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Celebrate Florida’s Arbor Day on Jan. 15 with free trees, planted in the right place: A winning combination from the Florida Forest Service and TECO

You can't buy or install live oaks like these...but if you plant one on your property as an investment in the future, this is the kind of magnificence you can expect.
You can’t buy or install live oaks like these…but if you plant one on your property as an investment in the future, this is the kind of magnificence you can expect.

As a Tree City USA, Tampa – and indeed, places across Florida – have trees like the magnificent live oak in abundance. As a Tree Line USA utility, TECO loves trees like this as much as our customers do. We know you also value the 99.9 percent service reliability that we provide, which is why we trim trees near electrical infrastructure in ways that protect the trees’ health and your service reliability.

For Florida’s Arbor Day, on Jan. 15, you can make a statement in support of a beautiful landscape when you sign up for a free tree from the Florida Forest Service. And when you make sure that tree goes into the ground on your property a safe distance from power lines, transformers, meters and other equipment we use to provide customers with the electricity and natural gas they need, you’re making a statement in support of reliability for your neighborhood.

Starting Jan. 15, you can go to arborday.org/floridatrees to reserve one of the 10,000 free trees the Florida Forest Service will be giving out to property owners across the state. With a limited quantity, be sure to submit your reservation before the trees are gone.

“This is an incredible offer, and TECO is proud to work with our partners in the community to help realize it,” said John Webster, supervisor of Right-of-Way Maintenance with Tampa Electric. “When it comes to trees, our partners are also the customers we serve.”

At tampaelectric.com/trees, you can find planting tips, information about our commitment to trees and how we must trim them to support reliability for our customers. And by calling 811 toll-free, you can get buried utility lines on your property located and marked for free – it’s the law, in fact, and it will help protect you from the possibility of serious injury.

Webster said trees not only offer aesthetic appeal; when planted on the west side of structures, they can boost energy efficiency by up to 20 percent by blocking the harsh afternoon sunlight.

And that’s just part of what makes trees so great.

“A live oak that’s been growing for decades is a common sight in Florida, and the beauty of it is that you simply can’t buy or install a tree like that – you have to let it grow into its magnificent form,” Webster said. “When you make sure to plant it safely away from electrical infrastructure, it’s a treasure like nothing else. It and the other trees you can select through this tree giveaway provide almost any property owner with a chance to invest in the future of natural Florida.”

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