Dear Editor:
As an attorney, I am consulted by property owners who want to remove trees without fear of tree-preservation laws. I cannot advise clients to ignore laws (though tree laws often seem easy to ignore). I can tell clients what a lot of people do: they don't plant any trees that are protected by tree laws. And any tree protected in tree laws that is still small enough to be legally killed, is killed.
Tree laws can be amended, so that every tree is a potential risk that a property owner will be restricted by government in the future alteration of his property. Tree laws make treeless property the safest route.
Tree laws kill trees, as every libertarian knows. And rightfully so, because tree laws violate private property rights by "socializing" trees. All freedom is founded on private property.
The joke about the endangered species act is that if a property owner sees an endangered species on his property he should "shoot, shovel and shut up." Under tree-preservation laws, it is "chop, chip and chill."
Tree laws illustrate the fatal conceit of socialism and its unintended consequences. Tree-huggers must have fallen out of a stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. If public officials were any more stupid, they'd have to be watered weekly. If their antidisestablishmentarianism continues, then more "protected" trees will die.
Rex Curry
Tampa, Fla.
