FILE - Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont speaks at the State Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, in Hartford, Conn. Lamont on Thursday, June 27, 2024, was officially ordered by his local inland wetlands agency to replant more than 180 trees and thousands of bushes that were chopped down in November on property behind the Democrat’s Greenwich home. Connecticut Gov.
Heagney blamed the illegal tree-cutting, which the agency’s director described as “clear-cutting” in one of three affected parcels, on an miscommunication between Lamont and the landscaping company he had helped to hire. Fred Jacobsen, property director of the land owned by INCT LLC, property that used to be owned by the Rockefeller family, said it appeared the “massive cutting effort” had been going on for multiple days and that he saw more than 10 workers cutting and clearing trees and bushes. Access to the site had been provided through property owned by Lamont’s neighbor, wealthy businessman Alexander Vik and his wife Carrie, according to wetlands commission minutes.
On Thursday, Beth Evans, the local agency’s director, outlined her recommendations, which in some cases doubled the number of trees and shrubs to be planted that Lamont’s landscape architect team had originally proposed. In some cases, she called for a wider variety of plantings, suggesting specific species of trees and shrubs like sugar maples, red twig dogwood and witch hazel.