Can Utility companies cut down and spray to kill trees along property lines ?

[cheyenne]

Final update..........I sued a utility co & 2 tree cutting cos...... Don't let anyone ever tell you not too throw rocks at city hall....... They made me 3 offers to settle out of court & I told them to shove it.........I sued for 4.5 Million & everyone laughed at  me & said crazy old Indian been smoken pipe to much........I believed I was right & would not back down........So to trial we go.......A week before the trial they all made me an offer I could not refuse........God Father movie all over again without the horse head........Nondisclosure statement prevents me from saying what the settlement was but I payed off my mortgage, bought 2 new used trucks,Effie a new car, Mercedes convertible, new roofs on my 3 houses & contractors are still working on many other projects & I just keep playing in the woods with my trees.....Now I buy beer by the truck load........Never let anyone tell you their too big you can't win..... 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)  Cheyenne

[Chuck White]

Good show Cheyenne.

Good that somebody showed them that they can't just do what they want to.

[SwampDonkey]

They seem to use herbicide along with hydro axe in the deep bush, but near settlements it's just hydro axe because my uncle has a line across him and it's never sprayed. He used to have cattle and horses graze there.

[Dangerous_Dan]

Good job!
I love it when the big guys screw up and have to pay for it!
These guys get away with too much.

What are they doing to fix your washed out roads? and that illegal drain pipe on your property?

Who is going to clean up the mess off 5000 cut trees?

[ibseeker]

That's great, Cheyenne. I hate to see the big guys rough handling the customers. Maybe they'll think twice next time.

[cheyenne]

I'm putting in all new roads & ditching the water runoff myself. As for the trees 90% of them were little saplings, but as the law reads a tree is a tree no matter the size........By doing all the work myself I know it's done right & will last forever, even putting a 50 foot bridge over one of my streams & a 20 foot bridge over another one.....Believe me they made it worth my while     8) 8) 8) smiley_indianchief 8) 8) 8)

[Ron Scott]

They must have really "screwed up" without any legal right-of-way. ;)

[cheyenne]

They have a legal ROW for half a mile but I own the land it's on.......When they cut they went past their ROW & cut my trees.......When they put the culvert in the end of the culvert is past the end of their ROW & on my land & washed out my roads. Plus all the trees they cut  they just dropped on my land & made a huge mess.......Cheyenne

[Ron Scott]

It's good to see that you prevailed over the utility company. They can be a costly problem at times.

Here, they would not allow us to forward or truck wood over their gas pipe line without placing an additional 2 feet of fill over the right of way crossing before they allowed us to cross it.

The landowner owns the property on both sides of the gas line, but they would not allow crossing of the pipeline to harvest the timber on the other side without placing the added fill over the pipeline at added cost to the landowner and logging contractor. This is really a taking of the landowner's right to access and use his property on the other side of the pipeline to harvest his timber.

The gas lines are suppose to be at least 3 feet deep and on National Forest lands we required them to be 5 feet deep for this very reason so that property use was not interupped by the pipeline right of way crossing it.

We now often find that the lines are just below the surface, so they are cutting costs and the landowner ends up having to pay for a fill construction to cross the pipeline to the rest of his property.

They would not even allow an empty truck to turn around on another section of the gas line, so we had to construct a turn around and landing/decking area this side of the pipeline.

Just something else to watch for when dealing with utility companys. When you give them a right of way, be sure that it is spelled out in the right of way document that they are putting the pipe deep enough so as not to interrup your further use of your property as desired on both sides of the right of way, especially if you have forest land on both sides.

[pappy19]

I am a contract Right of Way Agent for many natural gas, crude oil, products and water pipelines along with electric transmission lines. All new projects generally require a new easement be signed by the landowner. There are many clauses beneficial to the landowner that never make it into the easement. Even with most attorneys, essential clauses protecting the landowner are either not thought of or not negotiated to be included in the final easement document. As a forester and a contract "landman", even though I am working for the "company", I have always made suggestions that will benefit the landowner in the long run. Older easements by utility companies were either not very specific or allowed the company to do whatever they pleased. However, most older easements did allow for damages after the initial construction, and all easements must state the right of way width and length with either a defined written legal description or a plat with bearing and distances of the centerline of the pipe or powerline.

