Moe DeLoughan wrote:
Bob F wrote:

Our state "EPA" came and had a long talk with an old neighbor once after he
sprayed a shrub next to his yard. They actually tested the shrub for chemicals
before going to the offender. In this state anyway, such actions are very
illegal.

I'm truly surprised that your state's EPA had the staff and the time
to send someone out for such a picayune problem. When I worked in the
business, a coworker and I separately notified our state's EPA about
our company violating the law by obtaining and selling a banned
pesticide. The owner was promoting the stuff for off-label use, too.
We even had farmers buying it for their food crops, which was a huge
no-no. The EPA told us they didn't have the staff or budget to
investigate everything reported to them, so they only focused on
large-scale offenders, and thus elected to not follow up on our reports.


The EPA operates the same for every state, the EPA is Federal.
I think Bob F. made that story up. The EPA doesn't get involved in
residential neighbor disputes/torts, it's difficult to get the EPA to
investigate someone dumping a little motor oil because without
substantial evidence it's nigh impossible to date the time of the
spill, might have occured twenty years before the accused was born.
About all one can do when suspecting a neighbor of poisoning a plant
or three with a little over-spray is hire an attorney (if one can be
found who will take such a case) who may have a private laboratory
investigate, at the litigant's cost naturally, but be aware that
common defolients one can buy at plant nurserys dissipate rapidly,
especially, when used in a weak solution. Before and after photos may
become evidence, and any witnesses one can locate, you'd pretty much
need an in-the-act video of the event... then call Judge Judy. Don't
laugh, she's presided over such cases, they're usually dismissed for
lack of evidence.
A newly planted tree can do fine for a few years and then they slowly
begin to die, I've had it happen a half dozen times...
insects/disease.... I've had two beech trees totally hollowed by
carpenter ants, one day I started to prune some small lower branches
and they just fell over, they were as hollow as soda straws. I've had
apple trees decimated by black knot disease, by the time it's noticed
it's too late. I've had rabbits girdle a pair of flowering chestnut
trees, guess they couldn't resist that sweet bark, I had them fenced
from deer but didn't think about bunnies going under the fence... did
you ever try to sue rabbits?