I recently went over to my rental property to find the tenants have taken the liberty of cutting all to lower branches off the pine and hemlock trees in the yard to about 6 feet high. The trees used to drape beautifully to the ground and provided a secluded and tranquil setting as well as blocked road noise. The quiet cottage feel is now destroyed. These are mature trees and will be very costly to replace. They also cut the middle section of an arborvitae in the back yard so they could see all the way down the street. It looks like a giant shark took a bite out of the tree.

This is the clause in our rental agreement:

(10) That the Tenant(s) will at Tenant's own expense, during the continuation of the lease, maintain the landscaping, including but not limited to fertilizing, weeding, and trimming, and Tenant(s) will not remove or rearrange the landscape without prior written consent of the Landlord. Tenant(s) will be responsible for snow removal from walkways. In the event, Tenant fails to do so, Landlord shall have the right, among others, to have the lawn, landscaping and snow removal maintained as aforesaid, and in that event, Tenant shall pay Landlord the cost thereof immediately following receipt of an invoice therefore.

What remedies or actions are available to me and the steps I should follow?

Thank you in advance.

You could attempt to sue them, but from your post they did not remove or rearrange anything. Everything is still in the same place, but trimmed back. It will really be up to a court to decide after hearing all the evidence if this falls under removing or reaaranging. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.