Walton County, FL Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

01(D) bars the placement or use of non-native, noxious, invasive plants anywhere a landscape plan is required under Walton County's Land Development Code. Rather than printing its own species list, the county incorporates two outside references by name: plants identified as prohibited, exotic, invasive, or noxious by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council on its published Invasive Plant Species List, and any species otherwise prohibited by the University of Florida IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Paragraph (D)(1) goes further than a simple planting ban: every site environmental assessment submitted with a development application must identify prohibited plants and exotic species already growing on the parcel, and the accompanying landscape plan must include their removal from landscaped areas, both before development begins and as it proceeds.

01(B) exempts a single-family home or duplex used as a residence from the landscaping chapter, so an individual homeowner is not compelled under this section to remove invasive plants from an existing yard. Commercial sites, multifamily developments, and residential subdivisions submitting for development order review, however, must clear the site of listed invasive species as part of the approved landscape plan.