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The Benz Omnibus, built in 1895
First motor bus in history: the Benz Omnibus, built in 1895 for the Netphener
bus company
Posted on 05/09/2019 3:19:38 AM PDT by ETL
A judge ordered a Northern California couple this week to pay nearly $600,000 for uprooting an almost 200-year-old oak tree from their property that was protected under a conservation easement.
Peter and Toni Thompson removed the 180-year-old heritage oak tree to move it to another home they built adjacent to the property. More than 3,000 cubic yards of dirt was also removed in the process.
The tree, two others they removed and a dozen others along a previously undisturbed path they bulldozed died, along with surrounding vegetation.
The Sonoma County Superior Judge sided with the Sonoma Land Trust, saying the Thompsons knowingly violated the conservation deal and said they demonstrated “arrogance” and “disregard” over the terms of the easement.
The fine of $586,000 will go toward environmental restoration on the property.
The couple, who decided to sell their estate for $8.45 million after the ruling, are seeking a new trial, reasoning their attorney could not properly represent them for personal reasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It's amazing to me that no one on the moving crew would ask these questions since I'm sure the tree-moving business is pretty well-regulated and they have to know the rules. But you're dealing with the ultra-rich, and sometimes they don't think these types of rules apply to them.
They should have left it. They didn’t plant it, it came with the property, and they should have left it.”
I hope you are joking. If not, you are in the wrong place.
The battle, which resulted in the defeat of US forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.[11]
I’d say 70 yrs tops by the looks of it.
Also from the website photo, it appears to be adjacent to a High Voltage transmission tower.
Maybe it adapted to the Electromagnetic field and died without its E-M nutrients, California styled Internet of Things,...now including old oak trees.
The trees,..they talk. /s
Tree planted in 1834
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1825: The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway in the world, is opened.
1826: Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
1829: First electric motor built.
1837: Telegraphy patented.
1841: The word “dinosaur” is coined by Richard Owen
1844: First publicly funded telegraph line in the world—between Baltimore and Washington—sends demonstration message on 24 May, ushering in the age of the telegraph. This message read “What hath God wrought?” (Bible, Numbers 23:23)
1849: The safety pin and the gas mask are invented.
1855: Bessemer process enables steel to be mass-produced.
1856: World’s first oil refinery in Romania
1858: Invention of the phonautograph, the first true device for recording sound.
1863: First section of the London Underground opens.
1866: Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858.
1867: Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
1869: First Transcontinental Railroad completed in United States on 10 May.
1870: Rasmus Malling-Hansen’s invention the Hansen Writing Ball becomes the first commercially sold typewriter.
1873: Blue jeans and barbed wire are invented.
1877: Thomas Edison invents the phonograph
1878: First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut.
1879: Thomas Edison tests his first light bulb.
1881: First electrical power plant and grid in Godalming, Britain.
1884: Sir Hiram Maxim invents the first self-powered Machine gun.
1885: Singer begins production of the ‘Vibrating Shuttle’. which would become the most popular model of sewing machine.
1886: Karl Benz sells the first commercial automobile.
1890: The cardboard box is invented.
1892: John Froelich develops and constructs the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor.
1894: Karl Elsener invents the Swiss Army knife.
1894: First gramophone record.
1895: Wilhelm Röntgen identifies x-rays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century#Inventions
Democrat Property Taxes destroying old growth trees.
Sorry old oak, Democrats hate you.
“How many shantytowns exist in this area where estates sell for $8.4 million?”
In Sonoma? Probably none. My wife grew up there. It’s Wine Country and is adjacent to Napa County. And believe me, they take this kind of stuff very, very seriously.
Both counties are on my list of places to bus a few thousand “migrants”. Drop 500 a week into downtown Sonoma and another 500 a week smack dab in front of Pelosi’s Vineyard. Watch how fast the Dems cooperate.
L
But I guess in California there’s no such thing as private property any more.
Aye there’s the rub. They signed away their property rights to a land trust, most likely for a substantial break in there property taxes. They no longer had rights to the tree, they violated the terms of the contract they freely signed. The judge’s ruling was absolutely proper. Elitists such as these folks believe they make their own rules. Sign away your property rights for major tax breaks, but still act as if your ownership is not encumbered by a trust agreement you freely engaged in and violate that because you feel you a entitled too. I see it all the time around here.
Something that old is very special.
Think of it. 1834! That’s long before ANY of the vermin we currently have in Congress were walking the earth. What a better world it must have been!
Also takes a special kind of stupid to think it’s fine for a government to own your property and everything on it w/o taking any responsibility for its upkeep...just to rob those who purchased and kept the property up for not doing it “to standards”.
I wouldn't be so sure about that, by the looks of some of them.
Yeah yeah. Steward of the land.
My esteemed stewardship sez I need to kill that tree to allow the forbs and brush to grow to give food and shelter to the deer I intend to shoot.
Correct. Just ask the paper industry.
Sustainable resource.
A bank bought a tiny corner lot in downtown Tallahassee which had remained unused because of two heritage oaks that were located in such a way that, because of the setbacks, power, sewer and water blocked the only access. Apparently to stop the protests the bank used extreme measures to protect the trees while the building went up, but one tree blocked the only parking lot entrance on each road. They built the parking lot entrances to within a few feet of each tree. This was the situation on a Friday. On the next Monday the trees were gone and even the sawdust had been vacuumed up and the entrances were finished. The bank paid the $20,000 fine and has been doing business there now for about ten years. Had the bank handled it any other way they would have had protesters there every day. There are a lot of unemployed environazis in Tallahassee with nothing better to do.
It would be interesting to see if this tree can survive.
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James Madison
President (1809-1817)
Born: 1751
Died: 1836 (last Founding Father to die)
I always consider these conservation easements illegal takings.....just like wetland bounds.
I will say that tree is amazing and it looks like they moved it from a desolate area near power lines to a place where it can be enjoyed, but that's still no excuse for breaking a contract they signed to ease their taxes.
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