“These neighbors are really nice people. They’re reasonable people. They care about the environment, which includes their neighborhood. They both love trees and they both love solar power. So how did they end up impossibly at odds?”
-KQED QUEST contributor David Gorn

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Hi, Aaron Henkin here, your host and curator for the NPR Station Showcase with PRX. There are literally hundreds of public radio stations across the country, bustling places where producers work around the clock to put together quality reports and features for their local listening audiences, and each week on this podcast, we shine a light on the best and brightest of those regional stories. This week our travels take us to KQED in Northern California for a story about a pitted feud between two neighbors. One neighbor has an array of solar panels on his roof. The other neighbor has some tall, shade-producing redwood trees in his yard. Can you guess where this is going? Producer David Gorn recently reported on the dispute, and its legal implications, for the KQED science series QUEST…

I hear a hint of a giggle in your voice as you’re reporting this story! There’s an obvious comic absurdity to this whole ‘disputing environmentalists’ scenario, but it also sounds like this case may have some serious future implications. What can you tell us about this legal decision and what it means for the future of tree-shaded yards? Are people going to have to chop down their trees whenever any neighbor decides to put up solar panels?

The seriousness of this case is that you’re going to see a lot more cases like it. Not because local district attorneys want to go tree-hunting, not because solar panels conflict with trees (though they do), but because there are a million neighbor feuds in California, and at its root this is a neighbor feud.

But here’s the thing: These neighbors are really nice people. They’re reasonable people. They care about the environment, which includes their neighborhood. They both love trees and they both love solar power. So how did they end up impossibly at odds?

Does it seem like there’s any way these two neighbors can come to a mutual agreement? What kind of communication have they had with each other? Can the one guy help his neighbor pay to move the panels out of the shade and into the sun?

That’s easy. They’re neighbors.

And given the absurd and extreme behavior exhibited by neighbors, I would not be surprised to hear that someone installed $10,000 worth of solar panels just to get his neighbor to trim or cut down trees along a fence line.

Do you think these guys appreciate the irony of their dispute? Will they ever be able to have a beer together and laugh this thing off?

In this particular case, there will be no mutual agreement, unless you want to count the agreement between them that, yes, they actively dislike each other. So far, they’ve communicated by notes over the fence and lawyers’ shots across the bow.

If anything, the rancor will increase. Two of the trees had to be cut down — which, to one neighbor, means a sigh of relief that finally we’ve seen the end of this thing; but to the other neighbor, it means that he was successful and he’s going after two more of the trees next year.

Is there anyone looking into trying to amend the 1979 California Solar Shade Control Act? Does the ‘solar power is more important than shade trees’ idea still hold, scientifically, thirty years later?

The Santa Clara County District Attorney was not wild about the idea of prosecuting these cases, saying they should really be civil matters. And I heard that State Senator Joe Simitian was looking into updating and clarifying the law. If we do see more of these cases, I’m sure pressure will build — from DAs, if no one else — to alter the law in the State Legislature.

Has this case gotten a lot of publicity in your area? How did you find out about what was going on?

The story was first carried in the local Sunnyvale Sun newspaper, then Paul Rogers of the Mercury News covered it.

Tell us a bit about your radio background and the sort of work you do for KQED and Quest…

I am the former Deputy News Director at KQED Public Radio News, and I now work for National Public Radio, filing stories for Morning Edition and All Things Considered, in addition to KQED programs like Quest and The California Report.

Are there any other interesting stories on the horizon for you at the moment?

I usually cover environmental issues, such as the recent breakthrough in the Klamath River battle. But my most recent story was on the ruling that said home-schoolers in California need a teaching credential. Should home-schooling be subject to similar standards and requirements as schools? Or should parents be left alone?

Last thing. This is more than you wanted to know, I’d guess. But it’s interesting. At Lake Tahoe, a 58-year-old woman was recently indicted for wrecking a fence and trespassing on federal land to chop down a couple of century-old trees on federal property — so she could improve her lakeside view. And in Palo Alto, where you need to submit an application to remove older trees, even on private property, some homeowners have come up with a creative way around the law: They’re getting a doctor’s note to say they have to cut down their redwoods.

You can hear more stories from KQED and the QUEST series online at The Public Radio Exchange. That’s where producers from around the world share their work. Log on, write your own reviews, and have a say in what ends up on the radio at www.prx.org.