Lake Tahoe resident could face prison over tree removal Environmental cops at Lake Tahoe say Patricia Vincent deserves a prison sentence and a huge fine. Her alleged crime: chopping down three trees on federal land that improved her backyard view of the lake. Vincent says it was an honest mistake, but now she's believed to be the first target of criminal charges of illegally cutting Tahoe trees. It's the clearest signal yet of how serious coniferous crime has become as regulators fight to preserve the Sierra Nevada jewel Mark Twain once deemed "the finest view the world affords." Since 2002 the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has fined violators a combined $1 million for such violations. "People up here have an emotional, gut reaction to the cutting of trees. It offends people," TRPA spokesman Dennis Oliver said on a recent afternoon, driving his Toyota Prius through a neighborhood of illegally pruned pines. Critics of government management of Tahoe's prized forest lands have long said regulators go too far in telling property owners what they can do in their own backyards. The issue for Vincent, however, is what she cut in the backyard of her neighbor, the U.S. Forest Service. Vincent, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with theft and damaging government property. She's scheduled for trial April 29 in U.S. District Court in Reno. She declined requests for interviews, but her attorney, Scott Freeman of Reno, said the government is out to make an example of the 58-year-old retired technology worker. He said Vincent is an otherwise law-abiding citizen who made a mistake and is "completely and utterly freaked out by this." "We're not talking about 250 trees, we're talking about 2 1/2 trees," said Freeman, noting that two of the ponderosa pines in question sprouted from the same stump....Coniferous crime? We need McGruff the coniferous crime dog on this. Uh oh, what if McGruff lifts his leg on one of those trees? Will Smokey Bear get pissed off and arrest McGruff? I guess we need a "Tree Strikes And Your Out" law.