Libertarians believe in individual freedom– life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness, and all that. This can often be accomplished through ownership of private property. What about freedom for trees, though?
I present to you The Tree That Owns Itself, in Athens, Georgia.
One unfortunate aspect about The Tree That Owns Itself is that, while it is generally acknowledged to own itself, it is “accepted for care” by municipal authorities, which we all know means that it probably wouldn’t really be all that cared for (check out the trees and wildlife situation in the Soviet Union or Cuba, for extreme examples of this phenomenon). However, the local government has thankfully embraced libertarian ideas and has mostly turned the care of the tree over to locals: “… local government and the owners of the adjacent property jointly serve as ’stewards’ for the care of the tree, while Athens’ Junior Ladies’ Garden Club serves as its ‘primary advocate.’”
Why would the Junior Ladies’ Garden Club be a better “primary advocate” than the Athens municipal government? This is the very heart of the libertarian views on how to save the environment. The club has a special affinity for and knowledge of gardening, it is a private group that must maintain its reputation in order to maintain membership (and therefore it would be highly unlikely it would let the tree die, for example). In addition, the local homeowners also have an interest in keeping the value of the tree as a tourist attraction that increases the value of their properties and the look of their neighborhood.
The history of the tree is a lesson in libertarianism as well. The marble marker describing the unique history of the tree (which is now the Son of the Tree That Owns Itself), the fence surrounding it, and the soil was donated by a philanthropist in 1906. Despite being in the city’s right of way, in the time between the death of the old tree and the planting of the new tree the lot was not cared for properly by the city– the nearby house at that time was vacant, with no homeowner to attend to the lot’s needs, and the city didn’t care that the lot had fallen into disrepair.
“Privatization” does not necessarily mean “corporations”; it often means private groups and individuals doing what is best for society by doing what they love to do at no cost to the taxpayer, and elements of nature which can be as content as The Tree That Owns Itself appears to be.
The Tree That Owns Itself, Son of the Tree That Owns Itself, libertarian environment, privatization
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