When your dream property includes century-old trees, discovering a neighbor hacking away at them is nothing short of devastating — especially when one of them is a 120-year-old lilac bush.
That's precisely what happened to a Minnesota family who shared their story on the r/TreeLaw subreddit. One Reddit user explained how their neighbors severely damaged several healthy trees — and even trespassed while doing so.
"We found out when they started lopping down trees with a chainsaw," the Redditor wrote.
The family owns a campground surrounded by trees, some as old as 150 years or more. Their neighbors decided to clean up the property line on a cold winter day with temperatures below zero.
Unfortunately, their neighbor of 70 years had a different definition of yard cleanup. They didn't just prune a few trees and rake up fallen branches. Instead, they aggressively cut back five healthy trees and a cherished lilac bush.
"To make matters worse they actually trimmed past their part of the property line and onto ours by a good foot," the Reddit poster stated.
This excessive pruning and violation of property lines caused great distress to the poster's mother. Luckily, they avoided further damage since the mother and Reddit user walked outside and confronted the neighbors as they were eyeing some 150-year-old oak trees.
As if to add salt to the wound, the neighbors allegedly set the tree debris alight in a burn pile and loaded the larger pieces into a trailer before driving off. This incident highlights a common and frustrating challenge of property ownership — an unpredictable neighbor.
While most dream of having friendly neighbors, not all are ideal. And in cases like this, difficult neighbors don't just cause stress — they can actively harm environmentally conscious efforts.
For instance, an organic gardener might lose their pollinator-friendly plants to a neighbor's toxic weed spray. Disputes like these may discourage homeowners from pursuing eco-friendly landscaping altogether.
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Yes 💯 "What can be done?" pleaded the poster, hoping for assistance from the Reddit community.
The best way to deal with a neighborly dispute is to talk to them directly. Try to understand their perspective and work toward a solution together. Otherwise, it may be time to seek legal counsel.
"Lawyer up and get the arborist asap. This problem will only get worse," one Redditor warned.
"That's not pruning. that's blasphemous butchery," said another.
Another user suggested: "Find any pictures that you may have that will show your trees and lilacs. The arborist can use them to give you an estimate of the original tree value. Document everything!"
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