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

[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