Ask yourself, who owns a view? Depends on the view right? If you can only see it from private property, the tax payer owns that view. Now think about those views that can be seen from public roads and let me ask another question. Who has the right to completely change or eliminate a view, one we all enjoy? Again, if that view is looking across private property, the tax payer of that land has the right.

Now, you might be asking, what does this have to do with art? Well, I'm a landscape painter and as an artist, I get much of my inspiration from my surroundings. Those who purchase or simply enjoy my paintings do so through an emotional connection to the subject matter I have chosen to paint. Simply put, I paint views.

Living in this area for years, the thing I most commonly hear from locals and visitors is how much they love the long, rolling, pastoral views and the beautiful backdrop of the Blue Ridge. What's not to love? Spectacular sunrises and sunsets, the strong green grass and trees such as oaks, sycamores, dogwoods, maples, redbuds and others, you get the picture, but notice I didn't say "pines". I don't actually dislike pines.

"BUT", I've noticed a bothersome trend of planting long alternating rows of cheap white pines along the road edge of a property. Basically a wall. I'm not sure whose bright idea this is, but I can say this; where many of our wonderful views are concerned, this trend has already and is continuing, to not just interrupt some of our most spectacular views, it has already and will erase them as though they never existed.

The head scratcher for me is, I've seen many cases, in fact I would even say most cases, where planting these trees even kills the view for the property owner too. White pines especially, which are hardly great trees and usually only loved for being cheap and fast growing, loose branches in the winter and eventually have to be limbed up at the bottom anyway. I know all the reasons it's done, but in most cases we are not sitting on top each other out here in the country. I know reasonable exceptions exist and I'm not here to point fingers at anyone, just to create some awareness.

So, who does this affect? Well, I would say just about everyone. Listen, many area residents have large parcels and live in comfort, but we all pull out of our driveway at some point and if all you see is pines to the left and pines to the right, I'd bank on the fact that everyone's scenic quality of life has dropped a few notches. The book begins with, Ah, as the sun sets over the majestic white pines..... Okay, so it's not just boo hoo for the paint brush boy who can't see over the trees and I'm not the poster child for anti growth. Take note to new rows of pines and what those trees will be taking from the lay of the land almost instantly. Will another pastoral or Blue Ridge view be gone? It's just an artistic point of view. Enough already with the pines on the road's edge..... please.