Yeah but timber isn't worth jack squat - you might be able to recoup enough to cover legal fees if you can actually manage to collect on the judgement. "Decorative" trees however can bring big money depending on type, location and age.

The difference being, a tree in the woods is only considered worth whatever it would be in lumber value. Last I saw, split hardwood was going for around $300/cd - roughly 3 14" dia trees; whereas a decorative one has to account for "replacement" cost of a like tree being brought in. So if you have a big 100yo Maple in your front yard cut down, a similarly sized one would need to be brought in to replace it. Since this is not only insanely expensive (big equipment for big trees, then finding a suitable "donor" tree) but also highly likely to fail (a big tree like that isn't likely to survive the moving and transplanting), it's "base" value is much higher; so once the treble damages kick in, you can see judgements in the 6 figures pretty quick with just a few trees.