Joyce Kilmer wrote “I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.”
She didn’t live in California, which has spawned a legal war between tree-huggers and solar-energy producers.
Seems eight redwoods planted in 1997-99 for backyard privacy along a residential fence in Sunnyvale are now 20 to 40 feet tall and casting shadows on a 10-kilowatt roof solar system installed next door in 2001.
Never mind that the solar system was installed after the tree planting or that tree planting is universally encouraged to sequester carbon dioxide.
And while a tree removes 14 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, a solar electric system offsets that much every two or three days.
After years of mediation failed and a criminal complaint was filed, a judge last December found the tree owners guilty of violating the 1978 Solar Shade Control Act--but waived fines of up to $1,000 a day and ordered removal of only two of the offending trees.
The law applies to trees and shrubs existing even before a solar installation if they later grow big enough to incapacitate more than 10 percent of a neighbor’s system between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Problem solved? Hardly. The tree owners have appealed, worried that the case sets a precedent for enforcement and litigation throughout the state. (10 FEBRUARY 2008)
