Hobbs to pay $100K for bulldozing Christmas tree farm

US winemaker Paul Hobbs has been asked to pay $100,000 for land-use violations including bulldozing a Christmas tree farm in Sonoma and turning it into a vineyard.

As reported by the Press Democrat, the payment settles a civil lawsuit brought by Sonoma County prosecutors last year accusing Hobbs of land-use violations in three vineyard conversion projects on protected woodland in the Californian region.

Within the lawsuit, Hobbs was accused of bulldozing a Christmas tree farm off Vine Hill Road without a permit in 2011 in order to plant a vineyard.

He was also accused of causing soil erosion into a stream in a 2013 vineyard project off Watertrough Road and land-use violations connected to a 2011 timber-clearing operation on a 4-hectare property in Forestville.

Last summer, db reported that Hobbs was facing a multi-million dollar payout, though a settlement was reached last week after several weeks of negotiation.

“There were some mistakes made. We’re just happy to put it behind us. Now we can go on to farming and making great wine,” Christopher O’Gorman, Hobbs’ spokesman, told the Press Democrat.

The lawsuit resulted from an investigation launched into Hobbs’ vineyard expansion plans in Sonoma County that involved land-clearing operations and the cutting down of redwood trees.

Hobbs got into hot water with Sonoma residents last year when he got permission to cut down an apple orchard near Sebastopol.

When his team began uprooting blackberry bushes and bay laurel growing along a stream at the same site the county issued a stop-work order.