A look back and interpretation of the tree killing

It has been a while since this happened. But after re-reading the accounts and going to the scene of the crime a few times, this is my take on the story about County Commissioner Phil Mitchell’s involvement with killing county trees and how the issue was resolved.

Phil was looking out at the trees, on Flathead County property, from his house, and decided they needed to go. They blocked his view and as he stated, “I don’t like that type of tree.” So he goes out, cleans away debris around the base of the five trees, fires up his chain saw and proceeds to cut through the bark, at ground level, on all five trees. Next he covers the cuts up on the trees with debris so no one will notice the girdle job. Sneaky.

Later a neighbor notices the trees are dying and a park employee goes to inspect the trees. He can’t understand what is happening to them so he digs around the base of the tree, removes some of the debris Phil placed there and sees the cuts, aka girdling, that was done. He reports his findings to the head of parks, Jed Fisher, who in turns reports to Phil. He tells Phil that they need to talk to Phil’s neighbor about this, he may have damaged them. Dang, busted.

It would look real bad if the neighbor was accused of the girdling and then to find out Phil did it. Phil says, “No I did it. And I don’t want to be treated any different than anyone else on this.”

Right. After getting an appraisal on five tree removals and replacements of $30,000, Phil was charged with felony criminal mischief. So he goes back to Jed and the Park Board and says this won’t work. Let’s make a deal. How about one misdemeanor criminal mischief (even though there were five trees destroyed that were owned by all the taxpayers of Flathead County) and restitution of $16,000 (even though appraisal was $30,000), which Phil will pay immediately.

Park Board accepts the deal, Phil pays the restitution and a court date is set. Why was the restitution paid before being accepted by the courts? “So we can immediately work to make the park whole again.” The dead trees are still there. Phil apologizes, and said that he “acknowledged” he did it because his “Faith required it and the people of Flathead County deserve it.” Did Phil’s “faith” tell him to kill the trees? Did the people of Flathead County “deserve” to have the trees killed in the first place? A very empty apology.

Phil stated his background as an arborist led him to this action on a live tree. He also stated “An expert on wood science investigated the trees and determined they had been dying or were already dead of natural causes long before I ever disturbed them.” Who was this expert? Now you claim, as an arborist, that you killed already dead trees? That’s laughable. This didn’t come out until after the court appearance. No, there was no political prosecution involved. Phil knowingly killed the trees. But affluence turned into a get out of jail free card. Throw out some money.

“The state would not have met its burden of proof”? How do you figure that? Phil admitted to doing it. Did the judge or prosecutor from Conrad tour the scene of the crime? I don’t believe so.

Phil’s statement:

“I am embarrassed by Sheriff’s Curry comments and by his willingness to use his position in law enforcement to create political controversy for his personal satisfaction” was also stated. Wasn’t using your commissioner status to kill the trees done for your personal satisfaction? How can you lead the county and its law officers after calling them and the sheriff laughable? Are they going to look up to you? Don’t think so. Time to resign.

We have heard nothing from the other two commissioners. What is your stance on Phil’s actions? Good with it? Phil needs to resign or be ousted by the other two commissioners

Weyrauch is a resident of Kalispell.