Regarding tree cutting on powerline easements; the company does have the right to cut down trees within the easement width, and, if the easement document allows, they can cut trees that may become "danger" trees that could blow down and hit the powerline. In all cases the company must contact the landowner to initially show him and mark these danger trees and pay for them. In most states the cutting of trees outside of the easement width would be considered a tresspass and could face trebble damages.

When I negotiate for timber removal on a new right of way for pipelines, I always pay the landowner top dollar for the timber and then give the timber back to the landowner. In reality, the landowner gets paid twice as they usually sell it to a lumber company.

In over 30 years dealing with utility corridors and many cross-country easements, I can tell you alot of stories, some good and some not-so-good.

Pap

[cheyenne]

Now here's the height of stupidity you won't believe......I'm sitting having coffee with my pet fox the other morning & out in front pulls up 3 huge brand new trucks pulling chippers & they start putting men working signs in the road. Well I hear a chainsaw fire up & off I go on the wheeler up the hill......I pull up & I'm sitting there watching when the foreman comes over & says Hi.....He says they have to cut down my huge pines & I say go ahead if you want to get sued again......He says you don't want them cut........Good guess I say....Well that shuts the job down & he proceeds to tell me that the utility co said they had my permission to cut down the trees........Yeah right........I can't believe these people are this .....STUPID.......I feel another lawsuit coming on........... ........Cheyenne

[pappy19]

Did you get their attention?  For most of the contractors, they really don't give a rats rearend if they have permission to cut a tree or not. The only way they stop cutting is for the landowner to bitch, then they go to the utility company and complain that their landman didn't tell them not to cut on so-and-so's property. It's mostly a bunch of BS. Make them prove that the utility landman got permission to cut trees, especially if it is off of their specific right of way width. Trebble damages plus is usually the penalty. I hope you get it.

Pap

[Skiddah]

The shortened version is if the utility company wants it gone and it's reasonably encroaching on the right-of-way or their overhead rights, it'll be gone.  Right or wrong, utilities serve a public interest, wield a lot of clout, and have deep pockets.  They tend to win these arguements.  Every few years or so when the line trimming contractors make the rounds (the local utility here has a 7 year cycle), residents whine, complain, write letters to the editor, call out the TV news crews, and much more.  At the end of the day, the disputed trees are either trimmed or cut.  If you really want to see how much power utility crews have, search eminent domain.  Specifically look for cases that have titles like ABC Utility Company v. 1.45 acres of land in XYZ County.  It's scary the power they have.

[SwampDonkey]

Our power company is government and they do as they wish. They took land from residents for dams and paid what they were going to, take it or get nothing. Also, if the original survey erodes into the river, they just move the line in a little further on you. There is a cemetery that has been loosing ground for years. As the bank of the river erodes they just move the pins in on the cemetery more. Of course with a population of "loyalists" there is little chance anyone would even challenge it too seriously.

[beenthere]

Over the 40+ years I've been here, I've never had a major problem.
I meet with the foreman and first tell him to take whatever he thinks is in the way. Then I tell him the trees I'd like to keep if at all possible.
He'll come back and say we can keep those and these others we can trim so we don't have to cut the tree down. Don't think I've lost a tree yet that I wanted to keep.
Seems to work out well in the end.

Not saying this will work for everyone.  ;)

[pappy19]

Yes, the utility companies wield a heavy hand, but that being said, it doesn't mean that they can just do whatever they want. You do have rights, at least in the USA, don't know about the Canadians. As I stated before, they can cut or remove anything within their easement/right of way width; that is not the issue. It's when they go off their easement/right of way width and want to take "danger" trees is where the grey area of reasonable becomes an issue. They do have to pay you for any off-right of way damages including tree removal, damaged fences, gates, cattle guards, etc. If you don't point that out to them, then shame on you, as they will take advantage as much as you let them.

Pap