County Cut Down Trees Beyond Easement

I live in rural Iowa and the county cut down 16 trees on my property beyond their easement without notifying me. The easement is 33 feet from the middle of the road. They cut trees back which were 45-60 feet back from the middle of the road. They claimed after the fact when I called it was for safety reasons at the corner intersection. Fine, two trees within the easement could have been cut down and removed the problem and several others trimmed slightly to fix the percieved problem, I would have trimmed them if they had asked. But they cut the trees down wholesale without notice or permission. Additionally they moved 100 yds up the road and 1/10th of a mile futher and cut down trees nowhere near the intersection and well out of their easement also.

They lowered the value of my property by cutting trees down beyond their easement. These trees ranged in age from 10-40 years, some with diameters as wide across as two plus feet.

Do I have any legal recourse to get them to plant new trees or for compensation so I can get new trees planted myself?

Check the county ordinances. It's very likely that there's a statute that declares vegetation that blocks the view of an intersection to be a "nuisance" that may be removed by the county if not maintained by the owner.

Did you ask them for the legal authority upon which they acted? What did they tell you?

Thankyou for replying to my post.

I met with the county engineer and he said they tell their crews to cut back to the fence line assuming that is where their easement goes to. In this case their assumption was wrong as the fence line is not on the easement's border. He also admitted that they had made a mistake in cutting all the trees down without measuring where their easement ended. He said it is there policy to cut any trees along an entire property if they are cutting any at all (within their easement). That is why they cut all the trees up the fence line for 1/10th of a mile. Again he admitted only a couple of the 23 plus trees were within their easement. Additionally, the intersection is still blocked, not due to the trees but due to the slope of the land, so cutting the trees did not solve their supposed problem. He says they will now measure any property before cutting, which does not help us any. I recommended to him he also notify the property owner ahead of time.

As for the ordnances, there are not any in our county which say he can do what he did.

So, where would I go from here?

In Iowa, your County Engineer is not elected.

That is a part of the problem.

The Engineer is appointed by the elected Commissioners, and that is where your complaint should be placed.

In any county it is unlikely that any road has a right of way wider than a chain or 66 feet.

If you plan to proceed then the first thing to do is to call the Police and file a report. Only then will you get their attention. Next call a lawyer in the area that hates the mayor county manager, etc. Someone who won't throw you under the bus.

Thankyou for the inputs. I've contacted a lawyer and am waiting on his advice on how to proceed. I'll post what happens.