More than a dozen trees, some over a century old, have been poisoned at a private Lake Tahoe beach this year, raising law enforcement’s suspicions that someone is killing them to improve the views from an unidentified property.

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the third suspected mass poisoning of mature pines at Burnt Cedar Beach, on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, over the past four years. The wooded beach is fenced off and accessible only to residents of the upscale community of Incline Village and their guests, through a staffed gatehouse that closes at night.

Investigators have documented 28 affected pine trees across the three incidents and believe the cases are connected. Six trees were damaged in 2022, followed by another six in 2024. This year, four were found poisoned in May, two in late July and 10 more this month, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In July, deputies responded following reports of a strong chemical odor near a large pine, and 10 more damaged trees were discovered days later, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said. The incidents have caused an estimated $300,000 in damages and while no suspect has been identified, and investigators have not confirmed a motive, officials do have a theory.

“My gut instinct tells me this is someone that lives nearby that is trying to improve the value of their home, whether they want to resell it soon, so they think maybe this is a way to help improve the lake view to get more money,” Lt. Chad McKinnon of the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office told the LA Times Tuesday.

The median price for a single-family home in Incline Village costs about $1.5 million, according to the Nevada Real Estate Group. Prices range from $600,000 for condos to custom homes between $3 million and $8 million. Lakefront estates are in the neighborhood of $10 million to $30 million-plus, the group noted.

In the August 2 incident, someone found an unknown substance around the bases of 10 trees, Paul Raymore, a spokesman for the Incline Village General Improvement District, which owns and manages the beach, told the LA Times.

Investigators found that diesel fuel may have been poured around the trees, while holes drilled into trunks suggest someone may have injected copper sulfate.

“The copper sulfate will basically slowly kill and rot the tree from the inside out,” Matt Patellos, a parks worker who had been cleaning up the site, told the outlet.

Soil samples are being tested to determine exactly what chemicals were used. A trail camera also captured a brief light near the area August 2 around 2 a.m., the sheriff’s office added.

As the investigation continued, Deputies have asked residents to turn over security footage or other information that could help identify whoever is responsible.

While authorities suspect someone may be killing the trees to improve a nearby property’s views of Lake Tahoe, the trees are more than a scenic obstruction.

Mature pines play an important role in the Lake Tahoe ecosystem, helping slow runoff and absorb nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus that could otherwise enter the lake and affect its famously clear water, Aaron Vanderpool, a staff research associate at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, told the LA Times.

“Pine trees themselves are pretty resilient in general — they’ve evolved to be resistant to beetles and disease and different attacks on them that are natural, but in this case we’re talking chemicals,” he said.

The Incline Village General Improvement District has brought in environmental specialists to assess the damaged trees and surrounding soil. Crews have removed contaminated soil up to a foot deep, washed tree bases to dilute toxins, and consulted arborists to save the century-old trees, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reports.

Burnt Cedar Beach remains open as authorities confirmed there is no immediate threat to the health and welfare of visitors despite the tree investigation.