## Facts

- In 1873, ancestors of one plaintiff homesteaded 160 acres in Osceola County, Iowa and planted trees as a condition of receiving a federal land patent, including a long row of cottonwoods along what later became a county roadway.
- The trees matured into a prominent row of large cottonwoods (about eighty feet tall), viewed by the owners as historically and environmentally important.
- Osceola County officials planned road improvements and decided to remove a row of trees they claimed were within the county’s road easement, citing safety and liability concerns despite low traffic volume.
- The landowners protested and proposed alternatives; county officials rejected the proposals.
- On August 7, 1986, while the landowners were out of state, the county cut down twenty-eight healthy cottonwood trees and a plum tree; as of trial, the road improvements still had not been completed.
- The landowners sued for trespass and sought treble damages under Iowa Code § 658.4 (1985), plus damages for related property losses (fence, crops, and topsoil).
- The county denied liability for the trees, asserting a right to remove them from the road right-of-way and arguing the trees had no compensable value.

## Issues

1. Whether the county proved a legally established public road/right-of-way encompassing the trees.
2. Whether the county acquired rights to the strip or the trees by prescription.
3. Whether cutting the trees constituted a willful trespass warranting treble damages under Iowa Code § 658.4.
4. What measure of damages applies for destruction of mature trees alleged to have landmark, historic, aesthetic, and environmental importance.

## Decision

- The court affirmed judgment for the landowners on liability.
- The county failed to prove a legally established right-of-way that included the trees.
- The county did not acquire rights in the trees or land by prescriptive use.
- The county’s conduct constituted willful destruction under Iowa Code § 658.4, supporting treble damages.
- The court largely upheld the trial court’s damages approach, limiting valuation to recognized property-damage measures rather than awarding separate recovery for sentimental or purely aesthetic loss.

## Legal Principles

- A county must prove statutory establishment of a public road/right-of-way (or otherwise lawful authority) before entering private property and removing trees claimed to be within an easement.
- Prescriptive rights require proof of the elements of prescription; routine roadway maintenance, without more, does not establish ownership or control over adjoining private trees.
- Iowa Code § 658.4 authorizes treble damages when a defendant willfully cuts or destroys trees on another’s land; intentional action taken without legal right and with awareness of the owner’s objections can satisfy willfulness.
- Damages for wrongful removal of trees are generally measured by (1) diminution in the real property’s fair market value, or (2) reasonable replacement/restoration cost for trees serving shade/ornamental purposes, subject to reasonableness and avoidance of economic waste.
- Historic or sentimental attributes may inform market value or restoration reasonableness but are not independent categories of damages.

## Conclusion

The Iowa Supreme Court held the county lacked a valid right-of-way or prescriptive entitlement to remove the landowners’ trees and affirmed treble damages for willful trespass under Iowa Code § 658.4, while applying conventional real-property valuation rules to determine compensable loss.


Bangert v. Osceola County, 456 N.W.2d 183 (Iowa 1990)