Doña Ana County, NM Invasive Plant Rules: Tree-of-Heaven Removal (2026)

' Tree of Heaven sits at the top of that table with the entry 'Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima, invasive, water seeking roots,' the same notation the County gives fellow prohibited species like Giant Cane and Salt Cedar. The species earns that flag for a reason familiar to anyone who has dealt with it in the Rio Grande valley: it spreads aggressively by root suckers and chases irrigation and drainage water, exactly the 'water seeking roots' problem the appendix calls out. Section 350-507D(10) of the Unified Development Code is what makes that listing binding rather than advisory.

It applies to every landscape plan required under § 350-507, meaning new commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily developments of three or more units, plus the exterior roadway frontage of single-family developments per § 350-507A(1). The rule reads: 'Prohibited plants shall not be added to any provided landscape area,' so a site plan that specifies Tree of Heaven for a required buffer, parking-lot island or frontage planting does not get approved as submitted; it has to be revised to use a species Appendix X, § 350-824, recommends for the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion instead. Outside those regulated landscape areas, on unimproved private land elsewhere in the unincorporated county, the appendix does not reach existing volunteer growth.