El Dorado County, CA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Chapter 12.12, Roadside Trees, targets species the County has found become liabilities rather than assets once mature. Section 12.12.070 explains the reasoning: these trees develop structural weaknesses, disease or insect susceptibility, short life, destructive root systems and rank growing branches requiring excessive maintenance. Because of one or more of those traits, the section makes it unlawful to plant seven listed species in any public highway within subdivided lands or land zoned one-family residential, multifamily residential or commercial within the County: Acacia, Black walnut, Eucalyptus, Elm, Palm, Poplar and Tree of heaven.

The prohibition sits alongside Section 12.12.050's master tree list, the County's affirmative list of approved roadside species; the Section 12.12.070 species are barred outright from the same rights-of-way regardless of whether an owner seeks a Commissioner permit for some other species. The rule reaches only the public highway frontage defined in Section 12.12.030, meaning street trees, parkway strips and public rights-of-way, not interior private landscaping. The Director of Transportation enforces the chapter under Section 12.12.040, and any person other than the Director who plants, removes or otherwise handles a roadside tree without the required permit is separately exposed under Section 12.12.080.

A landowner who already has one of the seven species growing in the roadside strip is not automatically ordered to remove it under this section; the prohibition stops new plantings, though a tree found hazardous can still be addressed as a nuisance under Section 12.12.120, with removal costs assessed to the owner after ten days' written notice.