Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Bette Midler May be Fined for Cutting Trees
Bette Midler, singer/actress may be fined for cutting down more than 230 trees around her property on the island of Kauai. Midler cut the trees without obtaining a permit and the state of Hawaii is recommending that she be fined.
The Board of Land and Natural Resources recommends a fine of $6,500 for having the trees cut and for building a graded road without permits required for the land zoned for conservation use.
Midler said she didn’t realize permits were needed to remove trees on a vacant 58,000-square-foot parcel of land on Kauai’s North Shore. The idea to cut the trees in the first place was to improve the lot with native species instead of the nonnative invasive plant species that had grown on the lot.
The National Tropical Botanical Garden, which maintains gardens on Kauai, will design the lot and will be planting the plant species native to the area, a spokesman said.
Bette Midler hired a botanist after the trees were cut down. The botanist said 120 Java plum trees, 100 octopus trees and 10 to 20 Madagascar olive trees that were cut down were all nonnative species. Some native trees also were removed from the property according to Midler’s botanist.
Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii December 1, 1945. She showed talent early on and when she was 20 years-old she began her singing and Broadway career performing in the shows ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in 1966 playing Tzeitel the eldest daughter.
Midler was once known as the Compost Queen appearing on billboards in Los Angeles advocating green recycling containers for yard trimmings. She is known for her long-time commitment to the environment.
Bette Midler will be a headline performer at Las Vegas’ Caesars Place next year, replacing Celine Dion.
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