Stolen views, shipping containers and 'shame signs': do Australia's tree wars need a new solution?

Conservationists and councils have called for bigger fines, a national database about illegal tree removals and even jail time to deter tree killersGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAfter trees along Sydney's Brighton-Le-Sands beach were hacked down and poisoned by unknown hands in January to open up the view, the local government responded in kind.Bayside council, home to the industrial precinct around Port Botany, dropped a battered metal shipping container in front of the newly created view, and commissioned a local artist to decorate it with a mural of fairy wrens and native flora. It will remain there until replacement trees have grown, says mayor Edward McDougall. Continue reading...