Lake Tahoe resident could face prison over tree removal

Environmental cops at Lake Tahoe say Patricia Vincent deserves a prison sentence and a huge fine.

Her alleged crime: chopping down three trees on federal land that improved her backyard view of the lake.

Vincent says it was an honest mistake, but now she's believed to be the first target of criminal charges of illegally cutting Tahoe trees.

It's the clearest signal yet of how serious coniferous crime has become as regulators fight to preserve the Sierra Nevada jewel Mark Twain once deemed "the finest view the world affords."

Since 2002 the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has fined violators a combined $1 million for such violations. "People up here have an emotional, gut reaction to the cutting of trees. It offends people," TRPA spokesman Dennis Oliver said on a recent afternoon, driving his Toyota Prius through a neighborhood of illegally pruned pines. "The thing is, the lake looks beautiful through the trees, anyway."

Critics of government management of Tahoe's prized forest lands have long said regulators go too far in telling property owners what they can do in their own backyards. The issue for Vincent, however, is what she cut in the backyard of her neighbor, the U.S. Forest Service.

Vincent, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with theft and damaging government property. She's scheduled for trial April 29 in U.S. District Court in Reno.

She declined requests for interviews, but her attorney, Scott Freeman of Reno, said the government is out to make an example of the 58-year-old retired technology worker. He said Vincent is an otherwise law-abiding citizen who made a mistake and is "completely and utterly freaked out by this."

"We're not talking about 250 trees, we're talking about 2 1/2 trees," said Freeman, noting that two of the ponderosa pines in question sprouted from the same stump.

Most often, the task of regulating tree cutting and removal falls to TRPA, the often-controversial government agency founded 40 years ago to maintain Tahoe's environment.

Agency records show fines against 41 homeowners and businesses for a combined $1 million from 2002 to 2007. Over the previous five years, the agency levied just 11 fines totalling $197,000.

TRPA officials said some trees can be cut as a fire precaution, so long as residents get permission. The agency has become more lenient on cutting around homes since the Angora fire roared through the region last year.

What concerns regulators is the cutting, pruning and hacking of trees solely for clearer vistas.

"Everybody loves the forested alpine lake look of Lake Tahoe," said John Singlaub, TRPA's executive director. "We're simply trying to keep it that way."

TRPA officials said they've witnessed increasingly bold efforts by residents in recent years to improve views and boost property values.

The agency cited a San Jose technology executive for $50,000 in 2006 after he drilled four holes in the base of a 40-foot pine, poured in poisonous fertilizer and then reported the tree was mysteriously dying. He asked if he could cut it down before investigators caught on to the scheme.

On a recent tour Oliver and TRPA enforcement agent Steve Sweet stopped in front of a three-story, cedar-sided vacation home along Silvertip Drive in Incline Village, where not-so-rustic getaways regularly go for $2 million or more.

Behind the home stood an 80-foot-tall pine, perhaps 100 years old. Every limb, branch and needle had been slashed, leaving a naked trunk reaching some 70 feet into the air. The only foliage left was a spindly canopy at the very top.

"We call this the Tahoe Palm," Sweet said with a mix of humor and despair.

Down the road, Sweet spotted an example of the "poodle cut." A homeowner had whacked open a 10-foot section midway up a tree, which happened to line up perfectly with the back patio to reveal the lakeshore and Mount Tallac in the distance.

But it's about perspective: Boaters on the lake look up and see houses instead of forest.

"Without trees screening development around the lake, it has a much more urban appearance and feel," said Rochelle Nason, director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Also at stake is the health of Tahoe's proud pine forest, which already is mostly second-generation trees planted after Gold Rush-era miners cleared the basin to build Virginia City.

For pruning, homeowners often hire day laborers who climb the trees with spikes on their boots. The spikes pierce the bark, releasing sap that attracts harmful bugs and beetles, Sweet said.

Some trees compensate by growing taller than nature intended. The result can be a gangly, weaker tree more likely to blow over in a storm.

Then there's erosion.

With fewer, less-sturdy trees, more soil washes into the lake, threatening its trademark clarity.

"It's one of our biggest challenges keeping dirt on the hill," Singlaub said, noting that visitors can see about half as far into the depths of the lake as they could 50 years ago.

Along Eagle Drive in Incline Village, six stumps dot the ridge that leads to Vincent's vacation home. The clearing yields a spectacular view from her back patio.

Freeman said his client hired a contractor to remove several backyard trees fire officials had deemed potential threats to the home. He said they mistakenly crossed into adjacent U.S. Forest Service land and cut three additional pines.

"She believed they belonged to her," he said.

Officials from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. attorney's office declined to comment because the case is pending. Investigators found evidence that Vincent had tried to move markers showing the trees were on federal land.

Freeman denied that accusation, saying it's all a misunderstanding he hopes to resolve before the case goes to trial.

If convicted, a judge could sentence Vincent to 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Todd Milbourn, (916) 321-1063.