Damages done to the land were described as 'egregious.'
This undated photo provided by the Sonoma Land Trust shows a 180-year-old heritage oak tree being excavated from an easement property in Sonoma, Calif. By Allyson Chiu Allyson Chiu Reporter with the Morning Mix team Email Bio Follow May 10 at 7:05 AM The enormous oak tree towered high above the ground, its gnarled, moss-covered branches fanning out in every direction. For 180 years, the tree flourished undisturbed on a swath of protected land in northern California.
But attempting to relocate the tree and two other heritage oaks several years ago, a process that killed the plants and extensively damaged part of the surrounding environment, would prove to be a costly move for the Thompsons. “It was a very thoughtful, very thorough opinion that just covered all the ground that we could ask for,” Sarah H. Sigman, an attorney who represents the land trust, told The Washington Post. “This is just an egregious violation from the beginning.”
The land trust first became aware that something wasn’t quite right on the Thompsons’ property in 2014 after a neighbor reported seeing heavy machinery on the protected land, the Sonoma Press Democrat reported.“I was not prepared,” Bob Neale, the trust’s stewardship director, told the Press Democrat. “It was really the most willful, egregious violation of a conservation easement I’ve ever seen.”
Beyond the excavations, the Thompsons also had a contractor dredge a pond near their home and deposit the sediment on the protected land, which “introduced and fostered growth of invasive and noxious weeds,” documents said.
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