If you haven’t been to the Seattle area, you may not know that we literally have TONS of trees (lots of pine, fir and others) almost everywhere. While we don’t get snow or a really heavy ice here often, when we do it can be a nightmare in certain areas with power and/or phone lines.
In this area, it’s not just the citizens that may have planted trees - the city and county plant some and some have been here for many years (developments and homes are built around them); and, there are ordinances wrt removing trees (you have to get approval - yes, on your own property, due to Democrat rule of councils, etc.).
I’ve seen trucks with lifts out on some of the more major (and some not so major)roads doing tree trimming. I’m sure taxpayers are paying for that, too; but, I suspect that in the long run it’s less expensive to do that preventative care rather than try to fix the lines when tree branches bring them down.
As a side note, we have buried lines where I live and when we had really heavy snow storms and cold for about a week (fairly unusual for our area) a few years back, I was without power for less than an hour. Some, even those not that far from me were without power for almost 2 weeks (luckily most had generators and/or wood burning fireplaces, etc.).
I know Seattle fairly well. I want people to recognize that our weird adoration of the concept of a tree has not improved our lives. Power companies have full time staffs and thousands of ‘cherry-picker’ trucks whose purpose is to keep cutting back the trees that keep growing along the same curbs where telephone poles carry power lines. The costs are in our utility bills.
We have politicians who feel comfortable telling citizens what they can eat and drink, but they don’t have the guts to say trees and power lines should not occupy the same space.
In fact, as you say, it is the opposite in a lot of localities, where private property owners cannot deal with their own trees without serious hassle.
PS: I am very grateful to live in a community with underground lines. No power failures for several years, and those only briefly.