CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Police say they haven't a clue why someone has spiked several local trees with nails.

• It happened in part of a wooded area at the intersection of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and Estes Drive.
• The owner wants to cut down the trees to grow new ones, but the implanted nails could stop that.
• It mirrors an eco-terrorism case from back in 2016

“This is...this is not one we hear of often,” said Ran Northam, a spokesperson with CHPD.

The trees are a part of a wooded area at the intersection of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and Estes Drive.

“It's a vertical pattern of nails, and it's just a finishing nail,” said Northam.

Northam says the owner wants to cut down the trees to grow new ones, but the implanted nails could stop that.

“It could damage the saw. The nail could fly out as well depending on where it's hit.”

He says it mirrors an eco-terrorism case from back in 2016. Police arrested a man for doing the same thing to trees in Southern Community Park. However, Northam says officers can't conclude that this current case is eco-terrorism.

“Without knowing when it took place, there's no way of knowing why or how.”

But a forestry consultant working with the owner disagrees.

“That's the only thing it can be,” said Barney Bernard, who believes the nails haven't been in the trees for long.

“Because if they were old nails, there would be sap dripping out of three where the tree was injured,” he said.

Northam says without any further evidence, the case is closed.