Laws are only as good as their enforcements. Not very good in most cases to totally worthless quite often. Here there is triple damages awarded in court victories for tree damages. Whatever is awarded is tripled. This takes one to initiate the suit. If one has wrongfully removed public or their own trees then who will be successful in showing loss to claim and win? City councils take a 4 to 3 win (7 mbrs) to decide what is right or wrong. Quite often if one side (the 3 or loser side ) doesn t get their way, .....the next time the 4 side (winnerside) wants something even if purely right, they will get shot down in the name of revenge.
It makes your stomach upset to see how the machine works.
I agree Sean, newspapers and news are so jaded around here that truth is just coincidental often. Most often they are trying to incite controversy to sell their rags and on tv their commercial spaces.