Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont was directed by his local inland wetlands agency on Thursday to replant more than 180 trees and thousands of bushes that were removed in November from land behind his Greenwich home.
The removal occurred on protected wetlands and property not owned by Lamont, involving his neighbor and a local organization. Despite this, Lamont, who is wealthy, has agreed to cover the entire cost of replacing the vegetation for the landscaping project, according to his lawyer Thomas J. Heagney.
“He made it clear some time ago that he would bear the full cost of this,” Heagney told The Associated Press following Thursday’s meeting of the Greenwich Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency.
Heagney attributed the illegal tree cutting, described by the agency’s director as “clear-cutting” in one of three affected parcels, to a misunderstanding between Lamont and the landscaping company he had hired.
The Supreme Court building (Via Jonathon Bell/Getty Images)
“It was mainly a matter of the governor giving general instructions to the landscaper, and the landscaper going beyond what was anticipated,” Heagney explained.
Lamont has faced accusations of removing the trees to improve his view of a pond, which he has denied. He stated that the original plan was to clear trees damaged by previous storms.
In November, Lamont and his neighbors received a cease-and-correct order after the sound of chainsaws was heard by a property manager overseeing part of the undeveloped land where the cutting occurred. According to documents from the Greenwich Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency, the work “exceeded the destruction of wetland vegetation.”
