A neighbor’s trees shed a ton of leaves on my lawn. Should I be the one to have to rake them up, or should my neighbor take responsibility? What’s right? What’s neighborly? What’s the law? P.S. My back is finally not sore from all the raking I did two weeks ago. – Fall Guy
Trees and leaves seem to be a source of much autumnal angst, including Mrs. Action Line, who gets concerned about all the bags of purloined foliage in the backyard.
On dark November nights, Action Line has been known to cruise the neighborhood on the hunt for leaf-filled Hefty bags set out on the curb.
One person’s fall flotsam is another’s free compost. So instead of seeing your neighbor’s tree leaves as detrimental detritus, consider it a gift.
And cut yourself some slack. In the authoritative book Passionate Gardening, co-author and Colorado master plantsman Rob Proctor talks about his fall garden chores.
“Nowhere on my list does it say ‘clean up garden.’ If it’s on yours, cross it off,” he wrote, adding this horticultural hortative: “Take a cue from nature. Gnomes do not scurry around in the wild in autumn, raking leaves away from plants and cutting them down to stubs with a weed-whacker.”
That might be impossible for neatniks, who take leave of their senses when trees shed.
Anyway, the law is clear about tree limbs hanging over your property. You can lop off the interlopers.
But falling leaves are another matter. We asked our good friend and local attorney Jim Whitley about felonious foliage. His initial response: “I’m stumped.” (Get it? Stumped … trees… oh, well.)
In his 35 years as an officer of the court, Jim had only one semirelated case, a situation in which plants from a neighboring property overran another property. The plants were legally removed.
Jim advised neighbors to work things out as neighbors.
It would be cheaper to pay a landscape maintenance company than get an attorney. Besides, the judicial system has better things to do than act as arboreal arbiters.
In addition, “leaves are considered a natural product,” according to the legal website FindLaw.com. “Even if the leaves cause damage, like clogging your gutters or pipes, you have no legal claims against the owner of the tree.”
If you want to know about neighbors and trees, here is a link to the FindLaw findings – http://tinyurl.com/leaf-dgo.
So what do city laws say about trees and leaves? Not much, really. Except there’s an utterly bizarre paragraph granting immense powers to Durango’s director of parks and recreation.
Section 26-37 of the municipal code states: “The director of parks and recreation may inspect all trees, shrubs and logs upon any property within the city.”
So if you hear something in the backyard late at night, it might be a raccoon, a deer ... or Cathy Metz skulking about with a flashlight, frisking the forsythia or scrutinizing your woodpile.
“I didn’t know I was responsible for shrubs and logs,” Cathy said with a laugh from her office at Durango Community Recreation Center. “But if something goes awry, we’ll get it taken care of.”
H H H
This might set a longevity record for Action Line updates. Last December, a reader asked about the unsightly “spaghetti” of Christmas lights on the spruce in Buckley Park. On Friday, a year later, we hear glad tidings from our good friend Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District.
“BID has taken over the tree, per the Boys and Girls Club wishes expressed in your column last year,” he said via email.
New lights will be installed Tuesday. “Then we will light up the tree at the annual Singing With Santa event,” he said. “No marching up Main this year, just meet at Buckley Park by 4:45 p.m. this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll sing carols, see Santa, then light the tree! Then free hot chocolate and cookies across Main at Guido’s patio.”
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you request “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” at the Sing With Santa event.
