Attorney Israel Piedra featured in regional and national news outlets discussing tree trespass cases
Tree disputes aren’t just neighborhood squabbles. They can involve complex legal issues and substantial damages. Recent high-profile cases have brought tree law — and “timber trespass” in particular — into the spotlight. Tree law attorney Israel F. Piedra, lawyer at Welts, White & Fontaine, PC and creator of the New England Tree Law website, was recently interviewed by multiple regional and national news outlets to discuss tree law-related issues.
Boston Globe writer Marcela Garcia published a column discussing her own Massachusetts timber trespass dispute and comparing it to the recent case of a Nantucket man who has been criminally charged for intentionally cutting his neighbors’ trees. The column — entitled “The roots of entitlement: When neighbors cut down trees that aren’t theirs” quoted extensively from Garcia’s interview with Piedra.
As Garcia notes in her column, one overlooked aspect of tree trespass cases is the applicability of insurance coverage. The article explains:
If the person who cuts down trees that don’t belong to them claims it was an accident or misunderstanding, their homeowner’s insurance might cover the damages. But if you insist the act was intentional, insurance often won’t apply, Piedra said.
That means victims are sometimes forced to walk a legal tightrope: Pursue punitive damages via trial and risk walking away with nothing — even if you win, judges have wide discretion to decide damages, Piedra said — or settle for less through insurance. “It’s to both parties’ benefit to chalk it up to an accident or a mistake or negligence,” Piedra said. “You’d rather have an insurance company writing you a big check for single damages.”
Garcia closes her column by discussing Maine’s potent timber trespass law and making a pitch for the Massachusetts legislature to add more “teeth” to the Massachusetts timber trespass statute.
Attorney Piedra was then interviewed by Sacha Pfeiffer for NPR’s Morning Edition. The interview aired nationally on July 24, 2025. In the interview, which carried the title “A tree falls. A lawsuit follows. A legal expert explains why,” Piedra explains that most tree-cutting lawsuits do arise out of negligence, not purposeful conduct:
A typical timber trespass case involves negligence or potential recklessness, such as by not conducting a property survey before removing a tree.
"Generally, it has to do with a neighbor not knowing where the property line is, or perhaps even potentially knowing that [a tree] is probably on their neighbor's property, but plowing ahead and sticking their head in the sand and cutting down the trees anyway," noted Piedra, who estimates he has two dozen active timber trespass cases.
Finally, Piedra is quoted in an article on Business Insider entitled Timber tantrums: The million-dollar tree war brewing among the New England elite. The article discusses the strategic and legal considerations implicated by New England tree trespass claims:
New Hampshire-based attorney Israel Piedra, who started the website NewEnglandTreeLaw.com last year, told BI that tree-cutting disputes are "more common than people would think."
Piedra, an attorney at the firm Welts, White & Fontaine, P.C., said he has carved out a practice representing property owners who have had their trees cut down without permission and has handled [dozens of] such cases in recent years, primarily out of New Hampshire and Massachusetts… Timber trespass laws, Piedra said, vary state by state, with the New England states of Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts having some of the strongest in the country. "There's a lot of people looking for lawyers that do this kind of work," he said.
The article from Business Insider was also syndicated to other national outlets such as Yahoo! News.
Together, these interviews highlight three key points: (1) most cases involve negligence, not intentional conduct (2) insurance coverage issues can be tricky, and (3) strong legal representation matters because state timber trespass laws vary widely. Piedra’s insights in the Boston Globe, NPR, and Business Insider underscore his deep experience handling timber trespass disputes and advocating for property owners across New England.
About NewEnglandTreeLaw.com
Launched by Welts, White & Fontaine, PC attorney Israel Piedra in 2024, NewEnglandTreeLaw.com is resource for New England property owners navigating tree and timber trespass disputes. If you have questions about your rights or need guidance after a tree cutting incident, contact Israel Piedra at Welts, White & Fontaine, P.C., or explore more content on this website.
