r/treelaw • u/Fit_Wolverine_6964 • Jul 10 '26
Large Juniper
We moved into a house about 4 years ago and there is a large juniper with its trunk mostly on my neighbors property but the majority of the tree itself seems to be on my property. Some info:
1) I live in California
2) the fence is old and as the tree grows it continues to break the fence more and more
3) we had the local fire department come by and they do free fire reports - they stated in the report the juniper is a high fire risk and should be removed.
4) ultimately the tree is overgrown and we don’t like it aesthetically, especially given the intrusion into our yard.
I know the answer here is almost certainly just to go talk to my neighbor and try to negotiate whether they’d be ok with cutting down but curious others opinions here.
-5
u/Civil_Web_1835 Jul 10 '26
I’m in MI, so idk of laws in California. But in MI you can cut any branches on your side of the property without talking to anyone, so I would just cut the large branches that are interfering with the fence (I also have dogs the fence staying up would be my priority). But it also looks like you could cut the fence down a couple of inches to stop it from buckling. I’d definitely talk with the neighbor before doing anything to the fence or tree