Two Gresham couples accused of boldly cutting down, pruning or damaging 44 trees in a protected natural area to improve views from their homes have agreed to settle a lawsuit for $135,000.

According to court documents made public Monday, David and Alyce Hadeed El-Khal agreed to pay $125,000 of the settlement. The money is coming from their insurance companies -- Safeco Insurance and Valley Property & Casualty Insurance.

The remaining $10,000 has been paid by Stephen and Judith Brugh, who live alongside the El-Khals on Gresham Butte.

Both homes have sweeping views that look out west over Multnomah County and Portland -- views that Metro, the owner of the Chastain Creek Natural Area, says only got better with the tree cutting.

Metro filed a $661,000 lawsuit against the El-Khals and the Brughs in March 2016, claiming that together they were responsible for removing a wide swath of trees along the hillside of the butte in spring and summer 2015.

"The only thing that my clients did was take some limbs off four fir trees that they thought were on their on property -- and it turned out they weren't," said attorney Rudy Lachenmeir, who represented the Brughs.

Joseph Much, who is the Salem attorney representing the El-Khals, couldn't be reached immediately for comment. But in court papers filed in June, the El-Khals said they cut only "2 or 3 worthless dead and decayed trees" that had fallen onto their property, damaging their fence and a grapevine canopy. They wrote that they removed the trees last September because Metro "ignored" their requests to clean up the mess, they said.

Metro spokeswoman Yuxing Zheng on Monday said the agency found out about the tree cutting after someone complained to Gresham, which then informed Metro.

Metro, the area's regional government, bought the Chastain Creek Natural Area with voter-approved bond money in 1999 as part of its goal of preserving open space. The natural area is near the Springwater Corridor Trail. None of the trees cut were easily visible from the trail or streets below -- although two or three trees that had been partially de-limbed could be seen earlier this year.

Zheng said the trees ranged in size from two 4-inch-diameter cherry trees to a 43-inch-diameter Douglas Fir.

When the suit was filed, Metro claimed the enhanced views increased the El-Khals' home value by more than $79,000. The real estate website Redfin estimated the couple's seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom home is worth about $1 million.

The suit claimed that the elimination of trees obstructing the views increased the value of the Brughs' home by at least $39,000. Redfin estimated the couple's three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom home is worth about $493,000.

The settlement was reached in October in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Documents about the settlement, however, weren't made public until Monday.

"Metro takes very seriously the need to protect our community's investments in clean water, fish and wildlife habitat and opportunities to connect with nature," Kathleen Brennan-Hunter, the director of Metro Parks and Nature Department, said in a written statement. "We manage 17,000 acres of parks, trails and natural areas. These are shared resources that belong to everybody."

"People across the greater Portland area have asked us to protect these special places," Brennan-Hunter said, "and we'll do everything possible to keep that promise, including pursuing legal action when necessary."

-- Aimee Green

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