Man, 61, Gets 5 Years for 'Arborcide'
A Nevada man was sentenced yesterday to up to five years in prison for killing hundreds of trees in a suburban area near Las Vegas.
Douglas Hoffman, 61, is a retired construction worker who suffers from heart, hip, back and prostate problems. He reportedly cut down more than 500 trees near the second home he and his wife purchased in Henderson, Nev., because they were blocking the couple’s view of the Las Vegas Strip from their backyard. However, his 2004 tree-killing spree not only blighted the landscape but frightened neighbors, who worried about what else he might do, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Judge Donald Mosley, who sits in Clark County, noted at sentencing that Hoffman had spent more than a year wreaking havoc on the community. As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Hoffman could have been sentenced to as long as 35 years in prison for what one attorney referred to as an “arborcide.”
