r/treelaw

On Earth Day yesterday, my neighbor cut down a total 16 fully grown, healthy beautiful trees on his side yard. The picture is 4 city lots that were combined into 1 with a row of about 12 large trees providing shade.

Called the Forrester in my city to see if this was allowed. The Forrester stated we have nothing on the books that prevents an owner from cutting a tree down on private land. Those with even slightly ok laws are so lucky.

Can anyone with access to tree valuation resources help me estimate the value/replacement cost of the serviceberry that he cut? The tree was 37 years old, ~25 ft tall, and without disease.. It was 5” in diameter at breast height. I assume the true value would far exceeds the replacement cost of a b&b tree but I’m curious. Also happy to hear any advice folks have about what process might be the most effective way to get him to agree to cover the cost of a balled and burlapped replacement tree.

Backstory:

My family had a mature serviceberry tree on cape cod that fell over during a storm this winter. It slumped from a heavy snow load and had a vertical crack running on the trunk about 2 ft from the ground but I believe it could’ve been righted and saved with the installation of a prop.

An electrician who was subcontracted to check the safety of the electrical system in the house after a pipe burst and flooding occurred during that storm took it on himself to cut the tree down without getting consent from the property owner. He has admitted to this on the phone (volunteered the info when I was asking about the electrical work he'd done). I do believe he thought he was doing us a favor since this was a big storm and there were trees down everywhere, but this isn't sitting right with me since the serviceberry was responsible for nearly all of the privacy we had on the deck.