Rava bar Rav Chanan's Palm Trees

Additionally, there is an incident related in Bava Basra (26a). Rava bar Rav Chanan had palm trees in his field near Rav Yosef’s vineyard. Birds that flocked to Rava bar Rav Chanan’s trees would damage Rav Yosef’s fruit, and Rav Yosef demanded that Rava cut down his trees. Rava insisted that he had planted his trees reasonably distant from Rav Yosef’s field and therefore had no obligation to cut down his trees. Rava explained that his trees produced a significant amount of fruit and could not be cut down because of baal tashchis (Devarim 20:19). He concluded by telling Rav Yosef that if he felt that the trees had to be cut down, he would have to do it himself. Surely, Rava bar Rav Chanan held that the trees may be cut down according to the letter of the law. He would not have told Rav Yosef to do an aveira. Moreover, Rava was a saintly individual and would not have wanted his trees to cause harm to others. But Rava explained that he was in between a rock and a hard place. He would like to act piously and cut down the fruit trees, but some other esoteric reason is holding him back.