Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

N.J.: town “official bemoans $12K in paperwork to remove tree from creek”

New Jersey: “The state Department of Environmental Protection requires permits and engineering work totaling $12,000 before the township can pull a tree out of a creek near Pittstown, Committeeman Scott Bauman told the Township Committee on Feb. 9.” The tree fell on private property and is causing a drainage problem by obstructing the creek. [Hunterdon County Democrat]

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5 Comments

  • Al Gore used to use the “boiling toad” analogy to describe the effects of global warming – i.e., if you put a toad in a pot of cold water and slowly raise the temperature, it never really senses the increase before it is too late and the frog is cooked. I think that factually, the example is incorrect, in that the frog would really jump out first.

    However, I think the analogy is more apt to the environmental regulations that are slowly strangling our society, and this is what the environmentalists really want. We keep getting used to the regulations that when they finally get to the point of killing our jobs and lives, we will accept the ultimate goal of the enviros and just roll over and die. Death by a zillion little cuts.

    • By rxc

  • This is one of those stories I get so conflicted on. On the one hand, I think I should be outraged by the obvious outrage of spending so much time and effort and money dealing with the quickly-surpassing-India-as-the-standard-definition-level amount of red tape necessary to get a freaking tree removed from a creek but OTOH, so many thoughts crowd that thought out. For example; “hoist on one’s own petard”, “live by the sword, die by the sword”, “getting a taste of your own medicine”, “sauce for the goose”………

    I just have to wonder if a single member of the Franklin Township government – including the members of the Shade Tree Commission, the Cable TV Committee and the Rent Leveling Board – stop to think that this is what they themselves do to the taxpayers of Franklin Township every single day.

  • Just give away the tree on Craigs list.

  • Part of some land I own in Florida is “wetland”. Mostly because when they carved out the road it dumps water onto the back of it. Basically, I have several acres that I can’t touch, because it’s too much trouble to deal with it.

    • By Robert

  • […] Read it. New Jersey: “The state Department of Environmental Protection requires permits and engineering work totaling $12,000 before the township can pull a tree out of a creek near Pittstown, Committeeman Scott Bauman told the Township Committee on Feb. 9.” The tree fell on private property and is causing a drainage problem by obstructing the creek. […]