Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 14, 1991 TAG: 9104140035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
So the billboard industry is backing a proposal due to go before the state Transportation Board this week that would allow cutting trees on public lands in some cases if they obstruct the signs.
The outdoor advertising industry characterizes the issue in benign terms of "vegetation control" and says tree-trimming is necessary for survival for many businesses.
Opponents call the proposal an attack on Mother Nature by an industry committed to "a visual sewer" and say even the provision that three trees be planted for every one cut isn't enough.
If the proposal is approved by the 10-member board Thursday, Georgia would become the 18th state to allow outdoor advertising companies to cut trees on public highways.
Georgia is the latest battleground for the billboard companies and environmental groups, who have also clashed in recent months in Virginia, Tennessee and California.
In those states, outdoor advertising has retained its power to clear trees, said Robert Bonnie, a spokesman at the Washington-based environmental group Scenic America.
Limiting the ability of billboard companies to chop trees is the group's top priority, Bonnie said, adding: "Right now we are very focused on billboards because the billboard industry is one of the most pampered special interests at the federal, state and local level."
The issue has ignited a bitter debate in Georgia, where about 6,000 businesses use billboards. Complicating the matter: $700,000 in free billboard space that several companies donated recently to the Georgia Department of Transportation. The state is using the billboard to promote a highway beautification program.
Marcia Bansley, executive director of Trees Atlanta Inc., a leading opponent of the tree-cutting rule, said environmental disaster will result if the rule changes.
"They'll be out there quickly with their chain saws, clearing the area," Bansley said.
Under the proposal, trees and plants in a 500-foot area in front of a billboard could be cut down or trimmed. If a tree is removed, three trees would have to be planted.
The three-for-one provision is deceptive, Bansley said, because some distinctive species such as sassafras cannot be easily replaced. The diversity of trees around the state would be threatened, she said.
Thousands of Georgians on both sides of the issue have attended public hearings, sent letters or signed petitions.
"The recent attempt by billboard companies to have laws repealed . . . is an attempt to spread a visual sewer throughout the Georgia highway system," Mark Kelly of Savannah said in a letter to The Atlanta Journal.
Randall Romig, president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia, said opponents' arguments "are emotionally based, rather than rational."
"This is not going to be the wholesale slaughter of trees," he said. "There's a 27-step process to get a [cutting] permit."
Only 10 percent of the billboards around the state would be affected, Romig said. "In many cases, it's not even cutting but trimming."
His business and others will suffer if they can't present unobstructed billboard messages, he said.
"A lot of the restaurants and hotels tell us their only means of advertising is outdoor, and they will not open any new stores in Georgia unless they can get that coverage," Romig said.
Caught in the middle of the battle is state Transportation Department's "Let's Keep Georgia Peachy Clean" program, an anti-litter campaign that uses billboard ads across the state.
The donation of billboards for the program shows that the department and the outdoor advertising industry have gotten too cozy on the eve of the vote, critics say.
Department spokesman Jerry Stargel said the charges are unfair.
by CNB