Hypocrisy is the root of the problem.
Despite publicly supporting a statewide effort to increase conifer plantations, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont says thousands of trees and shrubs have been illegally cut down behind his sprawling Greenwich home. angry neighbors and other sources said.
A wealthy 70-year-old Democratic congressman was sentenced on charges that he cut down more than 180 trees in a wetland preserve to improve pond views from his $7.6 million home, Connecticut Insider reported Tuesday. Reported.
”[It’s a] It’s a chainsaw massacre,” said John Tesei, a land use attorney representing nearby property owner INCT LLC.
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“I’ve never seen anything like this overall.”
“Our customers are deeply upset and devastated,” he said at a March 25 wetlands meeting.
In early November, Lamont allegedly hired unlicensed workers to cut down his beloved sugar maple, beech and peanut hickory trees on several acres behind his seven-bedroom mansion. An official with the city’s Inland Wetlands and Waterways Department told the newspaper.
Some of the trees were 40 feet tall and were an important part of the delicate ecosystem on the wooded banks of a small river, officials said.
Fred Jacobsen, a property manager for a private forest in Midcountry Greenwich, said he called police after hearing a chainsaw buzzing near the governor’s home on Nov. 9.
“It was a systematic destruction of the entire ecosystem in that area,” Jacobsen said at the meeting.
The saw-wielding workers also crossed property lines and “trespassed” onto land owned by Delaware-based company INCT LLC, Wetland Agency officials said in a written statement.
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“It appears the Lamonts are the ones who hired the contractors,” Beth Evans, the town’s environmental director who advises the Wetlands Authority, told CT Insider.
Lamont, his neighbors Vic and the Ashton Drive Association all received citations for wetlands violations in Greenwich, the newspaper said.
“For personal aesthetic benefit and to enjoy the views of Governor Lamont and the Vick family’s two residences, this clearing opened up a very wide view of the lake,” INCT LLC executive Peter Thoren said at the meeting. It’s not a coincidence,” he said.
He called the tree being cut down “trespassing.”
Lamont’s $7.6 million home in Greenwich, Connecticut. ((Google Maps)(Getty Images))
The Greenwich Wetland Association ultimately issued a cease and desist order on November 28, which was sent to the Lamonts, the Vicks family and the Ashton Drive Association. It was not immediately clear whether the politician would be fined.
Greenwich police told the newspaper that no criminal charges were filed in connection with the alleged trespassing.
But the conifer cutting was done in defiance of an eco-friendly plan announced by the governor last April to plant thousands of trees in the state’s dense urban areas.
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Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Secretary Katie Dykes revealed in April 2023 that Lamont sought a portion of the $1 billion in federal funds earmarked for urban forestry programs by the Inflation Control Act at the time. It is said that he was
Local residents are currently calling on the governor, who is cutting down the greenery, to replant the dead trees and shrubs.
“The perpetrators need to restore the entire area to its original condition as much as possible,” Jacobsen said.
(Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Lamont, a former cable TV entrepreneur and Harvard graduate, will earn more than $54 million in 2021, according to the CT Mirror.
His 2.5-acre residence at 4 Ashton Drive is valued at $7.57 million, according to redfin.com.
“This is a dispute between the homeowners association and one of the neighbors,” a representative for Lamont told the Post on Wednesday. She claims the HOA was given notice, not the governor.
“The association and the neighbors are working toward a resolution,” Lamont told CT Insider.
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A representative for the Inland Wetlands and Waterways Authority declined to comment, saying the matter would be discussed at a public hearing Monday afternoon.
The coniferous standoff mirrors a similar battle that occurred in New Jersey in June over 32 felled trees. In this case, the perpetrator was fined $13,000.
