An Iowa City man allegedly cut down and sold 130 of his neighbor’s trees, valued at $100K

An Iowa City man is facing a felony charge after allegedly allowing a logging company to knock down a fence to harvest more than $100,000 worth of trees from his neighbor’s property.

Tyler Rogers, 45, is facing a felony first-degree theft charge for deceptive labor practices exceeding $10,000 and three serious misdemeanors for violations of Iowa law surrounding timber businesses.

Rogers is accused of instructing a company to cut down more than 130 trees, many of which were coveted black walnut. He allegedly sold the logs to a local lumber company. He’s also accused of allegedly giving his neighbor a check for less than half the value of the trees.

Curious residents tipped off neighbor of alleged tree theft

According to court documents and a warrant application, the neighbor was contacted by several other residents concerned why “several logs were stacked” near the road on his rural Johnson County property, just west of the county Historic Poor Farm, in late January or early February 2025.

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The neighbor contacted Rogers, who is allegedly a crop lease tenant. Rogers “did not provide (the neighbor) with a satisfactory answer,” so he visited the property.

Rogers allegedly told him that his friend, who worked for All Seasons Logging and Tree Service, “got carried away” and ended up cutting down trees on the neighboring property.

Rogers later delivered his neighbor a check for $30,000, unprompted, according to court documents.

Array of ‘stolen’ black walnut trees worth more than $100K

The neighbor hired a third-party company, Geode Forestry, to appraise the trees that had been cut down, according to a warrant application. The company identified 132 total tree stumps, including 117 “high-value Black Walnut” trees that appeared to have been recently cut down.

Geode Forestry allegedly estimated that the total value of the trees was about $109,000.

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Rogers allegedly sold the logs for $98,400 to a local lumber company, receiving about $59,000, according to court documents. The amount is roughly 60% of the total sale price, which an Iowa Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer noted in court documents is “a common industry split between landowner and logger.”

Rogers allegedly paid his neighbor nearly $90,000 less than the estimated value of the trees.

Logging company allegedly ‘knocked down’ fence to enter neighbor’s land

A local engineering firm canvassed Rogers’ property and his neighbor’s land in May, discovering that “no trees were removed south of the fence-line,” which housed Rogers’ land. The firm discovered that 16 feet of fencing was knocked down along the property line “where equipment entered (the neighbor’s) property from Rogers’s property.”

The Johnson County Sherrif’s Office sent out a release on Thursday, Aug. 28, saying they believe Rogers “falsely and fraudulently” told the tree service that he owned the land and the trees, “subsequently failing to honestly account for the timber to their owner.”

It’s illegal in Iowa to harvest trees from state land without DNR approval.

Rogers posted his $10,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 12.

Tree theft is a rising crime in Iowa

According to an Iowa Capitol Dispatch report from 2023, people stealing trees from public and private land in Iowa is on the rise.

The crimes vary, but the payout can be lucrative, according to state conservation officers.

A black walnut trunk can be sold for more than $10,000.

More: Tree theft is a rising crime in Iowa, with thieves stealing them off people’s property

In October 2022, two DNR officers investigated a report that someone was illegally cutting trees from the Stoddard Wildlife Management Area near Rolfe.

Officers tracked down Jason Levant Ferguson, 41, who lived nearby. They discovered vehicle trails, cut trees, branches, tree stumps and limbs.

Ferguson was found guilty of felony theft and 50 timber violations for stealing trees. He was fined $25,000 and did not serve jail time.

Iowa Capital Dispatch contributed to this article.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa man allegedly cut down, sold $109K worth of his neighbor’s trees