Stevens

One is the much-disliked owner of the Washington Redskins, the other the CEO of one of the country’s largest defense contractors. What do they have in common? A low opinion of protected trees, it seems.

The Post reports today that Montgomery County has fined Lockheed Martin CEO Robert J. Stevens $1,000 for clear-cutting nearly an acre worth of protected trees standing between his $2.74 million River Road mansion and the C&O Canal. Redskins owner Dan Snyder did much the same in 2004, cutting down 130 trees without proper permission.

According to Stevens’ lawyer, the trees were cut down and cleared away in the wake of the June 29 derecho storm, which left many downed trees and limbs on paths used by hikers and horseback riders. Still, Stevens did not go about getting the right permits for the clear-cutting; the trees on his land are protected by local and federal easements that limit what individual homeowners can do to them. Writes the Post:

Property owners along the canal are reminded of their obligations inside the scenic easements in an annual letter from the Park Service. Montgomery maintains a publicly available online database with maps that show its protective easements. Both types of easements require landowners to consult with government officials or risk penalties before undertaking major landscaping, tree-cutting or other projects.

Aerial photos show that before the storm, the now-denuded part of Stevens’s property was dense with trees — some as tall as 80 feet and more than 100 years old — including oak, beech and black gum, officials said.

Obviously, that $1,000 fine isn’t much for a guy who make $25.3 million in 2011, but there is also the possibility that Stevens will have to pay $1,000 per tree that was cut down. After Snyder went all Paul Bunyan on his trees, he was forced to pay $37,000 to replant them.