Posted on 08/21/2007 9:04:39 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LIHUE, Hawaii - Bette Midler cut down more than 230 trees around one of her properties on the island of Kauai without a permit, and the state has recommended she be fined.
The staff of the Board of Land and Natural Resources recommended $6,500 in fines for having the trees felled and for building a graded road without permits required for the land zoned for conservation use.
The singer and actress will pay the fines and will follow a replanting program, her attorney Max W. J. Graham said.
The actress and movie star, who was born in Honolulu, didn't realize permits were needed to remove the trees on a vacant 58,000-square-foot parcel of land on Kauai's North Shore, Graham said.
"The whole idea with cutting the trees down was with the idea of improving the lot with native species" instead of the nonnative, invasive species that had grown there, Graham said. "It's unfortunate that a mistake was made."
The National Tropical Botanical Garden, which maintains three gardens on Kauai, will design a replanting plan that consists of appropriate native plants, Graham said.
A botanist hired by Midler after the fact said 120 Java plum trees, 100 octopus trees and 10 to 20 Madagascar olive trees that were cut down were all nonnative species. Some native trees also were removed from the property, the botanist said.
Midler, known for her longtime commitment to the environment, was once known as the Compost Queen and appeared on billboards in Los Angeles advocating green recycling containers are for yard trimmings.
Midler is set to replace Celine Dion as a headline performer at Las Vegas's renovated Caesars Palace next year.
My property adjoins a wetlands along the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio. Penalty for cutting down a tree in the wetlands here: $10,000 PER TREE!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Its OK as long as she pays ALGORE a ton of money for carbon offsets.
Then it will be ...nothing to see here ..for the limosine liberals.
Exactly!
Here in Michigan, especially the S.E. area, we have a major problem with the Emerald Ash Borer. In the Troy are, there must be hundreds of thousands of ash trees which are dying or already dead and scheduled to be cut down along with the healthy ones.
The city is responsible for theirs but the homeowners who have them on their properties have to foot the bill to have them cut down. Many of these ash trees are huge and many homeowners have several to a few on their properties. Its going to cost them a bundle.........
This wetland and Critical Areas garbage is far more prevalent than I had thought. I thought Washington State was the leader in land grabs. Sounds like it is widespread.
Did Bette vote for Al Gore in 2000? Because AL would NOT be happy at what she did...
I'd bet that was a lie. Considering they hired the botanist...after the fact.
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