A Goldman Sachs executive who illegally chopped down nearly 20 trees at his Katama compound must still comply with a town order to restore them, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection ruled earlier this month.
The state agency weighed in on the issue on July 8 after homeowners John and Amanda Waldron asked the DEP to issue a superseding order on their application to revegetate their $31.6 million Bayside South property on Katama Bay.
The dispute kicked off in October 2025 when the Edgartown conservation commission determined the Waldrons had removed cedar and oak trees that the commission had specifically ordered to stay at the property when the Waldrons built the 15,000-square-foot home in 2022. Fines were levvied at $300 a day.
After the fines, Mr. Waldron, the president and COO of the investment bank, and his wife sent in an application to do some replanting on their property and complained to the DEP that the town would not accept the plans.
The Waldrons argued that because the town didn’t take up the application in a timely manner, the DEP should rule on it instead.
The town contended that it couldn’t consider the application complete because the Waldrons only offered to replant 45 shrubs and didn’t address the illegally chopped trees.
Officials with the DEP came out to the Vineyard to see the home in April and then this month wrote an 18-page decision that laid out conditions for the replantings. The DEP was in favor of the shrubs, but specifically noted that the town regulations still stand.
“This Order does not relieve the permittee of the necessity of receiving approval under and complying with the requirements of local regulations,” Maissoun Reda, the chief of the wetlands program at DEP, wrote. “This Order additionally does not approve or deny the removal of trees on site, nor does it nullify or supersede Edgartown Conservation’s Commission’s Enforcement Order.”
The conservation commission wanted to keep the trees at the property because they were part of a protected wetlands area and helped the area’s habitat, officials have said.
In an interview this week, Edgartown conservation agent Kara Shemeth said the town will continue to pursue tree replanting of the 16 trees.
“We still have an enforcement order,” she said.
Fines added up to about $7,800 but stopped when the Waldrons began working with the town on a new plan.
The DEP decision can be appealed, according to the order. The attorney who represented the Waldrons at the spring DEP visit, Peter Alpert, did not respond to a request for comment this week.
Ms. Shemeth said the town is looking forward to putting the issue to bed.
“Hopefully by the end of the summer we have a plan in place and a timeline,” she said.
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