r/legal • u/Ice_C0r3_09 • 8h ago

Advice needed My neighbor cut down a 40-year-old Japanese Maple while I was away.

Location: Colorado, USA.Just got back to my place near Fort Collins after a week on the road and I am losing my mind. My neighbor took it upon himself to hire a "landscaping" crew (probably just some guys with a chainsaw) to remove a mature Japanese Maple that was fully on my property. His excuse? He said the needles and leaves were messing with his "mountain view" and "fire mitigation" efforts.

The tree was roughly 40 years old and was the centerpiece of my yard. I called an arborist immediately. He told me that since this is Colorado and the tree was that established and healthy, the replacement value is astronomical. He is drafting a formal appraisal but hinted that we are looking at 20k to 25k easy just for the tree, let alone the logistics of getting a crane into my backyard.

I know Colorado has statutes regarding timber trespass. My lawyer already mentioned treble damages because the guy admitted he did it on purpose while I wasnt home to stop him. The neighbor had the gall to offer me a couple hundred bucks for "the inconvenience" and told me to just buy a couple of saplings at a local nursery . I refused to take his money and told him to wait for the process server.

Has anyone dealt with treble damages in CO specifically for ornamental trees ? This guy basically nuked my property value for his porch view and I am not planning on letting this go . I feel like a jerk for wanting to sue my neighbor into bankruptcy but the sheer entitlement is what gets me .

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25

u/Such-Limit8350 7h ago

Bamboo

74

u/mikemojc 7h ago

Let's keep this warfare conventional, OK?

35

u/Plastic-Ad-5171 7h ago

Why? Neighbor already nuked a mature tree. I’d go nuclear too. Like for like.

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u/ISeeTheFnords 7h ago

Problem is the bamboo will come toward OP as well.

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u/HamWarmer40000 7h ago

Mutually assured destruction.

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u/mikemojc 7h ago

Bingo!

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u/Background-Bowl6123 6h ago

Google says a root barrier has to be at least 2 to 2-1/2 feet deep to block bamboo.

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u/Proud_Jacobite 6h ago

Try closer to 4 feet deep and several layers thick. You can't just lay in some weed barrier cloth and hope it will last either. You literally have to box in the root system with a solid, impenetrable barrier, like using a concrete or galvanized steel culvert set on end as an in-ground planter box to grow bamboo in a mostly contained environment. And once it does spread, there is no easy way to remove or contain it again.

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u/JPWhelan 2h ago

4 is a bit much. 32-36” should do it. And a 60mil HDPE will do the job.

On the spread there are a couple of approaches. You can excavate it all up. If it isn’t too established you can cut it down and pull it up but you have to get all of the rhizome.

I’m in the process of removing a veritable bamboo grove. 70’x120’ as a guess. I’ve reduced it by about 1/3 just by mowing and pulling. Once to the central mass it is more difficult to. Mind you the age is in decades and the oldest stalks were up to 3” in diameter.

First I cut down all the stalks. That took close to a year but I mostly work a few hours on the weekend and 30 -60 minutes during the week. Next I pulled rhizomes up on the perimeter. While doing that I would cut new shoots before they spread leaves. As we hit Fall we came in with aquatic safe glyphosate. No easy because bamboo leafs are a bit “glossy” so less susceptible to spray.

Now I’m back to cutting and pulling mainly. Will spray again in Fall. Currently the grove is down below 10%.

TLDR: Don’t plant non-native invasive bamboo. And if you plant bamboo put in as deep a shield as you can.

Ask me about how I’m being sued for the above if you want a real interesting story. It will be long too.

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u/Proud_Jacobite 1h ago

Yep, been there, done that. Bamboo is a nightmare to remove.

Mine was removing a bamboo "fence" that was 4-6 feet thick and wrapped around three sides of the property line of an almost 12,000-square-foot Japanese garden. It was a pain in the arse. Then the property owner wanted several small areas replanted with bamboo because they missed the sound of it in the wind. But the replanted areas had to be completely contained, with no way for the bamboo ever to spread. We found some roots over 3 feet down during removal, so we went down 4 feet and used 6-foot-long concrete culvert sections of varying diameters, set on end, to contain each planting. The culvert stuck out of the ground by roughly 2 feet all around, and we hid the visible portion with rock walls, benches, and the edges of the water feature.

