Sarah Bond

Today on the show, when does a zoning law go too far?

And how the fight over tree laws is changing the answer to that question.

Sarah Bond didn't know it at the time, but when she bought her house with this tree of Damocles looming over it, she was stepping into a larger battle over what ownership and property rights even mean.

A battle that has been escalating over the last few decades.

And the front line of this battle involves a tree law over a thousand miles away in the township of Canton, Michigan.

Anne-Marie Graham-Hudak is the township supervisor.

She's like the mayor.

She is Canton's number one fan.

She's got this real earnest energy.

How important are trees to the people of Canton?

It got to a point in 2006 when the town's leaders decided to do something.

So the township board passed an ordinance to protect the community by protecting the trees.

Anyone who wanted to cut down a large tree now needed to get the town's approval.

They had to get a permit.

Anne-Marie says these tree permits were all about protecting the neighbors, too.

The town wanted to hold people accountable for how removing a tree would hurt the community by taking away shade, increasing the risk of floods.

And this is a pretty common system in a lot of towns and cities these days, from Dallas to Denver to Mobile, Alabama.

A lot of these places have similar laws requiring people to compensate the community when they cut down a tree.

Until, that is, the spring of 2018.

That is when the township discovers that, on the edge of town, an entire forest has secretly gone missing.