Trees dying around signs

Some suspect billboard owners may be to blame

In the competition between trees and billboards for roadside space, billboards may be winning. But don't be too quick to blame Mother Nature.

The state Department of Transportation has investigated a rash of tree deaths around billboards since October, and many seem to be caused by human hands.

Ted Sherrod, a roadside environmental engineer with the DOT, said workers have logged about 50 cases of illegal tree-cutting in the past seven months. Usually, he said, workers find only a dozen or so cases in a year.

"We're trying to use local police and the SBI to find the perpetrators," Sherrod said.

The Sierra Club is considering asking Attorney General Roy Cooper's office to investigate tree destruction through its environmental division.

"The appearance is that illegal tree cutting has become a widespread and fairly common practice by the industry," said Molly Diggins, director of the state Sierra Club chapter.

Billboard advertisers are free to clear within 250 feet of each sign to keep it visible from the road. If they cut outside the area, they are breaking the law. Often the destruction is obvious because trees clearly more than 250 feet away are lying on the ground, but sometimes investigators find a trickier case. In December, a tree nearly fell onto Interstate 85 in Durham. At the site, DOT found large trees nearby that had been cut most of the way through, but left standing to die a slow death or fall in a stiff wind.

DOT is investigating about a dozen cases of illegal cutting in front of billboards along I-85 in Durham and Orange counties and one in Wake County along U.S. 1.

Hogan Outdoor Inc., which has a Raleigh office, owns the billboards in Durham and Orange that are being investigated. They did not return telephone calls this week.

The estimated cost to replace the hardwoods, dogwoods and pines illegally cut across the state stands at more than $607,100. At least one cases involves illegal tree cutting near a business, but most of the felled trees are around billboards.

Rep. Paul Luebke has filed a bill with a heavy penalty for billboard companies found responsible for unauthorized cutting around their signs. He proposes fining companies $2,000 and taking away their sign permits. Companies would lose permits for a year for one violation and permanently for three or more violations.

"They're not going to be hurt by the fines," said Luebke, a Durham Democrat. "The part of the bill that matters is not being able to put up new billboards."

The state Sierra Club chapter suggested Luebke file the bill. Diggins said it would offer a stronger deterrent, but not solve the problem.

Tony Adams, lobbyist for the N.C. Outdoor Advertising Association, is not convinced that illegal tree cutting is up as much as the discoveries indicate.

The increased reports may be due to "overzealousness on DOT's part," Adams said.

Members of the billboard trade group follow the law, he said, and are working through the proper avenues to make it easier for drivers to see roadside ads.

Adams is trying to get the legislature to allow billboard companies to cut more trees around the signs. Billboard companies want people passing by to have more time to see the ads.

Adams' proposal stalled in the House last year, but he is willing to include some of Luebke's suggested sanctions in exchange for more legal cutting.

But he won't agree to taking away companies' permits for illegal tree chopping. "Luebke's bill is totally unacceptable in its current form," Adams said.

Finding the people responsible for illegally cutting trees is difficult because witnesses are often hard to find.

The state began an investigation into illegal tree poisoning around billboards in 2003 and tried to revoke a company's permits. The case is still in court.

DOT claims a Florida company, Sunshine Outdoor, poisoned trees around two of its billboards in Johnston and Cumberland counties. A state worker in 2003 saw a Sunshine construction crew at one of the sites and collected four unlabeled containers that, according to court documents, company employees said contained an herbicide bought from Florida. A Sunshine billboard site in Johnston was littered with unlabeled containers of herbicide. DOT tried to pull Sunshine's permits, but the company appealed, saying the state had no evidence that the company sprayed herbicide around the billboards.