Stateline reports on the growth of government efforts to regulate trees on private property as part of urban planning:
Cities have long regulated what can be done to trees in parks, along public streets or on government property, deciding when they can be trimmed, treated for disease or removed.
In recent years an increasing number of cities also have started regulating what happens to trees on private property — on land owned by either developers or homeowners, including trees in their yards. Faced with booming populations, these cities are treating trees as a key part of urban planning and green infrastructure. The idea is that even trees on private property serve the public good by soaking up stormwater, filtering water for lakes and rivers, cleaning the air, and cooling buildings to cut down on energy consumption.
So what do you do if you believe in private property rights? You turn to John Locke.
Taking on the regulation of trees on private property was “an opening salvo” in a larger strategy to fight restrictions on other uses of private property, like commercial zoning laws, said Mathew of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “The tree issue was a way to broaden the conversation of what private property means.”
He said the group’s philosophy on private property rights can be traced to John Locke, the 18th century philosopher, who said: “As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property.”
Look at the examples of regulation of private trees here.
