If only Google Earth had been around in George Washington’s day, then we’d know if he really did chop down that cherry tree.
One of Google Earth’s newer features is called Street View, where satellite images of areas across Canada are taken one step further with street-level high-quality photos. Cameras are mounted on a Google Street View car, which then drives around Canadian cities snapping shots of everything visible within its 360 degree radius. While Google has admitted their technology isn’t perfect, special privacy software attempts to blur out license plates, faces and certain buildings or properties belonging to governments and whiny former-Beatles.
According to recent reports, a property owner in Vancouver had recently listed her million-dollar property for sale, only to advertise the lot as having no large trees. She did in fact, tell a lie, and later hired a company to remove the large cedar, evergreen and cypress trees from the property. She’d obtained permits to remove two trees, but not for all 23 that were eventually cut down.
Coincidentally, the trees were being chopped down just as the Google Street View car drove by, providing authorities with photographic evidence of the crime, showing workers, stumps and truckloads of dismembered tree parts lining the road and driveway.
Canadian privacy laws are hazy on the subject, and authorities aren’t yet sure if the Google photos are useable in their prosecution efforts, but it raises some interesting questions with regards to altering a property before sale.
Do you need permission to chop down a tree on your own property?
In Toronto, the answer is: pretty much. If the tree is “significant”, meaning 30 cm in diameter or 1.4 meters above the ground, causing it harm can incur hefty fines as regulated by the city’s Private Tree By-law. If the tree is under these measurements, in most cases – hack away. If it meets or exceeds them, you will need to complete and submit an Application to Injure or Destroy Trees. If the tree is in a ravine, which is a protected natural feature, a Ravine and Natural Feature Protection Permit Application must be submitted instead.
There are exceptions to these rules, including: If the tree is completely dead, has a terminal tree disease, or if the tree is imminently hazardous, meaning there is danger of the tree falling over any second and squishing someone. For more information, you can call Urban Forestry at (416) 338 -TREE.
