Pulp Fiction

   Some of us are wondering if the tree cutting legislation enacted during the 1998 session of the Virginia General Assembly is fact or fiction.  In the late winter and early spring of this year, large stands of publicly owned mature hardwood trees were clear-cut to ground level on the state right-of-way of Interstate 95 in Hanover County.  The billboard industry won the right in the 1998 session of the General Assembly to trim publicly owned trees up to 6 inches in diameter.  The trimming, they claimed, would create a picture frame effect in front of billboards. 

   Many of the trees cut at the Hanover locations were a foot or more in diameter.  When contacted by a member of Scenic Virginia, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman explained that the state cutting permit allowed for trees to be removed that were "unsightly, diseased, or in danger of falling if covered with ice, and for the trimming of trees for the health of remaining trees." It is significant that no trees, other than those in front of the billboards, met that criteria and instead of trimming, all trees in front of the billboards were removed.  Trees exceeding the 6" criteria that were removed included hornbeams and sweetgums, both Virginia natives often sold as nursery stock.

   A Scenic Virginia survey conducted by George Mason University last year revealed that by a 2-1 majority, 63%-32%, Virginians object to tree cutting on the public right-of-way for billboard visibility and would favor a bill prohibiting the practice.  How many more Virginians would object if they knew publicly owned mature trees were being felled in favor of private industry, an industry that does not seem to care for scenic landscapes, only those landscapes it can blot out with billboards?