The Lost Oaks of California Ave

Interesting. Where I grew up (San Luis Obispo county in CA), you'd need an act of congress to touch a mature oak tree–even on your own property. Our church actually had to build around one when they did a building project.

I bet if an entrepreneur or real estate developer wanted to cut down oak trees for a building project, they wouldn't get past the first step in the permit process ... but I guess when city wants them gone, they can run it through a "Development" association and play the disease card.

Private owners respect and conserve their resources.

Governments (which is to say, politicians with short lifespans in their job) use up resources in a rush to accomplish short term, idiotic goals.

You can look at the environmental records of capitalist countries versus centrally managed totalitarian states.

...or you can look at golf courses (which don't "cut down all the trees to keep things tidy") and compare them to the government of Palo Alto.

In the city of Thousand Oaks, CA it's illegal to cut down oak trees, even on your own property. I believe the burden of proof is on the owner to demonstrate that property is being threatened by root growth, etc.

I'm sure many other municipalities in CA have similar laws, because the oak trees that cover much of the chaparral land from just north of Los Angeles all the way up to the redwood forests are one of the most important physical features that tie together the northern and southern ends of California.

From Palo Alto Online - California Avenue trees get the axe:

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=13827

strange, because in my country, it was during communism, that a lot of trees were planted, both parks/forest, and agricultural one.

If dear leader wanted a artificial lake, with lots of trees, next to his villa, he would get it. If he thought lots of lemon trees, and olive trees were awesome, bared hills will be transformed to accommodate all these trees.

And it was during the transition to democracy, (and even today), that a whole of these things started getting destroyed.

We are talking about commmon areas. As for private property, I can safely say that most europeans love trees.

As another anectode, there are some streets in SF where trees are completely missing. And it usually corresponds with the density of asian population. It seems that there is something about a tree, in front of the house/door that hinders the chi flow, or something.

But go to Clement st. and there are trees where the more euro shops are, and just a few blocks down, there is little trees where the asian stores are.

Some things can be cultural also.