Those evil trees

UK tree during holiday by Marjon

Trees are hazardous. They drop limbs and fruit on people's heads and cars. They harbor dangerous, and possibly rabid, animals like squirrels and monkeys. They are full of birds that leave corrosive droppings on vehicles underneath. They perilously block your vision of the road and make driving dangerous. There are rumors that they can even jump out in front of your car just as you careen off the road.

If the above sounds as ridiculous to you as it does to me, keep in mind that there are at least some people that must believe it in the UK (via Overlawyered). This reminds me of Sauruman destroying the forest of Fangorn:

there is growing evidence that healthy mature trees are being felled by risk-averse insurers and councils because of the mere suspicion that they may affect neighbouring properties with subsidence, or fall on people.

In the past five years, London councils alone have chopped down almost 40,000 street trees, including some more than 100 years old. Some were aged, diseased or dying, but 40 per cent were removed because of insurance claims; yet a report commissioned by the London Assembly said that only 1 per cent of tree-removals were justified.
...
Eric Pickles, the Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, warned that the leafy character of urban areas was under threat. "Whitehall's failure to tackle the compensation culture and the heavy-handed application of health and safety regulation is doing more harm than good," he said. "Trees have a vital role to play in tackling climate change and improving quality of life, yet Britain's leafy suburbs face a chainsaw massacre under Labour."

Incidentally, before you start raving over those crazy Brits, keep in mind that similar absurd legal problems over trees exist in the United States.