JAY – An owner of Crane Bros. Farm has signed a consent agreement and paid a $500 fine for cutting too many trees on farmland in violation of the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance.

Crane Bros. Farm of Exeter owns farmland on Route 140 in Jay and Canton.

James Crane had appealed the town’s sanction, which included providing a certified forester’s restoration plan to replant a well-distributed stand of trees within 75 feet of the Androscoggin River.

The Board of appeals voted 3-1 in April to uphold Environmental Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring’s action.

Crane was cited for cutting 25 or so mature oak trees and cutting greater than 40 percent of the total volume of trees 4 inches or more in diameter within a 10-year period on a Jay lot, violating town law.

Crane agreed the company should have spoken to Ring prior to cutting but said the brothers were trying to save their farmland and protect their employees from harm. The trees fall into the river and erode the banks of the fields, he said.

He said he would check with the farm’s lawyer about an appeal of the Board of Appeals’ decision.

“We signed the consent decree and paid the fine,” Crane said Wednesday. “We are working with a forester to re-seed the area now.”

Ring said she received a check to cover the fine in May and received the signed consent agreement Tuesday.