Connecticut Governor About To Face Plan To Rectify ‘Chainsaw Massacre’ of Protected Trees

Last year, contractors hired by the governor of Connecticut cut down a swath of trees on a protected wetland area and on his even wealthier neighbor’s land, igniting a high-profile dispute between the rich and powerful neighbors. On Thursday, Greenwich is expected to settle the score.Governor Lamont admitted he was behind the slashing of 180 trees from an area of protected wetlands near his $7.6 million home in November — a scandal that one local referred to as the “chainsaw massacre.”In Connecticut, property owners are required to obtain special permits to develop protected wetlands. Mr. Lamont’s contractors also cut trees on neighboring properties without their owners’ permission.Now, a local conservation authority responsible for maintaining the protected wetland is set to deal with the fallout of Mr. Lamont’s chopping spree.According to Greenwich’s Wetlands and Watercourses Agency, the contractor hired to cut the trees removed three in a 1,200-foot-long strip across several acres of protected land.At an unrelated press conference in late April, Mr. Lamont told reporters: “I think at the end of the day, I’m responsible,” adding that he and the neighborhood association, the Ashton Drive Association, hired the contractor “together.”“They hired a contractor to do the work, and I think the contractor went beyond the scope a little bit,” Mr. Lamont said.The wetlands agency has issued violations concerning the removal after a neighbor in the wealthy neighborhood filed a complaint with police and provided aerial drone footage of the removal of the trees.Beyond the chopping done on the protected wetland, the contractors also cut down trees on two neighboring properties owned by INCT LLC and Ashton LLC.The property manager of the INCT property, which was once part of a large Rockefeller estate at Greenwich, was the one to initially call in the chopping to the police. The property manager was also the neighbor who reportedly supplied the drone footage.Seeking a remedy, INCT filed a complaint against the contractor that was hired to do the job, Your Gardening Angel, claiming the damages exceed $15,000, though there’s been no resolution to the case as of yet.The company that owns the land, INCT, has also been active in public meetings on the subject and has been represented by its executive vice president, Peter Thoren, who also works with the Blavatnik Family Foundation.The namesake of the foundation, a Soviet-born British-American businessman, Leonard Blavatnik, recently bought about 80 acres of land at Greenwich from the Rockefeller family. Given that the property where the trees were chopped was also once part of the Rockefeller estate, it appears that Mr. Lamont and the Ashton Drive Association may have inadvertently chopped down some of Mr. Blavatnik’s trees.At a city hearing on the topic in March, a local environmental attorney working for INCT LLC, John Tesei, called the chopping a “chainsaw massacre” and said his clients “want to see a very robust corrective restoration plan.”“We’re hopeful that the people who did this will step to the table and make our clients whole in terms of what the ultimate costs are going to be,” Mr. Tesei said. “We’re talking about a high six-figure number, at least here. So if litigation is necessary to make our clients whole again, there will be, but we haven’t threatened it yet.”Although Mr. Lamont is himself wealthy, bringing in more than $54 million in 2022 alone, Mr. Blavatnik’s net worth is estimated by Forbes to be about $31.3 billion.Alongside his real estate holdings, Mr. Blavatnik has been a donor to both Republicans and Democrats. In recent years he has made major contributions to the Republican National Committee and to President Trump’s legal defense fund. In 2023, President Zelensky imposed personal sanctions against Mr. Blavatnik.At a previous meeting on the topic, environmental consultants from Fain and Associates also proposed a plan that included planting mostly grown trees in the area, though nothing has officially been adopted by the town.The Greenwich Conservation Department declined to provide comment ahead of the hearing Thursday. The contractor did not respond to a request for comment.

Connecticut Governor About To Face Plan To Rectify ‘Chainsaw Massacre’ of Protected Trees

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