Mendocino County Municipal Code Ch. 8.400 Declare Intentionally Killed and Left Standing Trees a Public Nuisance

Title 8 of the Mendocino County Code entitled PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE grants Mendocino County the authority to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the county's residents. The citizens of Mendocino County find as follows:

A. The County has over 1 million (1,000,000) acres of forest lands with much of it in private industrial ownership; and

B. Some industrial owners manage their forest lands by intentionally killing but not downing unwanted trees; and

C. Intentionally killed and left standing trees present an extreme fire hazard; and

D. Intentionally killed and left standing trees can impede rapid suppression of fires; and

E. Intentionally killed and left standing trees pose a life safety risk to firefighters; and

F. Intentionally killed and left standing trees endanger the public health and safety of rural residents.

(Ord. No. 4367, 6-7-2016)

The citizens of Mendocino County, by their authority to adopt ordinances by initiative add a new chapter to Title 8 of the Mendocino County Code to read as follows:

Trees greater in height than five (5) meters, intentionally killed and left standing for more than ninety (90) days (except those created for the benefit of wildlife habitat) are a public nuisance and the party responsible shall be liable for any resulting damage when the tree is:

(1) Within one thousand (1,000) meters or more critical infrastructures:

(a) Roads including public roads, private roads and driveways, fire lanes

(b) Telecommunication infrastructure including poles, wire, fiber, terminals, towers

(c) Electrical infrastructure including poles, wire, substations, transformers

(d) Significant water sources, including rivers, creeks, ponds, lakes

(2) Within one thousand (1,000) meters of a structure

(3) Within CAL FIRE State Responsibility Area

The County shall not enter residential property to verify compliance.

(Ord. No. 4367, 6-7-2016)

If any section, subsection, sentence, phrase or clause of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of the Ordinance. The citizens of Mendocino County hereby declare that they would have adopted the Ordinance and each section despite the fact that one (1) or more section, subsection, phrases or clauses be declared invalid.

(Ord. No. 4367, 6-7-2016)