Greenwich — More than 180 trees, thousands of bushes and other plant life were illegally cut down on the shared land behind Gov. Ned Lamont's Greenwich home, according to town records and officials.

The culling, which spanned some 1,200 feet across several acres, happened without permits in a protected wetland, according to the Greenwich Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Agency, and it had the effect of opening up a scenic view from Lamont's house and his neighbors, the Viks, down the hillside to Indian Spring Pond below.

Town documents do not explicitly say who ordered the trees to come down five months ago, but Lamont, the Viks and the Ashton Drive Association, which owns nearby vacant land, have all been cited for wetlands violations in Greenwich.

"The Lamonts appear to be the ones that hired the contractor," Beth Evans, town's director of environmental affairs director who advises the IWWA, told CT Insider.

When asked about the situation, Lamont described it as "a dispute between the association and one of the neighbors."

"The association and the neighbors are working it out," he told CT Insider.

Cutting for a view?

Five months ago, Fred Jacobsen was at work when he heard chainsaws buzzing in the distance.

Jacobsen, a property manager for privately-owned forest lands in Greenwich's Midcountry below the Merritt Parkway, followed the sound until he found a freshly cleared stretch of land, recently stripped of hundreds of trees, bushes and plants.

Jacobsen said he saw a "massive cutting effort" on Nov. 9 that appeared to have been underway for several days.

Originally, the stretch of land was thick with American Beech trees, pignut hickory and dozens of sugar maples, according to documents and testimony submitted to the IWWA from an environmental consultant who worked with Jacobsen. These trees, some of which stood 40 feet tall, lined a small river that runs behind the Lamonts' and Viks' houses to the pond below.

"This action went far beyond the destruction to the wetlands vegetation," Jacobsen told Greenwich's IWWA at its March 25 public meeting. "It was a coordinated destruction of the entire ecosystem in that area. And the perpetrators should restore the entire area as closely as possible to the way it was."

According to IWWA records and audio recordings of IWWA meetings available on the town's website, besides cutting on land owned by the Lamonts, the Viks and the Ashton Drive Association, workers also crossed a property line and chopped down trees on neighboring lands owned by INTC LLC, which employs Jacobsen.

"It's no coincidence that the cutting opened up a very wide view of the lake for the personal aesthetic benefit and viewing enjoyment of two dwellings, Gov. Lamont and the Viks," Peter Thorén, an executive of INCT LLC, alleged at the IWWA March meeting.

Thorén said the property is extremely important to his client and called the intrusion an "illegal invasion."

IWWA staff, in agency documents, described it as a "trespassing situation." According to police, however, no charges have been filed.

Evans told CT Insider that in her experience as head of Greenwich's Wetlands Department, this type of cutting — which included cutting off long branches and tree tops in addition to fully cutting down trees — is typically done to improve sightlines and views.

Jacobsen told the IWWA that when his client bought the land in 2022, the homes owned by the Lamonts and their neighbors were not visible from the water below, but they are now after the cutting.

A cease-and-correct order

On that day in November when the trees came down, Jacobsen initially called the town's wetlands department, according to comments made to the IWWA, but it was closed for Veteran's Day. He then alerted the Greenwich Police Department, according to a police report.

An officer responded and found employees from Your Gardening Angels, a Stamford company, according to the report.

Your Gardening Angels did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the report, police later spoke with Andrew Bessey, another property manager who works with Jacobsen, who told officers Lamont hired the company. Police also spoke with the Viks' property manager.

The police ultimately took no action and passed the case information to the town's wetlands department, according to the report.

On Nov. 28, Greenwich's IWWA issued a cease-and-correct order, which was sent to the Lamonts, the Viks and the Ashton Drive Association.

John Tesei, a well known land use attorney in Greenwich who is working with INCT, said he refers to these violations as the "chainsaw massacre."

"I've never seen anything, overall, like this, ever," he said at the March 25 IWWA meeting. "Our clients are deeply disturbed and devastated by what happened to their property. They want to see a very robust corrective restoration plan."

Tom Heagney, a Greenwich attorney, spoke on behalf of the Ashton Drive Association during the meeting. He also said he was there on behalf of the other applicants that night, the Viks and Lamonts, but those cases did not officially come up for discussion.

"This was a project that had little direction and no supervision," Heagney said. "(My) client is very sorry that this has gone as far as it has, not only here but also on the property of our neighbor. And we are looking to do the right thing and to provide for restoration based on input from staff."

Heagney did not specify which of his clients he was issuing an apology for and he did not identify who ordered for the trees to be cut down.

Heagney told CT Insider he was brought on by S.E. Minor.

S.E. Minor, a land surveying and engineering services firm, was hired by the Lamonts, the Viks and the Ashton Drive Association after the incident to help them rehabilitate the hillside, according to rehabilitation plans submitted to the IWWA.

S.E. Minor did not respond to a request for comment.

Possible fines

According to the rehabilitation plans, S.E. Minor plans to add back at least 80 trees, bushes and more, but their plan has not yet been approved by the IWWA.

INCT LLC will have to pay for the restoration planting on its land, but Tesei, the LLC's attorney, told the IWWA that he and his clients may pursue litigation to get reimbursed for the plantings.

"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," Tesei said at the meeting. "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."

Evans, head of Greenwich's Wetlands department, said it is likely that fines will be levied in the cases against the Lamonts, the Viks and the Ashton Drive Association but the decision to fine and the amount to be paid will be decided by the agency's seven members.

Millionaire Alexander Vik has been embroiled in legal battles in recent years regarding previous business interactions with Deutsche Bank, which claims Vik owes them hundreds of millions of dollars, which Vik's lawyers dispute. The Connecticut Supreme Court heard arguments in November but has not yet released a decision.

Potential fines will be discussed at an IWWA special meeting on April 29.

To date, only Your Gardening Angels has been fined $1,000 for the cutting, according to IWWA records.

Tesei told IWWA that even if fines are levied and new trees are planted, it will take a long time before the land is truly rehabilitated: "It's still going to, probably, take decades to (restore) the state it was in prior to the intrusion."