Any person who intentionally harms the trees planted within the rights of way by setting them afire, sprinkling them with poison or herbicides, placing signs, posters or advertisements employing any method to attach them, cutting the bark thereof, and other damages intended to destroy them, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction, shall be punished with a fine of not less than two hundred (200) dollars nor more than five hundred (500) dollars or imprisonment for a term of not more than sixty (60) days. Each sign or poster placed on a tree shall constitute an independent violation of these provisions, regardless of the fact that the signs or posters belong to a group or bear the same message.
The funds generated by the administrative fines imposed by virtue of this chapter shall be covered in their entirety into the Forest Development Special Fund created under §§ 191 et seq. of Title 12, known as the “Puerto Rico Forest Act”, to be used in the conservation and creation of reforestation projects.
History —May 30, 1973, No. 54, p. 135, § 9-02; Oct. 12, 1997, No. 127, § 1; Dec. 21, 2010, No. 207, § 1.