Menu
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Feature
    • Arts
    • Astrology
    • Business
    • Community
    • Employment
    • Event Stories
    • From the Pioneer
    • Government
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Non Profit News
    • Obituary
    • Public Safety
  • Weather
  • Guest Column
    • Perspectives
    • Don Backman Photos
    • Ardent Gourmet
    • Kitchen Maven
    • I’ve been thinking
    • Jim Heffernan
    • The Littoral Life
    • Neal Lemery
    • View From Here
    • Virginia Carrell Prowell
    • Words of Wisdom
  • Calendar
  • Things to do
    • Tillamook County Parks
    • Tillamook County Hikes
    • Whale Watching
    • Tillamook County Library
  • About
    • Contribute
    • Advertising
    • Subscribe
    • Opt-out preferences
  • Search...
Menu

Unauthorized Tree Removal by TPUD, Request for Just Compensation for Loss

Posted on September 17, 2022 by Editor
www.tillamookcountypioneer.net

By Nancy Skopin, Tillamook
On Tuesday, August 16th, 2022, at approximately 4:15 pm, a representative of the Tillamook PUD knocked on our front door, and informed my husband that their crew was going to cut back the top branches of a Maple tree in our front yard because they were interfering with the power lines. This sounded harmless, so my husband agreed.

At approximately 5:45 pm, I looked out the front window and discovered that the tree had been cut down to the ground. The tree was a beautiful, healthy Maple, about forty feet tall, and several decades old. This was a completely unjustified destruction of our property, so I sent a letter to the PUD invoking our rights under statute ORS 105.810.

This statute, often better known as the ‘timber trespass statute,’ states that:

“Whenever any person, without lawful authority, willfully injures or severs from the land of another any produce thereof or cuts down, girdles or otherwise injures or carries off any tree, timber or shrub on the land of another person, or of the state, county, United States or any public corporation, or on the street or highway in front of any person’s house, or in any village, town or city lot, or cultivated grounds, or on the common or public grounds of any village, town or city, or on the street or highway in front thereof, in an action by such person, village, town, city, the United States, state, county, or public corporation, against the person committing such trespasses if judgment is given for the plaintiff, it shall be given for treble the amount of damages claimed, or assessed for the trespass. In any such action, upon plaintiff’s proof of ownership of the premises and the commission by the defendant of any of the acts mentioned in this section, it is prima facie evidence that the acts were committed by the defendant willfully, intentionally and without plaintiff’s consent.”

(2) ”A court may, in its discretion, award to a prevailing party under subsection (1) of this section reimbursement of reasonable costs of litigation including but not limited to investigation costs and attorney fees.”

The PUD responded to my letter saying that their crew foreman insisted that my husband had agreed to the tree removal, which he had not. The PUD also offered to “replace” the tree. Replacing a tree of this age and size is impossible. I suggested a financial settlement based on the damage to our property and the emotional trauma this destruction has caused. The PUD refused to consider that option.

Now I’m trying to locate an attorney who handles property damage cases on a contingency basis. No luck so far.

My primary concern in this matter is the PUD’s callous disregard for personal property. I know few people will take a stand against such a powerful company, but if they get away with this type of destructive conduct, it will likely continue.

Featured Video

Gordon McCraw Weather

December 11 Weather Forecast
December 8 Weather Forecast
December 7 Weather Forecast

Tillamook Weather

Tides

Tillamook County Pioneer Podcast Series – Season 2

White Clover Grange

Tillamook County Pioneer Podcast Series – Season 1

Tillamook Pioneer Museum
TBCC Foundation
Trailkeepers of Oregon
Tillamook Habitat for Humanity
Salmonberry Trail
Wine, Women, and Dementia
Nehalem Valley Historical Society
The Love Coalition The Lower Nehalem Watershed Council
Tillamook Early Learning Center
Tides of Change
Manzanita Open - Eugene Schmuck Foundation
Tillamook Police Chief Rau
Manzanita Farmers Market
CARE 2022

Archives

Recent Posts

  • GORDON'S UPDATE: Weather 12/11/23 - King Tides This Week ... No Soakers

    December 11, 2023
  • Monday, December 11, 2023 Gordon McCraw Weather

    December 11, 2023
  • AI's Pandora's Box - Surviving Turmoil for Hope

    December 11, 2023
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
Linkedin
editor (@) tillamookcountypioneer.net
MAILING ADDRESS:
Tillamook County Pioneer
PO Box 1086,
Tillamook, OR 97141
EULA
©2023 | Theme by SuperbThemes

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}