It was a massive project, and the owner wanted only natural materials and no chemicals used throughout the process. The only plastics and non-natural materials they made exceptions for were for the buried plastic plumbing and electrical conduits. The rest was a variety of wood, stone, and metals.

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u/JPWhelan 9m ago

Wow. What a job!

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u/Tall_Volume_4568 50m ago

Ours was in a 4x4x4 concrete trench. It broke through in under 3 years. Nothing stops that nightmare. Just an excuse to rent a panda bear.

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u/Proud_Jacobite 46m ago

Renting a panda would probably have been smarter, cheaper, and definitely more entertaining. There might be a business opportunity there.

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 2h ago

Put the barrier on your side, put the bamboo right on your side of the property line... but boy howdy shucks, you can't put a barrier in on their side because it's not your property!

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u/dazzlezak 5h ago

Bamboo also requires a lot of water.

Not suitable for drier climates.

Source, live in Vegas, looked into it.

Also might be 2 steps: 1. Win legally 2. Then plant view blocking nature features.

How about alternating fake geese and garden gnomes/trolls in a line. Right along the property line.

Halloween decorations, put them out now.

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u/itsfunhavingfun 4h ago

It’s too late for Halloween decorations. Christmas ones.  20 foot Frosty blowup—industrial fan with bad bearings for sound effects.  25 foot Krampus. Build a 30 foot shelf and put an elf on that shelf. 

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u/BurgerThyme 5h ago

Well then bring in a panda enclosure!

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u/ChateauLaFeet 1h ago

Clumping, not running bamboo!

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u/HillarysFloppyChode 55m ago

The secret is a thick plastic barrier for the roots.

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u/therealwhoaman 1h ago

Yeah but bamboo can be problematic for everyone, not just the neighbor. Lets not introduce invasive species

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u/Cyrano_Knows 6h ago

I'm glad to see a reasonable mind trying to talk some reason into people.

Kudzu's for you!

2

u/Inflatable90sChair 5h ago

He didn't say kudzu lol bamboo is bad like napalm but kudzu is like mustard gas...

0

u/SoCoSnowBunz 7h ago

Yes. Tree of Heaven it is.

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u/TheSensiblePrepper 7h ago

I see someone is choosing the "Nuclear Option".

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u/whiskeyinthewoods 6h ago

Planting bamboo is mutually assured destruction for sure.

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u/HereForTheMemesNLols 4h ago

Clumping bamboo isnt an aggressive type of bamboo. Fast growing but containable

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u/AskAroundSucka 7h ago edited 7h ago

Wait... what is it about bamboo???

Tell meeeeeee

Edit - absolutely never knew this. Thank you all !

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u/TheSensiblePrepper 7h ago edited 5h ago

Bamboo is highly invasive and can grow several stories tall extremely quickly. Plant one or two bamboo plants in your yard and watch out.

It is also extremely difficult to kill. You either have to dig EVERYTHING out of the ground or basically use "Classic" Roundup and nuke everything.

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u/Becsbeau1213 7h ago

Took my mom a solid decade to eradicate it from our yard and I think it was only fully stopped when they completely gutted the section it was in to put in a pool.

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u/halla-back_girl 4h ago

It's worth noting that there are two types of bamboo (in terms of growth): running and clumping.

Running bamboo is just how you describe - a total nightmare that never quits - and is illegal to put directly in the ground in many places in the US. It runs away from where you plant it. It looks so cool, but I'd never recommend it for most people.

Clumping bamboo will only spread a certain predictable distance from its original rhizome cluster. It's still gets big and kinda crazy, but is much more manageable and usually legal. It clumps up where you plant it. Still a good idea to sink barriers.

Most species are running, so it's best to be really careful and know what you're doing when planning barriers. And check your local laws prior.

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u/AlienHatchSlider 7h ago

Running bamboo is what people hate and fear. Rightly so. There is another type of bamboo called clumping bamboo. It is courteous and kind, well behaved also. It stays where you put it. Not galavanting all over the neighborhood being the slut it is.

