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When a 200 ft tree at the fence line falls into your property that can take away much of your usable land.

Cleaning up fallen trees is part of owning a property in these areas. Doesn’t matter where the fence is.

But isn't that typically the responsibility of the person who owns the land that the tree was sitting on before it fell?

nope. live in the forest, take care of yourself. a 250' sitka spruce fell from my neighbor's property onto the roof of my detached garage. it cost over 10k to fix it. the neighbor was not liable; it was covered by insurance

I recently learned at least here in Germany it's not. Because larger trees are protected, you're generally not allowed to remove them even if they are close to another property. When they fall, it's considered force of nature and you won't be blamed. Unless, of course, the tree wasn't healthy in the first place and would be considered a danger.

How that works out in practice is basically you as the owner of the tree have to document it's healthy each year. Then, if it falls and you can prove it was healthy you're fine. Hopefully neighbors insurance pays. If you didn't document the health of the tree, your neighbor can press charges and you (or your insurance) have to pay.

Nope (though it does depend). I’ve been through several trees falling from storms.

Unless negligence is involve (like an arborist being hired to condemn a tree), they’re generally considered and act of god. They’re the responsibility of the property they fall onto.

So, in the case of OP, the situation is unfortunate, but it’s on him to maintain his properties and his fence lines within his properties. It’s convenient the state has a fence along part of his property, but it’s not their responsibility to fix it for adjacent lots.

It Depends(tm).

Practically you’re right of course, but they are probably technically responsible given the circumstances the poster laid out.

A landowner is definitely not "technically responsible" for cleaning up trees that fall along or across the border of their property.

If they are aware of a dangerous situation (diseased trees), and don’t do something about it, they are definitely on the hook for property damage caused by that negligence.

It would boil down to their degree of plausible deniability, ‘state priviledge’, and the specifics of the law and precedent in their state of course.

Good luck

The situation described says nothing about diseased trees. It says "I live next to a forest and trees fall."

I bet you the tree would show signs of disease if examined, unless this was during some exceptional event.

I maintain timberland, a percent of dead and diseased trees are normal. It is highly unlikely, at least in the species I’m familiar with, that a tree will just fall over.

Evolution tends to select against that kind of thing.

Notably, parks get sued pretty frequently when trees drop limbs on people or trees fall on folks stuff, under exactly this principle. It works too.

Yes, but there is generally not a requirement to inspect trees. Even a tree being dead is not sufficient to prove negligence. Dead trees don’t fall over immediately.

Liability for property damage also doesn’t require strict negligence in most cases either.

See my comments above regarding some other factors that make it unlikely they could actually get damages (or it would be worthwhile even trying) in this case.

But it doesn’t remove the technical liability, most likely.

The most common claims that do actually get paid out is for things like public parks, street trees, etc.

Someone gets hit by a falling branch at a public park, or their car gets totaled by a falling tree, they tend to get sue happy.

> It is highly unlikely, at least in the species I’m familiar with, that a tree will just fall over. > > Evolution tends to select against that kind of thing.

This is correct when the trees are bordered on all sides by more trees. On the forest edge - which is what this seems to be - things tend to be different though and the occasional tree does fall due to storm, rock slides, wildlife activities, water erosion and more. Especially when the forest edge is relatively new, i.e. the bordering land has been cleared somewhere within the last 40-50 years these edge effects can be sizeable. Eventually the forest edge thins out once the larger trees have all fallen to create a more gradual progression from open land to forest and there will be fewer large trees to fall on bordering land.

Tree law.

Oh my god you're right.

I think I unintentionally brought Tree Law to HN.

Now that I think of this may be the first time that I've seen Tree Law on here.

We're only a hop, skip and a jump from getting some vigorous discussion about Bay area Tree Law now.

They even make songs about it, quite good ones at that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc

   The Trees
   Available on Hemispheres

   Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
   Lyrics: Neil Peart

   There is unrest in the Forest
   There is trouble with the trees
   For the Maples want more sunlight
   And the Oaks ignore their pleas.

   The trouble with the Maples
   (And they’re quite convinced they’re right)
   They say the Oaks are just too lofty
   And they grab up all the light
   But the Oaks can’t help their feelings
   If they like the way they’re made
   And they wonder why the Maples
   Can’t be happy in their shade?

   There is trouble in the Forest
   And the creatures all have fled
   As the Maples scream ‘Oppression!’
   And the Oaks, just shake their heads

   So the Maples formed a Union
   And demanded equal rights
   ‘The Oaks are just too greedy
   We will make them give us light’
   Now there’s no more Oak oppression
   For they passed a noble law
   And the trees are all kept equal
   By hatchet,
   Axe,
   And saw…

There is the legal responsibility, and the practical ability to get things done/protect/help oneself.

What they are noting is the State is it’s own beast, and good luck getting it to do what you want.

This also is not a city type situation, where the density and value of something makes certain types of situations play out differently.

In the city, if a neighbor’s diseased tree falls on your house, you might have a legitimate legal claim, depending on the circumstances.

Your homeowners insurance will figure that out.

If one of the million random trees on state property falls on your fence? It doesn’t much matter what the law says, good luck.

This somewhat silly statement reminds me of when a city person moved in to a house on a piece of land bordered on all sides by mine in rural Sweden. Come autumn the trees - of which we have many, living on the forest edge as we do - started shedding leaves which also ended up on the gravel path leading to his house. He came to me and asked me to remove those trees bordering the path because they drop leaves on it which he doesn't want there. I had to explain to him that he no longer lived in the city where the streets are swept, that instead he now more or less lived in the forest where trees are the dominant life form and that these happened to be mostly deciduous trees which shed their leaves every autumn and as such the solution to his conundrum is not to urbanise the forest but to accept the occasional cover of leaves and the occasional branch on the path, remove them when they're in the way and otherwise just leave them be. Not long after that he bought a garden tractor which he now uses in a futile attempt to recreate his urban park in the forest. The trees keep on winning though, they're many against his one tractor.

And provide firewood to heat your home for the year. Depending on how much of a problem the broken fence is, you might even like it to fall your way.

Depending on the size of the tree and your home you might have enough to sell to the neighbors too.

I'm assuming the state doesn't come around asking for payment for their fallen trees.

Fences are expensive. Firewood really isn't unless you're silly enough to spend money on the guys who come out and stack it for you for $600 a full cord. Awhile back I was getting 13 loggers cords for $1000, delivered, with the only caveat I had to cut and split and stack it myself. Upshot: I got to cancel my gym membership for the summer because that's a lot of work.

Fences can be made out of the tree that fell. Even post holes are optional. Only thing you need to pay for is some cheap wire mesh, and that may be reusable for repairs.

The OP mentioned having fences to keep their dogs in the yard. It depends a bit on the dog that they have, but I wouldn't trust untreated wood, using cheap wire mesh, without post holes, to keep dogs in a yard.

I also wouldn't expect the fence to hold up well if the yard had anything that would attract deer or bears.

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