California couple to pay nearly $600,000 for uprooting tree

[Demovictory9]

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — A California judge ordered a couple to pay nearly $600,000 for uprooting a 180-year-old oak tree that later died and causing other damage to a protected property about an hour north of San Francisco.

The damage was discovered in 2014, when a concerned neighbor reported heavy equipment and digging on a property protected under a conservation easement.

Sonoma Land Trust Stewardship Director Bob Neale went to check and found more than 3,000 cubic yards (2,300 cubic meters) of dirt and rock had been removed and a 180-year-old oak tree had been uprooted without permits for any of the work, the Press Democrat reported Wednesday.

The heritage oak was uprooted and bound so that it could be dragged to an adjoining ranch where property owners Peter and Toni Thompson had built a new estate home. That heritage oak and two others the landowners sought to move over a haul road they bulldozed through the previously undisturbed site all died, along with a dozen more trees and other vegetation, according to court records.

The damage prompted the Sonoma Land Trust to sue the Thompsons.

In a judgment finalized last week, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Patrick Broderick sided with the land trust, calling out the Thompsons for "knowing and intentional" violations of a legally binding conservation deal. He said the couple had "demonstrated an arrogance and complete disregard for the mandatory terms of the easement."

Broderick ordered the couple to pay more than $586,000 in damages toward environmental restoration and other costs.

Shortly after Broderick's ruling, the Thompsons put the protected property and a neighboring ranch on the market for $8.45 million.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Sonoma-County-couple-to-pay-nearly-600-000-for-13828868.php


Broderick slammed the Thompsons for showing a “persistent failure to tell the truth” and “an arrogance and complete disregard for the mandatory terms of the easement.”

Construction crews working for the Thompsons also dredged a lake on their adjacent 47-acre property — known as Henstooth Ranch — and dumped the soil onto the protected plot.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/09/an-uprooted-oak-tree-cost-california-couple-600k/

[mobeau69]

1. Good.

[dhill926]

2. good...fuck 'em...

[SunSeeker]

3. What a couple of entitled, privileged cretins.

Killing a majestic 180-year-od oak like that is unconscionable. Fuckers. They got off easy. $586k won't replace that oak.

[Blue_true]

10. Yeah.

Dig up a 180 year old tree to "plant" it somewhere else. "What could possibly go wrong?" those idiots thought. The company that did the work should have it's operating license suspended.

[Submariner]

4. Letting scum off easy like this invites environmental abuse

They should both get 5 years in prison to think about what total privileged aholes they are.

[Sancho]

5. They will likely make a profit...the fine was too small

They should have made them put up a million dollar trust to grow oak trees for 180 years...

[plimsoll]

20. Likely, certain.

If we want a fine it should be a fine. Other wise it's just a fee to piss on the rest of us.

[lpbk2713]

6. ... "persistent failure to tell the truth"

That's probably the main reason why his honor came down on them so hard.

[hunter]

7. Wealth inequality is reaching levels of absurdity in the U.S.A.

How many of us ever think, "Hey, wouldn't this giant 180 year old oak tree look great in our garden!"

[Blue_true]

11. A tree that old or even 1/4th that old likely has a taproot

that is 20-40 feet deep. No one is getting a taproot that deep up in one piece. The taproot is a vital part of the tree's survival mechanisms, maybe THE most vital.

[NutmegYankee]

12. I have never seen an oak go that deep.

1 yard, yes, but not 20 feet. Hell most Appalachian/Northeast oaks don’t even have 10 feet of earth under them before ledge.

[hunter]

14. California oaks go deep for water.

We have a short rainy season and a long dry season.

Little tiny oaks, no taller than the wild oats, will have ten foot taproots.

[Blue_true]

15. The beginning of a tap root is around 10 feet deep.

I helped my brother pull a stump from a dead tree. We had dug five feet down and the old tap root was still holding.

To get the stump of a dead tree out of the ground you have to dig toward the taproot, clear some dirt from around it and then use a chainsaw to cut the top part from the part running into the ground. If you don't do that the stump is not coming out easily at all.

On edit:

What part of the country are you located in? Here is Florida, oaks certainly have tap roots that can go 10-15 feet into the ground, depending upon the soil drainage. If you live in a region with compact soil, oak taproots are shallower. Like I said, I tangled with a taproot of a dead oak tree once, it was a bear learning on the fly. My brother cut the dead tree down because it had become a fall danger. It was not dead enough because the taproot was still very solid and had not rotted out any.

[malaise]

13. Can you effin' believe this madness?

No amount of money can purchase basic sense - these are vile human beings.

[Blue_true]

8. More money than brains or ethics. Bet they proudly vote republican. nt

[shanti]

9. This has happened before up here in Nor Cal

I remember when a judge cut down some heritage oaks because they "interfered" with his view of the American River. He was busted too.

[LiberalFighter]

16. The construction company should be punished.

[CousinIT]

17. These arrogant-ass rich people are destroying the planet.

They should have been sued 600 MILLION.

[patphil]

18. The rich don't care about these things

I graduated from high school in 1964. That summer, before going off to college, I worked as kitchen help in a restaurant next to an interstate just outside of Lake George, New York.
The owner wanted people on the highway to be able to see his restaurant, but there was a line of trees between the road and the restaurant. He had his brother go up and cut down all the trees, which were on state land, so the people driving up to the lake could see his restaurant.
He got fined, but felt it was worth the increase in business he felt it would result in.
The only thing these people think of is themselves.

Patrick Phillips

[Demovictory9]

24. thats awful

[defacto7]

19. An arrogant senseless act compounded by a wrist slap.

The property should have been confiscated plus jail time. Nice words judge but no cookie for this one. A bullshit judgement.

[tclambert]

21. Another example of regulations interfering with the rights of people

to rape the environment.

[Lithos]

22. Fuckers

They got off cheap...

[GETPLANING]

23. There are no words