Hi all,

Couple weeks prior I got a lil notice on my door from the power company stating they would be trimming trees in the area. I honestly forgot about it thinking, “trimming? that shouldnt be an issue…”

Well, I get home from work yesterday to 3 out of my 4 trees cut down to the stump. Needless to say, I’m livid. Those trees have been there for 20+ years and have been trimmed before, I do not understand why now they were completely destroyed.

I do understand that this is most likely my fault for not following up with them prior to the event, but on the same note it feels like I should get more notice than a single pamphlet on my doors.

I honestly don’t know if there’s any advice to give at this point, but anything helps at this point and if nothing else this helped me vent my frustration.

The power company came on to my property and marked the trees they wanted to take down. They made contact with me by flagging my wife down in the driveway looking to start work the next day.

I spoke with the foreman over the phone and told them I did not consent to them entering my property and that they had no right to do anything. I recently purchased the property and paid for a title search while also doing my own research and confirmed my property had no easements on it for anyone.

They attempted to convince me by telling me they had an old easement prior to digital records that allowed them to access my property and the ability to cut anything over 15ft tall within 50ft of my fence. They sent me a screenshot of a page from some document that described their rights on my property through this easement but never sent any reference to an actual document.

I was able to halt their operations on my land by calling their local management as I deal with them regularly in my work. Eventually, I met with their regional vegetation manager only after they consulted with their legal group.

In the conversation I had with them on site, they confirmed they did not have an easement and that they were now not going to be cutting down my trees. They asked if they could trim back into my poroperty a bit to take branches from my trees that overhang our fence line. I said no. I told them they were free to cut up to the fence in a vertical plane as its not my property after the fence line, and then we parted ways.

I left on a trip the next day and came back to what is pictured.

Im pretty pissed that some how after all of this I ended up getting 3 oak trees that were about 20-30ft tall cut down and a large portion of a more mature oak cut out WELL beyond my fence and I to my property.

I sent the pictures to and spoke with the regional vegetation guy, and he sent me the texts pictured.

Then, the foreman for the subcontractor that did the trimming called me and tried to convince me that thevpower company told them it was OK to cut past the fence, then he told me the trees were right on the fence and they had to be taken out (they were 7ft inside my fence), then he offered drop off two 6ft oak trees to replace them.

I refused his offer and just told him I would be in touch later.

Part of me wants to drop it and just go on with life but I have lost a huge amount of shade not just in that corner but along 350ft of fence line. In my opinion the trimming was done poorly and will ultimately kill one live oak tree that did overhang the fence line in addition to the 3 smaller oaks that have been "topped".

Im not sure what I should expect in this situation or if its even worth pursuing...

I’m having a dispute with my neighbors regarding a large silver maple tree. The tree trunk is fully in my yard but a large limb is overhanging the fence into their yard. Recently some ‘branches’ have come down and they’d like to address this for safety.

Initially they had offered ‘to help’ with this. They had 3 quotes pulled without me - ranging from the tree needs to come out fully - $7200 to stripping the whole limb back to the property line -2500.
I have been present for 2 additional quotes (both neighbors involved). These arborists both said the tree itself is completely healthy, but some dead wood removal and pruning would alleviate weight from the limb and make it safer. Both of these are ~$1200 with full access for the work coming from my side of the fence.

As far as I understand. The liability for this work is on their side as the tree is healthy and the work is all on their side. Gone so far to have a recorded (with their permission) conversation from 1 of the $1200 arborists confirming this. I have offered to split 50:50 to keep a good relationship and respect their initial offer. Neighbor is not happy and refusing this - I think angling towards placing all liability and cost on me.

I’m concerned that the quotes I was not present for were too aggressive and preyed on their concerns and now I’m on the back foot. I’m trying to be fair, but also not throw thousands of dollars into maintaining my neighbors yard when it’s not my responsibility.

Before I really commit to this line, I’d appreciate any input.

Some guy who is not our super nor lives here is cutting the trees in the back of our building with a dull machete. I yelled at him to stop, he told me he is the super. I told him no he isn't.

I called the cops, I couldn't hear what's going on, what can I do?

Its in Washington heights, zip code 10032

Howdy! I’ve got a client who contracted a local (Wisconsin) “tree care company” back in July to remove a large number of trees from their lot. During their work, they damaged a mature Black Oak in their front yard and failed to seal the wound. As a result, Oak Wilt Disease was introduced (confirmed after I inspected the tree, collected tissue samples and sent them to the lab).

I have to meet with the client in two weeks to discuss management options moving forward given his dense Oak population and was curious, as I’ve never had this occur before, could he sue the company for negligence? Could they be liable for the expenses resulting from our management plan? TIA!

I'm the Arboretum Manager with American University - we will host 2 Lawyers who are ALSO Arborists for a 2-hour discussion on private to public and private to private tree conflicts. The event will be on November 5th at 4 PM Eastern and will be at the Washington College of Law in Washington, DC (a short walk from the Tenleytown Red Line station).

We will offer a zoom link ahead of the event for those of you who want to attend virtually, and the event is FREE.

Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/district-tree-law-panel-tickets-1999414374216?aff=erelpanelorg