From Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:

A bill in commitee will allow bilboard companies to remove all trees within 700 ft of a bilbaord to giv 6 seconds of unobstructed veiw.

Prior legislation allowed 300-500 ft of clearance after review by WisDoT, nad recieving a permit. No permit will be needed with the language in the new budget bill.

The language can be interpreted as outdoor media companies being able to clearcut public land without any oversite, this can include municiple street trees too, buckthorn scrub or a "300 year old oak".

The artical quotes DOT attorney John Sobotik as saying that fines for exceeding the limits would be in th neighborhood of $25 per tree.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/State/jul01/bill15071401a.asp

Reply to post by John Paul Sanborn, on July 15, 2001 at 15:21:20:


I went and looked at your link--damn, I felt bad for a week!!!

Where is Ladybird Johnson when you need her?

Here's another link showing all the States that will turn your stomach...

http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/reports/billboards/billboards.html