grrrrr ... so very angry!!!

that would take my entire front lawn up to the middle of my house. I dont see where they could have a right of way that big.

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Silverado, your advice is well put; and please know I am blowing off steam in here ONLY. Being a retired family therapist, I do know "asking" for information is much better than "demanding" it .. no matter what legalities are involved.

Since the curve of the state road is such that "nothing" on our side of the street would interfere with the sight of oncoming vehicles from either direction, it made no sense for them to take anything off (even off what they might call their right of way). Also, since it is nothing but grass from the paved road to our culvert (at least 15' wide) and our neighbor keeps that mowed on a weekly bases, again, it made no sense for them to take anything off our side of the road. Also, since the culvert is rather steep, they had to drive right upon the very edge of it just to reach "over" it to take down our staghorn sumac, that made no sense at all either. (David had planted Ginko trees just a few feet away from where they could reach and these trees take an extremely long time to develop. They are about 6-7 yrs old now. It would be disaster if those had been mowed down.) It just seemed like a malicious act even though I like to think of it as being an ignorant attempt to help us stay safe when we pull out of our drive.

Anyway, we will learn what we can Monday.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

Go to your local farm supply house and buy metal T-posts. Drive them in next to the tree(s) and spray paint them illumous (sp?) orange.

The county highway department has divided the county up into mowing districts. Every certain number of years the mowers come and pretty well clear cut the road easment. 3" tree no problem to them. They just hack away at it until it is down.

This has nothing to do with your trees, but on the outside of a curve it's not a visibility issue. It is an issue of people losing control and going off the road.

I know, since I had a property on an outside curve and every month in the winter, someone would spin out on the ice and run over my mailbox. If the car goes off the road and hits something solid, it's possible for passengers to be injured or even killed.

Yes, I understand that Oregon; and I would be sad if anyone got hurt trying to go around the curve here. However, this curve is "not" sharp and, even if it were, the responsibility of controlling that car in such a way that keeps drivers safe is "not" mine. We've been living here for over 16 yrs and no one has run off the road onto our property at anytime, even during very bad weather.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

up here in the area we were the county road prpoerty line was 33 1/3 feet from the center of the road but cement post and sign will help .. or make things worse

Sue for the same size tree replacement, attorney fee and court cost. If nothing else it will get the attention of the county attorney.

At least in my county the Road Commissioner is pretty well independent of the County Executive (Mayor) and County Commission. While they get some money from the county, almost all comes from state road fuel taxes. This is one of the larger counties in TN, but one of ones with the fewest residents per square mile. Three cities with about 9K total and about 7K outside of their limits.

I'm in an odd situation in that I am between the official city limits of Waverly and what is known as the Waverly Planning District. Runs to the middle of Blue Creek, which runs through my farm. On the north side I have to get permits and such. South of it no zoning.

I suspect if you have a County Commission, they will have an open comment period during formal meetings. Bring it to their attention rather sternly. If a women, wear a bright red outfit. If a man wear a suit and tie. Red still signifies agressiveness and a suit still signifies a formal business position. Combine both and you have Hilary Clinton.

ROFL, Ken I really like your style! Thanks for the suggestion.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

You need to look at your property plat and the easement wording. 60' is the standard easement. 30 feet from the center of the road on either side. Of course this may be different and you need to see it on the plat.

If the vegetation is on the easement you have no leg to stand on. They have the right to mow it down. It is not bout view corridor or being sued. They simply have the right or they don't.

We snowplow for town. Every year people plant in the easement or park in the easement. Every year they are upset. The simple answer is always know what rights your property plat gives to others.

Please note public road easements are different then private road easements.

Very good advice about checking the plat or deed. In our state the ROW can change size from road to road.

My property has a Row of 66 feet for an unbuilt 1/2 street. That was in case the land was developed the owners to the south and west have to provide the other half for a street.

This was recorded around 1916 but would never show as a boundary without a survey.

