Bowling Green, KY Invasive Plant Rules: Tree-of-Heaven Removal (2026)

The only place Bowling Green's own code singles out Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) by name is Sec. 26-5.02 of the Bowling Green Code of Ordinances, the Undesirable Tree Species list in Chapter XXVI (Trees). The list bars roughly twenty species, including Black Locust, Black Walnut, Silver Maple, Siberian Elm, Mulberry, Willow and Tree of Heaven, from use in public areas because of traits the code catalogs as undesirable: disease or insect susceptibility, dirty or dropping branches, weak wood prone to losing large limbs, short life spans, unpredictable growth habits, destructive shallow roots, and unsafe, thorny or poisonous characteristics.

The list feeds directly into the planting rule in Sec. 26-5.01(a), which lets a resident plant a tree in the public right-of-way fronting their property only if the species is not on this undesirable list. Because the restriction sits inside the chapter governing public trees, it screens what may be planted along streets and in city rights-of-way rather than ordering removal of a Tree of Heaven already growing on private land; Bowling Green's code does not otherwise define or regulate 'invasive plants' as a category.

If a Tree of Heaven is planted in the right-of-way in violation of Sec. 26-5.01(a), the City can pursue the same notice-of-violation and citation process set out in Sec. 26-10, enforced by a Code Official under Sec. 26-12.