lines. They will allow some shorter trees to stay if they generally are on the outer 25 feet of the utility’s easement.

Olsen said that people sometimes forget the company needs to remove even short trees because they can block the company’s ability to get trucks and equipment to the lines during an outage.

Corliss said he had received at least one other complaint from a resident in the area about the tree-trimming practices.

Others, though, are clearly concerned. Some of Ulasien’s neighbors have posted no trespassing signs on their property to keep the contractors from cutting trees.

Olsen said the tree-cutting project should be done by the end of November.