Thank you Painter and Wanda. I will dig out the deed and see what it says.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

Curious to see what you find out today. ROW is not an easement, it is land that is actually owned by the City, County, State, Power Company, etc. An easement is where you own land to the center of the road, edge of pavement, etc. Something else I run into often is a ROW with a Utility Easement on the outside edge of the ROW. Depending on the utilities, many utility companies will keep them cleared as well to prevent roots from getting into their lines. Hopefully no one was negligent enough to get off their ROW/Easement and onto your property to cut your trees.

We gave ROW to a power company several years ago and they push the limits when they mow/spray the ROW. We installed metal fence post near our bushes/trees that are on our property that we want to make sure do not get damaged. So far it has worked.

I read over our deed and did not find any mention of right of way distances; so I called the Commissioner's office about the size of the right away on my street. Not long afterwards, a VDOT employee called me back. He told me the right of way on our street was forty (40) feet "total". This man said this meant 20 ft for each side from the center of the road.

David walked out and measured to find out where that placed the line; and it was right at the street side of the culvert. Since both sides of the street are mowed weekly by our neighbor and the slight curve of the street is such that anything on our side of the street would "not" hamper sight of oncoming vehicles from either direction, there was no reason at all for the mower to cut anything down.

Since he cut down over half of our staghorn sumac grove (some over 8 ft tall), we lose this year's harvest as well as the following years it will take for this grove to grow back, if indeed it does. I am more concerned about this loss than the loss of our pawpaw and plum trees.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

may just have to brace those trees with a 10ft t post, that really is hard to mow and well.....

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I could not tell from your post.

Was the vegetation in the ROW?

Can you them come out and mark the line? They should do that at no charge to you. Then you can put some t-posts or old telephone pole fence posts in the ground about every 10 feet. Expensive but worth the price because you will be having a life long battle with the county mowing on your property.

Get your local politician involved. Its what they are there for.

you need a fence. the guys on the mowers thought they were doing you a favor. i live in virginia and have done VDOT mowing.

David contacted the sergeant who had come out first and he told us to call VDOT again and, if things were not settled to our satisfaction, to contact the "regional supervisor". We suspect he must have called VDOT himself because shortly thereafter the "district supervisor" came out with another man and actually stayed to talk with us. He apologized and said the man who did the mowing "probably thought he was helping us". He said they would replace whatever we had planted there.

This, of course, was unsatisfactory because the sumac grove was something that grew up on its own (as is much of the vegetation we harvest here). David explained to him we live in an agricultural zone and we harvest what grows on our place whether we plant it ourselves or it grows up on its own; that we could have made an extract from the Staghorn Sumac that sells for about $8.00 an oz and we lost this year's harvest (as well as significant loss the next few years while it grows back). The man said he would talk with his supervisor; but didn't think they would cover anything that grows up on our place on its own (without out planting it).

This is where it stands. We can call the Regional Supervisor or write out what has occurred and send it to the Regional Supervisor (I guess that is who we would send it to.) or go to the courthouse and file a lawsuit. (I didn't want it to go this far; but we cannot have the mowers think they can mow whatever they want on our place.)

Painterswife, the two plum trees (over 6 ft tall), 6 pawpaw trees (about 4-5 ft tall), 1 flowering dogwood (over 6 ft tall) and about 2/3rds of our Staghorn Sumac grove (28 of these 3-6 inches in diameter & some over 10 ft tall) were "all" OUT of the right-of-way. His tire marks went right down the edge of the right-of-way and he cut as far past that as his cutter would reach. (A "rough" estimate of what could have been made from this harvest was at least 15 gallons of "extract" ... yes "extract" ... and probably even more than this.) At 128 oz per gallon with a "low" estimate of $8.00 per oz, this was a substantial loss.

This was not a simple loss for us as we have purposely let that sumac grove grow for many years getting ready to harvest and create the potion to help subsidize our income here. His "attempt to help us" has really hurt.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

One idea: take your receipts from the sale of last year's sumac extract and ask for that same reimbursement. Even though the trees were volunteers you nurtured them, and possibly fertilized them, so that cost might also be reimbursed. Proving the latter will be difficult, though.

Then run some kind of fence in front of the trees so this doesn't happen again. In this county the crew will shear trees off that overlap the fence lines onto the county roads but will not cut back any further.