Tree Preservation OR Tax Grab?
The City of Kawartha Lakes recently passed a bylaw to protect mature trees from over-zealous chainsaw owners and crazed ax-wielding giants like Paul Bunyan.
Spoiler alert:
Paul Bunyan is a Myth.
City fines are not.
Cutting down mature, healthy, non-hazardous trees in Environmental Protection areas will not be allowed. Visit the Property and Planning map to find out if your property will be affected by this change.
Fees depend on your property size. These fees were determined based on the replacement cost of a mature sapling and will go to fund municipal initiatives in preservation and enhancement of tree and hedgerow cover in the municipality.
$425 or replace with one mature sapling, if property is less than 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres) in size.
$1700 or replace with four mature saplings, if property is more than 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres) in size.
Fee exemptions for unhealthy trees, low income residents, and affordable housing developments.
SOURCE: https://jumpinkawarthalakes.ca/tree-preservation-bylaw
Unregulated “Tree Love” is a Better Solution.
The image shown was not fact-checked but its “spirit of truth” that trees grow, consume CO2 and produce life-enabling O2 is not in question.
Libertarians seek to reduce the size, cost and scope of rule-imposing authority of every level of government.
We believe in Freedom of Informed Choice as a prerequisite for a civil society.
Unlike the City of Kawartha Lakes, Libertarians trust our citizens to be responsible for the property they own and see no reason for “Big Brother” to oversee every decision we make or action we take.
Government officials hold a monopoly on power. Evidently, they can’t get enough of it.
Addiction to power is the least acknowledged mental health issue in modern society and all known methods to treat it have failed. Just ask the average voter.
Past acts of virtue don’t count.
I have planted hundreds of trees and shrubs in my lifetime. Yes, I have removed a few trees (mostly dead ones or those toppled by storms). Will this new tree preservation by-law acknowledge all of the kindness and care I have shown to trees and plants over my lifetime?
Based on my history of “TREE LOVE”, will such a by-law stop me from removing the occasional tree on my property when circumstances warrant it without getting permission from some City staff member whose salary I pay through my taxes?
***We do not need a Tree Preservation By-Law ***
A Tree Preservation By-law Officer and Permit Administrator near you?
How can I ever expect to see progress in reducing the size, cost and scope of authority of the public sector when government create new positions for every new by-law they create?
Creeping (and creepy) government expansion knows no limits!
This was one of the most intrusive of By-laws. It was initiated by Robyn Carlson ,the city lawyer (living in Antigua) and was a real insult to all rural residents . In my past I have owned, managed and harvested multiple forests and some under the MTIF program. All programs administered by our government were failures and in all cases were not audited. I had ten year plans that never saw an inspection.
My point here is it is not in the jurisdiction of our municipal (or any other gov. facility ) to monitor or enforce these type of illegal bylaws ( under the Act) This is pure encroachment on our property rights.
With all the saplings required to replace these trees it begs the question of who really benefits from this bylaw? Would it be the Corp. (fees seem to disappear in the budget) or the large tree farmers with sapling sales. Would this be my councillor Tracy Richardson of Richardson Farms? You can not make this shit up!
I could go on and on here but I got to go .
If anyone needs assistance on forest management including releasing please contact me as this is the icing on the cake. This bylaw has to be challenged !
Healthy forest require a lot of removal and not replacing with saplings.!
I can ask any farmer clearing fencerows what they think of this overreach, I already know the answer.
This makes my blood boil.
Can I debate the bastards?
Jeff.
Looking at a multi-decade timelapse of the street I grew up on, there is a steady decline in trees. Would you say your property has more or less tree cover now than when you got it? Obviously this evil property-rights-violating law is not the solution (evil always produces the opposite it's purported intentions), but it does seem to be a problem, people don't respect trees and nature enough, but that's just a side-effect of them being immoral in general - they don't respect their fellow humans either.