NOT satisfactory. $500 is just "a cost of doing activism" and easily absorbed.
BETTER: "a federal petty offense, was $5,000 and six months in jail." The wingnuts may still look on it as a "cost of activism" but now it is 10x costlier and perhaps would send a signal to others.
EVEN BETTER: Penalize him the same substantial per tree amount the loggers would have been hit, had they gone and cut down the wrong ones (23 of 'em, as per Keloland TV in SD).
Just one from the link below (underlines mine): "Vincent pleaded not guilty on Jan. 25 in U.S. District Court in Reno to charges that she hired a company to cut down three old-growth trees, estimated to be up to 100 years old, on U.S. Forest Service land to improve her view, said Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Nevada. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted. Trial is set for April 29.
The 2008 article: Cutting trees can fall on wrong side of the law