I called him that same afternoon. He could come out in 3 days. While I waited, I documented everything I could on my own. I photographed every stump. I photographed the sawdust on the ground. I photographed the brush pile. I photographed the fence line and the relationship between the stumps and the fence posts.
I took wide shots and close shots. I noted the GPS coordinates of each stump using my phone. Then I went back to my files and pulled out the original property survey from when I purchased the land. I scanned it and saved a digital copy. I also pulled my deed and my tax records going back 11 years. Clean, uninterrupted payment. My ownership was not in question.
It never would be. I also pulled up the county GIS mapping system online. Every county in this state maintains a public parcel map. I took screenshots of both my parcel and the varner parcel with the boundary line clearly shown. The tree line sat well within my boundary. The map confirmed what Dale had already told me standing in the field.
I printed everything and put it in a new folder. I labeled it with the date. On the third day, the arborist came out. His name was Mr. Hendris. He was a quiet, methodical man who carried a clipboard and a diameter tape. He measured each stump at the base, recorded the species, estimated the age based on growth rings where the cut was clean enough to count, and noted the condition of the surrounding soil and root system.
He spent about 90 minutes on site. He said very little while he worked. When he was done, he stood at the edge of the stump field and told me what he had found. 11 trees, seven red maple, four paper birch, estimated ages ranging from 40 to 72 years. He would provide a written valuation report within a week.