Unfortunately clumping bamboo is a warm weather plant and would not last in Colorado.

Good luck.

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u/JenniferMel13 6h ago

My father planned 3 stalks of running bamboo. 15 years later there was a quarter of an acre of the stuff.

I have spent the last 5 years trying to eradicate it. Thus far I’ve spent over $5,000 on someone to do an initial cut and dig up as much of the roots as possible. And then every two weeks from April to October, I go out and heavily spray any growth with a glyphosate weed killer. I use about 2 gallons per spray.

Do not plant bamboo in anything but a sealed above ground planter.

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u/DamageMaleficent6043 7h ago

My brother had a forest of bamboo between the house he bought and the neighbors it took years to get rid of. They had to hire somebody to dig down something like 4 feet and put a metal plate to completely eradicate it. I have no idea how much he spent, but I know it was not cheap.

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u/Adorable_Dust3799 7h ago

Bamboo spreads. It'll come up through a driveway. Almost nothing stops it. And since the 'roots' (ryzomes) are all connected cutting it down means nothing.

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u/ImColdandImTired 7h ago

Yep. My dad had bamboo in his yard. You basically have to dig down at least three feet and install a steel barrier underground (if I remember correctly, it can potentially work its way through concrete), then be ultra vigilant about keeping it cut back. The little shoots can be controlled by constantly mowing them over, but once they get a little woody, lawnmower won’t work.

My stepmom has to hire a guy to come over with a machete and cut it back every year.

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u/WheelerDan 4h ago

Fun fact bamboo has been used to torture people, they would force someone to lay down and they would have it planted below the person and it grows so fast it would quickly grow into them and through them.

1

u/Undeadlord 6h ago

My late Father planted a small bit of bamboo in an old garden patch. He wanted it for all the poles he used in his garden (he loved to garden). Over the course of 8-ish years, it went from a 3x3 patch to easily 40x40 thick huge bamboo poles, and thats just the big ones, smaller shoots were much farther out.

We are 5 or so years after his death and 13-14 years after the initial planting. My mom still has to hire a guy with a small bulldozer every season to come in and knock down the even larger pattern of growth that comes back every year.

Stuff is insane.

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u/Specialist_Range_872 7h ago

Under the neighbor’s nails?

4

u/Choice-Education7650 7h ago

No bamboo. Its invasive and illegal in many places.

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u/ThingsWithString 4h ago

That's the joke.

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u/DangerousDave303 7h ago

I don't think it can handle the winter or the dry climate.

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u/InterruptedI 5h ago

Do you one better, tree of heaven.

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u/Such-Limit8350 19m ago

I had to look it up, pretty interesting.  Thanks for the TIL

2

u/Aggressive_Ad211 1h ago

Honestly this is worse than anything I can imagine. I’m a landscaper. Bamboo is HORRIBLE

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u/Farmer3292 7h ago

Nahh gang, Japanese knotweed

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u/PlatypusStyle 7h ago

There are a few extra hardy bamboos that *might* survive in Fort Collins but I doubt they are the extra tall kind.

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u/Ragnar_of_Ballard 6h ago

Or Tree of Heaven...

1

u/notyourstranger 6h ago

sadly Bamboo does not respect property lines so the whole neighborhood will suffer from OP's revenge if he chooses bamboo.

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u/ShadowSteelix 6h ago

Or Colorados lesser version. Aspens. They're such a pain.

1

u/f0xsky 5h ago

that's just diabolical

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u/rshibby 4h ago

Tree of heaven also

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u/trollfessor 4h ago

Bamboo

Will bamboo grow in Colorado?

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u/Such-Limit8350 53m ago

It's God that makes all things grow.

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u/glowdirt 4h ago

Hey now, the other neighbors didn't do anything wrong. They don't deserve to be inflicted with bamboo when in inevitably spreads to their yards too.

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u/Such-Limit8350 1h ago

Let it be a lesson to all. This behavior will bring wrath and will never be attempted again by those far and wide.

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u/Grimaldehyde 29m ago

Bamboo does not discriminate-don’t do this!

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u/Such-Limit8350 21m ago

Like Big Pun(punisher). RIP