windblown trees

[devon TWiG]

If a woodland owner fells trees on his land which then leaves trees on land next to his exposed to winds to which they have not been accustomed to , and they blow over ( possibly causing damage ) is there any legal stance / comeback on the one who felled the trees ( owner not contractor ) ????

[Gary Prentice]

I wouldn't have thought so.

[Stubby]

Nopety nope .

[AHPP]

At a massive stretch, yes. But probably no.

[TGB]

Is that a bit like having a football through the window and thinking, "If only my neighbours hadn't moved their van. I wouldn't now be looking for a glazier. And I wonder if they can just leave the van parked out front on a permanent basis."

[OakStag]

Well I once read that you could be liable But I extremely doubt that theyres any case study history.

It was in a book called Management of trees the 3rd edition one it just mentioned.it briefly.

 

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[Stubby]

So how do you harvest a plantation on the boundary without putting neighbouring trees at risk ? Do you leave edge trees ? should the neighbour have suitable edge trees ?

[openspaceman]

Well I once read that you could be liable But I extremely doubt that theyres any case study history.

It was in a book called Management of trees the 3rd edition one it just mentioned.it briefly.

 

 

Can anyone give an isbn reference for this book?

 

I thought there was a precedent but cannot remember it.

 

It would depend on whether it was reasonably foreseeable that removing trees on which trees on neighbouring land relied on for mutual support would cause trees to fail. I cannot see it happening in a gardening situation and if it were a forestry plantation nearing its top height for the winthrow hazard then a prudent neighbour would fell them anyway, thus mitigating any damaging consequences.

[openspaceman]

So how do you harvest a plantation on the boundary without putting neighbouring trees at risk ? Do you leave edge trees ? should the neighbour have suitable edge trees ?

 

Well you can only have edge trees on the edge, so unthinned stands with, say, 30% of length in crown will take years to develop a root system that an edge tree will have grown with.

 

Anyone who has done a line thinning will have seen adjacent suppressed trees falling over in subsequent years.

 

I'd have thought giving the neighbour fair warning of ones intentions would be enough as I don't think the neighbour could prevent the felling.

 

Just over 30 years ago I took the decision to store some 90 year old coppiced beech, the stools were too old to regrow and the stems at 8" QG and below weren't big enough for sawlogs. At the time there was a good market for small clean beech sawlogs so I hoped by now they would have got a good price.

 

Two things worked against me, the collapse of the beech market and the 87 storm which took the lot down. I suspect untouched 50% of them would have survived but still have little value.

[devon TWiG]

Thanks for the answers guys .... guess it will just have to be decided by the weather / wind direction really as to what blows down or stays up ... I can not really see what could be done in practical terms to avoid windblow really ,other than crown thinning / reduction of most exposed trees ....