Regarding The Herald’s Feb. 1 acticle, “No rules: Their land development may harm your tree’s roots”:
Since early 2015, Pacific Ridge Housing has been constructing a housing development to be called Silver Peaks right next door to the forested property of Roberta and Joseph Johnson in Lynnwood. The Johnsons now fear, that because of extensive damage to the roots of numerous trees on their property, future residents of Silver Peaks are in danger of falling trees. These developers are insisting, along with their questionable hired arborist, that the trees are in no immediate risk. We as current or future homeowners in the state of Washington need to fortify our state and county laws so that they will better protect trees from negligent construction.
Currently, I do not believe the laws are strong enough to protect the trees from nearby construction and need to be modified for the time we live in. I spoke with Lindsay Huettman, a local professional arborist, and not knowing of the exact situation, said that “If a tree is on your property, and it falls onto someone else’s property and does damage, it is your responsibility.” If your tree were to fall on someone else’s property, it may be that they caused the tree to fall by damaging the roots, but there may be no way of knowing this or it was so long ago, leaving the blame to rest on you.
If it was not already bad, while the Johnsons have been fighting to protect the trees from impact, Pacific Ridge Homes, the developers, are resisting the requests of the Johnsons and continuing construction activities. They are denying there is any reason to think the trees have been compromised with false data and backward reasoning.
The Johnsons have been battling this increasingly apparent danger for about a whole year now without much, if any, progress. It is apparent that the laws are not strong enough or structured correctly to protect future neighbors from negligent construction activities, and need to be changed.
Kyler Makinson is a resident of Monroe.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
