Hooray for Ana Sofia Knauf! Hooray for Cass Turnbull! I hope the city prosecutes to the full extent of the law the West Seattle clear-cutters--both the company who did it and the homeowners who hired them. Their insistence of innocence is rather a cynical defiance of the law and common decency.

The result is simple: any homeowner found guilty having trees illegally pruned or cut down is assessed 200% of the cost of restoring the damage that was done (at city employee pay rates). 100% specifically for the damage they caused, the rest goes to upkeep and/or restoring more green spaces within the city. Any contractor found guilty loses their license until the restoration is complete, forfeits any payment received for the illegal work to the city, and shares 50% responsibility for the homeowner's fine.

the king county auditor is essentially incentivising homeowners to cut trees for view. My own conflict with a Homeowner Association over removing newly planted trees on public land between them and the lake revealed just that dilemma; the value of their home has a numerical 'view rating' that sets a dollar amount on ability to survey their kingdom.

I think that placing the value of your property based on the proximity to a healthy ecosystem would be more in keeping with Seattle's homeowners adapting to the reality of climate change rather than pioneer standards of land value. Yes @2, this is a real story. A slow moving crisis that has real consequences. http://2300lakeparkdr.blogspot.com/

The contractor isn't the underlying asshole here, but they should lose their license for illegal cutting. And sue the homeowner for any misstatements the contractor relied on.

"If you cut down one tree to appease your neighbors' desire for a view, they'll be back next week for another one," [Turnbull] said.

Similarly if the City of Seattle continues to ignore its own environmental laws and allow property owners to hack down trees on public land, they will hack down even more, since it is now widely known environmental crimes can be committed with impunity. Unfortunately, virtually ALL government agencies entrusted to enforce environmental laws act in the same way as Seattle. That's why we're cooking the planet, driving literally countless species into extinction (the vast majority of governments don't even try to quantify extinction rates), our oceans are acidifying, etc., etc., etc. I hope readers will remember this the next time we get to vote for candidates running for City Attorney. Staff of Pete Holmes' office also denounced the McDonnell Report, which remains in draft form because it's politically unacceptable for any City of Seattle or King County elected official to act on the finding recording of huge numbers of deeds by the King County Recorder's Office are based on fradulent and missing mortgage documents. Politicians who kowtow to wealthy landowners and financial institutions that have turned foreclosure into a growth industry don't represent me. Can you comfortably say they represent you?

Meanwhile up in Northgate, someone recently went into Beaver Pond Natural Area and cut down six red alders that were planted up to 20 years ago by stewards. It appears to have been professional work, but Parks has investigated and was unable to find the guilty party. Only the sawdust remains. . .