Legal Question in Environmental Law in Illinois

tree removal/trimming

Our property is adjacent to a county forest preserve. W/in a few feet of the property line (but on the preserve's side) there are 4 native locust trees covered in 2 - 3 inch thorns. We contacted the preserve to discuss what could be done about the trees (a thorn punctured my heel a couple years ago, and now we have a 2 yr old that plays on our property near the trees). We expected it would offer to prune the offending branches, however the preserve prefers to remove their trees completely... and wants us to split the cost 50/50. It has also offered to split pruning costs 50/50 (alternative option). However, so far the preserve has not gotten back to us w/ a cost estimate (plenty of time to do so), only with a voicemail from our contact asking us to call ASAP and let him know how much we're ''willing to spend.'' I obtained an estimate from a tree-trimming service, and complete remove could be a couple thousand. Should we have to pay anything for trees that don't belong to us? Isn't this a potential liability for the preserve? Is it a potential liability for us (if a guest was injured by one of these fallen thorns could we be sued)? Do we have the law on our side to demand the preserve do something about these? Thank you.


Asked on 8/03/07, 10:17 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Shell Bleiweiss Law Offices of Shell J. Bleiweiss

Re: tree removal/trimming

When I last looked into this question, you had the right to trim the part of the tree that extends over your property, at your cost, so long as it didn't kill the tree. From that I conclude that the FP could ask you to pay a portion if they want to. As to liability, either of you have some exposure, it seems to me. Probably best to contribute to the pruning. In any event, it would cost way more to sue them to force them to do what you want, than to just prune.

Shell Bleiweiss

http://www.shell-bleiweiss.com

Read more
Answered on 8/03/07, 10:28 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Environmental Law questions and answers in Illinois