DEUT1015 It is a negative commandment not to destroy any fruit–bearing tree in setting siege for Scripture says, When you besiege a city… you shall not destroy its trees [this verse]. This means not at a siege alone but rather wherever a person cuts down a fruit tree destructively, he should receive whiplashes. And if anyone breaks a useful object, tears a garment, demolishes a structure, or ruins food destructively -- he should be beaten with whiplashes of disobedience, by the law of the Sages. However, a non-fruit-bearing tree may be cut down even if there is no need for it; and so to a fruit tree that has aged and produces no fruit except for some small quantity, so that is not it is not worth troubling with it -- which would be less than a quarter of a kav of olives, or a kav of dates. So too, it is permissible to cut down a fruit tree if it has been harming other trees, or because it causes damage to other fields, or because its price [as wood] is high: for the Torah forbad it only as an act of destruction.