Bette Midler: Compost Queen of Serial Tree Killer?

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Bette Midler: Compost Queen of Serial Tree Killer?

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Oh, Bette…you are the buzz saw beneath my wings!

I know the world will make a big deal of you chopping down all those trees on your Kauai property, but I won’t. However, one question…did you ditch the three-lane circular driveway and tennis court stadium plans after the threat of fines or before?

Nice touch with the eco reforrestation plan for your yard on the heals of upsetting islanders.

Oh, Bette…you still are my hero!

From E!News:

The entertainer and noted eco-booster is looking at $6,500 in fines for cutting down some 235 trees on a property in Hawaii without permission.

“She’s very sorry that it happened, and accepts responsibility because she’s very active environmentally,” Midler attorney Max W.J. Graham Jr. said Wednesday.

Hawaii’s Board of Land and Natural Resources will consider penalizing Midler for her “serious” violation, as a state report termed it, at a scheduled meeting Friday.

Midler ran afoul of the green police last October when, per the report, state land and conservation officials spotted trees being cleared on a 1.3-acre property she owns on the island of Kauai. Among the casualties, it said, were 120 Java Plum, 100 Octopus and 10-20 Madagascar Olive trees, all nonnative species.

According to Graham, Midler’s mistake was an elemental one: “She didn’t understand that they needed a permit to remove the trees.”

Midler’s intent in clearing the trees was to make way for trees and plants of the native kind. Graham described the property, which Hawaii-native Midler has owned since 1986, as a vacant lot overgrown with the likes of the Java.

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