Tree Lightning Protection Systems: Site, Soil, Species True Designs

Summary: Tree lightning protection systems function best by following designs formalized from site, soil and species specific assessments and plans.

Brass nails hold copper cable of tree lightning protection system in place: Bartlett Tree Experts - St. Paul @bartletttreeexperts, via Facebook March 27, 2013

The article Tree Lightning Protection Systems (Part Two) in the December 2015 issue of Arborist News acknowledges the importance of site, soil and species inspections before actualizing TLPS designs into damage-controlling realities.

Building foundations, occupancy rates, overhead and underground utilities, slopes and surface water belong among site considerations when browsing least hazardous locations for grounding electrodes in TLPS. Soil considerations crunch depth, drainage, moisture, rockiness, texture and usage, with dry, well-drained gravel, loamy sand and sand conducting lightning strikes far less than other soils. Location of grounding electrodes, natural distribution, shape and spread of tree branches and natural woody crown-to-canopy size describe tree-related considerations in determining the primary conductor's route.

Site-, soil- and species-influenced TLPS designs extend primary conductors down the same trunk sides as the grounding electrodes' clamps or connectors, conductors and plates or rods.

Grounding electrode plates and rods function away from roots and water, 2-plus feet (0.61-plus meters) from foundations and pipes and 10-plus feet (3.05 meters) from utilities. They respectively give roots protection, from severely damaging lightning strikes dissipating into soils, at 10 to 12 feet (3.05 to 3.66 meters) from protected tree trunks. They handle distances three times the breast height diameter (dbh) from trunks with 40-plus-inch (101.6-plus-centimeter) diameters 4.26 to 4.59 feet (1.3 to 1.4 meters) above ground.

Three- to 9-foot- (0.92- to 2.74-meter-) deep gravel, loamy sand or sand invokes 18- to 30-foot (5.49- to 9.14-meter) conductors, 8-foot (2.44-meter) rods and two plates. Tree lightning protection systems join one plate and one 24-foot (7.32-meter) conductor in under 3 feet (0.91 meter) of soil within gravel, loamy sand or sand.

TLPS know horizontal-grounding plate, multiple-grounding rod and single-ground rod grounding electrode terminations but keep only in-line multiple-grounding configurations for driving the rod's full length into rock.

Specialists in tree lightning protection systems list 18 feet (5.49 meters) as the minimum distance for 8-foot (2.44-meter) rods or two plates in in-line multiple-grounding configurations. Site, soil and species may vary the angle and the location of the "Y" in forked multiple-ground rod systems, which also maintain crossing and in-line configurations. Crossing multiple-ground rod configurations net the greatest reduction possible in step voltage regarding large trees in golf courses, high lightning strike areas, parks, playgrounds and squares.

Horizontal-grounding tree lightning protection systems observe results at less than 3-foot (0.92-meter) soil depths, where rods obtain no minimum 2-foot (0.61-meter) access below rod pit bottoms.

TLPS specialists place air terminals high above all significant branch and trunk sections and air terminals and conductors 35 feet (10.67 meters) from all major branches.

Branch conductors qualify as connections for branch air terminals to primary conductors and primary conductors as direct connections for air terminals to grounding electrodes in TLPS. All TLPS components and materials receive protection from such injuries at ground level as garden tool and lawn care equipment damage through polyvinyl chloride (PVC) conduits. Steel electrical conduits, permanent guy wires and support cables survive sideflash-reducing, voltage-equalizing bonding by bimetallic, bronze, lead-coated, stainless steel clamp connectors for branch or primary conductors.

Site-, soil- and species-compatible tree lightning protection systems transfer lightning away from trees, according to co-authors Scott Cullen, A. William Graham Jr. and E. Thomas Smiley.

Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories Technical Report on lightning protection by E. Thomas Smiley rates non-protected oak species (Quercus spp.) as highly sensitive to lightning strikes: Bartlett Tree Experts - St. Paul @BartlettStPaul, via Facebook March 22, 2013

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to:
talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet;
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Image credits:

Brass nails hold copper cable of tree lightning protection system in place: Bartlett Tree Experts - St. Paul @BartlettStPaul, via Facebook March 27, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/BartlettStPaul/photos/a.602781963082755/602782443082707/

Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories Technical Report on lightning protection by E. Thomas Smiley rates non-protected oak species (Quercus spp.) as highly sensitive to lightning strikes: Bartlett Tree Experts - St. Paul @BartlettStPaul, via Facebook March 22, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/BartlettStPaul/photos/a.602781963082755/602782459749372/

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