GLEN ARBOR — Kathryn Brigman Woods scanned the fallen timber, decades-old maples, oaks and poplars that once stood straight and tall and now lie amid broken branches and piles of sawdust on Leelanau County property her family owned for generations.
A maintenance company hired by Hawks Nest Condominium Association at Homestead Resort wandered -- mistakenly, the company said -- onto Woods' nearby property and cut 22 trees that happened to improve the condo group's view of Lake Michigan.
Woods doesn't buy Glen Arbor Outdoor officials' mistake explanation. Workers ventured too far onto her family land to cut trees for it to be a simple error, she said.
Woods and her family filed suit in 13th Circuit Court; they want more than $100,000 in punitive and actual damages, plus costs and attorney fees.
"It just isn't right; people shouldn't be going onto other people's property and destroying things that were not theirs," Woods said. "It's not just us, it's happening all over."
Glen Arbor Outdoor's owner Bob Ihme said tree-cutting on Woods' property was done in error.
"I think she felt myself or the association didn't care about her property, but we really do," Ihme said, who added he could have cut other trees that he knew were on her property that also restricted several condo owners' views.
Woods said she hopes the lawsuit will send a message to prevent work crews, timber thieves and others from cutting trees they don't own.
"It happened once before to us, back in the '80s, and we just said 'enough,'" Woods said. "I owed it to my parents to do something."
Court documents state that 22 trees of varying sizes and species were cut or knocked down on June 14 and left on the forest floor.
A neighbor who heard chainsaws contacted Woods, who lives on Old Mission Peninsula. She and her grandson traveled to the scene and discovered the carnage.
Woods' family has owned the roughly four-acre plot on a steep sandy bluff that overlooks Lake Michigan for more than 60 years. The property is protected by a conservation easement that prevents development until 2020.
Some of the felled trees were 60 feet tall and can't be replaced in her lifetime, Woods said. She's also worried the loss of trees could create erosion on the steep bluff.
The property line that divides the condo association and Woods' acreage was clearly marked with green metal fence stakes and No Trespassing signs that ran up the bluff. The stakes stopped atop the bluff, where a surveyor's stake was placed. Ihme said he assumed that stake marked the northeast corner of Woods' property.
He said he overlooked the real corner stake hidden in thick forest, a marker placed about 90 feet to the north.
"I've been doing this business since 1988 and never had a mistake like this before," Ihme said. "I tried to make it right and talk to her, but it didn't work. What they are asking for is a little much."
Woods said Ihme was polite and apologized, but she scoffed at the notion the deep foray was anything but intentional.
"A couple of condos sold right after that, amazingly," Woods said. "Is it just a coincidence?"
John Grogan, Woods' Traverse City attorney, said it would be difficult to replace the lost trees. The site is difficult to access, and sandy soil and lack of irrigation cast doubt on whether transplants could survive.
John Withee, a Hawk's Nest association board member who lives year-round in Leelanau County, spoke with Woods after the tree-cutting and told her "it did not seem that a few trees would make much of a difference," according to the lawsuit.
Withee did not return messages left with his wife and at his home.
Illinois resident Nancy Fleming, Hawk's Nest association president, called it a "misunderstanding" she "feels bad about" but declined to further discuss the allegations. She referred all questions to the association's attorney, Bradley Putney, of Traverse City.
Putney did not return messages seeking comment.
The lawsuit is scheduled for a jury trial in August.
