In Michigan, trees are a revered resource, sentimental sightline, and object of fall color tours. A towering oak or a tidy row of pines may look like little more than landscape, but cut down the wrong one, and you could find yourself staring at a bill three times the tree’s value. That’s right: Michigan law says unauthorized cutting of another person’s tree can mean treble damages — a penalty designed to sting.

The rule comes from the state’s timber trespass statute, which makes anyone who chops, saws, or hauls off someone else’s wood without permission liable for triple the actual loss. The idea is straightforward: you can’t replace a tree overnight, and a sapling doesn’t quite make up for a decades-old maple. Courts reserve the triple punch for willful or intentional acts, but even “honest mistakes” don’t get you off the hook entirely. If you accidentally cross a property line with your chainsaw, you’ll still owe the fair value of what was taken.

This isn’t just about lumber, either. Homeowners often plant trees for shade, beauty, or property value. Take out a carefully landscaped line of ornamentals, and the damages can quickly pile up. The law’s message is simple: before you start trimming or felling, know your boundaries — literally.

But Michigan’s tree laws don’t stop at punishment when your irate neighbor fells your treasured, but baseball sized nut producing, Black Walnut. They also intersect with the world of insurance when Mother Nature lends a hand. If a storm rolls through and drops a tree onto your house, fence, garage or gazebo, homeowners’ policies provide applicable coverage. The cost to remove the tree, repair the roof, patch the siding, or rebuild a garage usually falls under standard coverages. The catch? Sometimes you need to force the carrier to pay – and lawyers can bring the axe down in the courtroom to cover your tree bill, remediation costs, and the ultimate rebuild. But if that same tree just keels over harmlessly in your yard, the cleanup bill is yours. Insurance generally only pays when a covered structure is involved.

Things get thornier when it’s a neighbor’s tree. If your neighbor’s dead ash falls onto your living room, your insurer will likely cover the loss and then decide whether to chase the neighbor’s insurer for reimbursement. If negligence is proven — say the tree was clearly rotting for years — your neighbor may end up footing the bill indirectly.

So, what does all this mean for the average Michigander? On one hand, you’ve got the heavy hand of treble damages to deter rogue contractors with itchy chainsaw fingers and flannel wearing neighbors from an aspirational lumberjack career. On the other, you’ve got insurance safety nets to soften the blow when wind, ice, or gravity do what chainsaws shouldn’t. The balance is delicate: strong enough penalties to keep people from playing fast and loose with other people’s greenery, yet practical coverage so homeowners aren’t financially crushed when nature does what nature does.

In a state that prizes both its developed forests and long-standing neighborhood “Giving Trees,” tree law stands as a reminder: roots may run deep, but so do legal consequences. Cut carefully, measure twice, and call your insurer, arborist, and maybe your tree lawyer when nature or neighbors do their worst.

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Chad Antuma is an Associate Attorney specializing in Business and Real Estate Law at Hilger Hammond and is a council member of the SBM Young Lawyers Section representing Grand Rapids, MI.