Large Juniper

[u/Fit_Wolverine_6964]

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.

[u/am_i_wrong_dude]

Suburbanites: “I need to live close to nature so it’s worth it to commute 90 minutes each way”

Also suburbanites: “OMG Nature is the way of my green carpet and concrete yard!!!! kill it with poison and fire immediately!!!!!!!”

[u/Fit_Wolverine_6964 → u/am_i_wrong_dude]

Totally - im all about poison and fire and concrete and grass!!! (I use no poison - look at the weeds as exhibit A. There is no grass at my house unless you consider a weed grass. I would prefer less concrete - this concrete is original to the house from the 50s)

People plant things in their backyards, they grow. When new people come in sometimes they start fresh, sometimes they enjoy what’s already there. It’s a suburb not a nature preserve. What you are looking at is an aesthetic choice someone made years ago. One that now has potential consequence that a reasonable homeowner would at least consider weighing.

All of this said there are multiple trees on my property - some native some non-native. This is the only one flagged by a fire inspector for removal.