Post by Logan on Jul 4, 2016 5:46:02 GMT -6
PLAINFIELD - A new law is about to make timber theft its own class of crime for the first time in Vermont, and one property owner thinks it’s about time.
Brian Morse has been pressing for the change, and has testified at the Legislature, after about 250 trees were cut without his permission from property he had just bought in 2009.
Morse bought the 12-acre parcel along the Winooski River thinking it would be a good place someday to build a cabin to serve as a summer getaway for his family. When he went to take a walk around the property a couple of weeks later, he was in for a shock: Someone had clear-cut three acres, removing trees and leaving piles of slash — a jumble sticks and stumps.
“It was horrible,” he said. He eventually got a $15,000 settlement following a civil complaint that a small logging firm had come onto his property from a neighbor’s property, where they were authorized to cut trees. Morse said the boundary was marked with orange tape, and that a steep ravine separated the neighbor’s land from the parts of his that were cut.
Read more: www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/27/new-vermont-law-targets-timber-theft-class-crime/86437468/
Brian Morse has been pressing for the change, and has testified at the Legislature, after about 250 trees were cut without his permission from property he had just bought in 2009.
Morse bought the 12-acre parcel along the Winooski River thinking it would be a good place someday to build a cabin to serve as a summer getaway for his family. When he went to take a walk around the property a couple of weeks later, he was in for a shock: Someone had clear-cut three acres, removing trees and leaving piles of slash — a jumble sticks and stumps.
“It was horrible,” he said. He eventually got a $15,000 settlement following a civil complaint that a small logging firm had come onto his property from a neighbor’s property, where they were authorized to cut trees. Morse said the boundary was marked with orange tape, and that a steep ravine separated the neighbor’s land from the parts of his that were cut.
Read more: www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/27/new-vermont-law-targets-timber-theft-class-crime/86437468/