The Scenic Hudson Land Trust Inc. is demanding $500,000 from a Coxsackie woman for harvesting timber from property protected by a conservation easement.
The Poughkeepsie environmental organization accused Anne Hohenstein of fraud, in a complaint filed on Oct. 6 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Poughkeepsie.
“Defendant’s violation of the conservation easement was intentional and malicious,” the complaint states, “which is proven through her disregard of explicit warnings to her in the months before the timbering operation began.”
“I cannot comment on pending legal matters,” Hohenstein said in an email, “except to say that any allegation of fraud or deception made by Scenic Hudson is manufactured. … The allegations will be easily disproven.”
In 2013, Scenic Hudson paid $258,850 to Hohenstein and three of her siblings for an easement on nearly 60 forested acres in New Baltimore, Greene County, according to the complaint. Hohenstein received about $103,540 from the payment.
Ownership of the property was later put in the AMEH Irrevocable Trust and is controlled by Hohenstein.
The purpose of the easement is to preserve and protect the land for the benefit of the general public, including public access to trails, according to the complaint, while allowing compatible use by the owner.
No trees may be cut or removed but there are exceptions, such as removing trees that are dead, diseased or fallen, allowing for maintenance and repair of structures, and personal use as firewood by the property owner. Motorized vehicles also are not allowed in certain areas.
In June 2018, the AMEH trust hired a forester to solicit bids for cutting and removing trees, according to the complaint. The following month, Hohenstein asked for permission to use herbicides for a timber harvest.
Scenic Hudson says its staff repeatedly reminded her of the easement restrictions  by letter, telephone and email.
In January 2019, the AMEH trust hired B&B Forest Products to cut and remove trees for $68,600, the complaint states, and B&B paid $58,310 of the contract price to Hohenstein.
B&B was hired to remove “merchantable wood,” according to a judge’s decision in a related lawsuit, including 321 trees for saw timber and 105 trees for pulpwood. Few, if any, of the trees were dead, diseased or dying, according to testimony in that case, though Hohenstein disputed the findings.
B&B used chainsaws to sever the trees and motorized log skidders to create trails and pull the trees to a landing area, Scenic Hudson claims in the bankruptcy complaint. Species included ash, aspen, basswood, birch, cherry, hemlock, maple, oak, and pine.
The harvest resulted not only in the loss of scores of trees, according to the complaint, but wide and rutted skid trails; slash and tree remnant litter on the forest floor; clogged streams; and outbreaks of invasive species throughout the forest.
Scenic Hudson sued Hohenstein for breach of contract in 2019 in Greene County Supreme Court.
Hohenstein argued that the easement was ambiguous on the question of whether harvesting violated the easement, according to a decision by Justice Adam W. Silverman, because she believed the cutting would benefit the health of the forest.
Silverman granted partial summary judgment to Scenic Hudson in April 2022, Â as to liability.
This past July 14, three days before jury selection was to begin for a trial in Greene County on the question of damages, Hohenstein petitioned U.S. Bankruptucy Court in Poughkeepsie for Chapter 13 protection.
The action automatically suspended Scenic Hudson’s lawsuit and allows her to restructure her debts. She declared $319,214 in assets and $115,284.
Scenic Hudson claims Hohenstein owes $500,000 and the debt may not be discharged in bankruptcy because it was obtained by false representations, fraud or defalcation, and by willful and malicious injury.
Scenic Hudson is represented by Buffalo attorney Kyle C. DiDone.
