By Myron Levin, Lilly Fowler and Stuart Silverstein
FairWarning.org

Tallahassee Democrat

Robert Barnhart, right, and his wife, Kimberly. Barnhart claims he was fired by Lamar Advertising in August 2011 when he refused to continue poisoning trees that blocked the view of Lamar billboards. He has been granted immunity in a criminal investigation, and has sued over loss of his job.

Robert J. Barnhart was a crew chief for a billboard company, and a soldier in a war on trees.

Trees were the enemy if they spoiled the view of a billboard. On days of an attack, Barnhart, 27, would arrive by dawn at Lamar Advertising Co. in Tallahassee, Fla. After removing the magnetic Lamar logo from a company truck, he would set forth with a machete, a hospital mask and a container of what he described as a "pretty gnarly" herbicide.

North Carolina Department of Transportation