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.
Bette Midler smiles as she speaks during a news conference at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, in a Thursday, May 3, 2007 photo. Entertainer Bette Midler is expected to be fined by the state of Hawaii for cutting down more than 230 trees around one of her properties on Kauai. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file)
Well, now she will have something to you know what about in her new LV show.
to talk about in her new LV show.
"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
So! Instead of going through endless paperwork and possible challenges to obtaining a permit Ms. Midler merely pays $6,500.
Looks like she got exactly what she wanted for pocket change.
My thought exactly. 6500 is pocket change to her.
She wanted to bring a native species in that's really non-native instead of having the native, yet somehow non-native species that were already there.
My head hurts.
I know lots of people who would gladly pay $6,500 to whack down trees and build their own road. I’m sure that this hits Bette where it hurts. NOT! Not that I care. To me, people are more important than trees.
Lol! Love it when big shot hypocrites get embarrassed!
In california any Oak tree whose trunk more than four inches in diameter four feet above the ground cannot be cut down and you cannot cut off any branches more than four inches in diameter.
I’ll parse it for you. The trees that WERE there were of non-native heritage (120 Java plum trees, 100 octopus trees and 10 to 20 Madagascar olive trees). They were planted there years ago and grew large. She also inadvertently had several actual native trees cut down.
She had these trees removed so that she could replace them with native flora.
Nonetheless, you seem to miss the point: she is being fined for cutting down HER OWN TREES! She owns the trees, the land under tham, and yet she has to beg permission from her betters (the gov’t) to do what she wants with her own property.
“From a distance
tha World looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains, white.”
“Oh sorry folks, just kiddin’ about that green part!”
Oaks are an endangered species in California. A waterbourne disease, Sudden Oak Death, has been killing the things like crazy since ‘95. Protecting something on the verge of extinction isn’t that much of an overstep by the government.
LOL I’ll wager she did it expecting a fine and considered it simply the price of doing business.
There are no native species in Hawaii. Everything came from somewhere else.
“I will nevah forget it, ya knowwwww...Ernie asked me, ‘Soph, why’d ya do it?” And I told him, ‘Ern, don’t complain...that’s more wood than you’ve had in years.’”
No need to parse it for me, thank you. I was making a point that it’s hypocrisy for a greenie to remove trees that are already there to bring in “native” trees that are not there. It’s pretty funny.
But, I do agree with you that the government should not be able to dictate what you do with your own property.
A typical liberal hypocrite doing what she says for us not to do.
As much as I dislike her, I think what she does with her own trees on her property is no one else’s business within reason.
I guess Celine has paid off her husbands gambling tab?
Yup, she’s sort of the Paul Bunyan of Kauai. Hate it when her own Blue Ox gets Gored.
Unless it is about to fall on your house...
Are they on the verge of extinction everywhere or just in California? I think it might be an overstep if the trees can be commonly found anywhere else but in California.
-PJ
Hmmmmm... Cut, excavate, build, pay fines, do penance.
OR
Apply for permits get refused, fight city hall, pay lawyers, wait years, change plans, get bored, sell.
Hypocrites are people too!
I have a difficult time believing that someone proposed cutting down 200 trees and nobody said "Eh, bra...don'tcha need a permit for that?"
From: Lawsuits Fly Over Destruction Brought by Ka Loko Dam Breach
Entertainer Bette Midler, whose property was washed away that morning when the dam gave way and 400 million gallons of water rushed down Wailapa downstream destroying everything in its path, is the lead plaintiff against Pflueger in a property damage case. The suit, which seeks both punitive and actual damages, alleges that Pflueger, who co-owns the dam with his family trust, the Mary Lucas Estate, is responsible for the damage.
The 40 private property owners who joined in the lawsuit claim that despite being warned by several people not to, Pflueger altered the dam’s structure and undermined its integrity by covering its safety feature, a concrete spillway. They claim that his actions caused the dam to fail.
Pflueger denies ever seeing a concrete spillway, despite several documents on file with the state noting such a structure as far back as the 1980s.
Besides causing millions of dollars in damage to miles of private and state property, wiping out a state highway and bridge, and covering the beach and riverbed with sediment and toxic debris, which still remains five months later, the dam breach took the lives of 8 people, including a mother who was 8 months pregnant and her unborn child. Separate legal action against Pflueger and the Mary Lucas Estate for the deaths of these victims, including Aurora Fehring-Dingwall, her husband Alan Dingwall, and their nearly 2-year-old son, Rowen; Wayne Rotstein; Tim Noonan; Daniel Arroyo, his fiance Christina McNees and their unborn child, has already been filed.
Hey , Tell that to the Developers in Glendora ,CA, If you read about some lady chained to 200 year old oak trees because some Texas real estate nut wants to build 300 homes on our Golf course! Talk about sacred ground! Our city council is a bunch of deep pocket car dealers! Thanks for the rant I saw the word California and oak tree and what is this post about???......lol ;p Now , I must go pray for those so and so’s :)
Right you are I used to live on Oahu and while there I studied the origins of the existing flora and fauna. Everything came there from somewhere else. The Hawaiian islands are, after all, fairly young.
While I don't care much for Ms Midler, she did what she wanted to do with the property that she owned. I own a lot of property with thousands of trees. I will cut all of them down if I so choose. Because they are my trees. Ms Midler did what she wanted to do with her trees. We don't meed some government yoyo making decisions for us about our property.
Those are cheap trees, just $28.26 each.
IF one goes back far enough, there is no such thing as native trees.
She is a star, she can do what she wants.
Yea, but they could “die”...
Dude, they’re a far cry from extinction. You got a link for the “endangered” [official] status?
They’re probably going to mow through a few thousand for the 4th bore of the Caldecott, and there’s an adjacent developement that’s probably graded over acres of them...
I’m with you on every single point.
What this says is she is willing to slaughter hundreds of trees--"protected" or not, to make herself more comfortable, to accomodate her desires for her property.
The same thing the liberals she supports would take away from, ahem, the middle class.
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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