Watch out. PG and E has been out and about in our neighborhoods, purportedly clearing tree limbs from power lines. Watch out they don't get too chop happy with those chain saws. Read this cautionary tale:
A Cloverdale woman contends Pacific, Gas & Electric, Co. crews trespassed onto her mother’s property in 2021 and cut down "scores“ of trees worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Sonoma County Superior Court.
The eight-page complaint, filed June 14 by Arlene Kock, alleges PG&E workers removed 48 mature oak trees, some that were more than 100 years old, from her mother’s property along Dutcher Creek Road.
Kock, who said she had the timber appraised by an arborist, added that the trees were valued at $212,600.
Kock’s mother died in early 2022 at the age of 99.
The daughter has since taken ownership and is accusing PG&E of wrongfully removing trees that were on private property.
Besides claiming inverse condemnation, or compensation for damages to private property, which were performed for public use, Kock is also seeking damages for alleged trespassing and for interfering with the enjoyment of her property.
The home is in a rural area. Utility lines stretch along Dutcher Creek Road but crews went beyond the public right of way to remove trees, said Kock’s attorney, Elizabeth Brekhus.
“There was just a lot of trees cut on the property and they were very far from (utility) lines, so there was no justification for that,” Brekhus said.
She said PG&E has been unresponsive to her client’s concerns.
A PG&E spokesperson, Angela Lombardi, told The Press Democrat that she has not seen the lawsuit and there could not comment.
According to PG&E’s website, it is required by the state to maintain utility lines and keep them free of hazards. Under this requirement, its crews do not need property owners’ permission to prune trees.
Hazardous trees are removed if they can’t be pruned effectively and large pieces of wood are supposed to be left behind for property owners to use or throw away.
In the months after the North Bay firestorm that ravaged this region in 2017, PG&E crews began removing thousands of charred trees that threatened utility lines across its service area.
Tree and vegetation management have since been among PG&E’s key approaches to preventing wildfires and power outages. Even so, excessive tree removal has been frowned upon by residents.
Kock’s lawsuit contends crews with six large trucks parked along the property’s private roadway without permission on Oct. 22, 2021.
They left after being confronted by the plaintiff but caused damage to the roadway, according to the lawsuit.
Kock also contends the workers returned over the following week without notice or consent and “intentionally and willfully” cut down trees on the property.
Some of the logs were placed into a nearby creek bed and damaged a cement dam structure.
Kock said she contacted a PG&E contractor and agreed to allow one vehicle to access the property for brush and tree trimming near the utility lines.
In November, she found another round of tree removal had taken place and crews hauled away a “substantial portion of the cut lumber,” according to the lawsuit.
Most trees were nowhere near power lines and “exceeded any need that PG&E could have to trim and clear limbs or trees from a reasonable distance from power lines,” Kock claims in the lawsuit.
She also alleges damage to the roadway, stream bed and dam and that shade and natural environmental benefits also were lost by the tree removal.
“The loss of these trees has affected the natural beauty of plaintiffs land and deprived plaintiff of the enhanced property value derived from such trees, the lawsuit states.
