DuPage County, IL Invasive Plant Rules: Tree-of-Heaven Removal (2026)

Sec. D of the DuPage County Code, the same subsection that requires subdividers to plant one shade tree per 40 feet of street frontage, also carries a table titled 'PROHIBITED PLANT SPECIES' that a subdivider cannot use to satisfy the planting mandate. Ailanthus altissima, listed by its common name Tree of Heaven, is on that table alongside box elder, birch, black walnut, catalpa, Russian olive, female ginkgo, Osage orange, apple, mulberry, aspen/poplar/cottonwood, cherry/plum, willow, mountain ash and elm. The prohibition is tied specifically to the subdivision tree-planting requirement in Article V of Chapter 31 (Subdivision Regulations): a developer platting a new subdivision in unincorporated DuPage County cannot count a planted Tree of Heaven toward the one-tree-per-40-feet street frontage obligation, and using it would leave the subdivider out of compliance with the underlying planting mandate.

Enforcement of Sec. 31-502 runs through the DuPage County Building Code, meaning noncompliant plantings can hold up final acceptance of subdivision improvements. The rule does not reach removal of existing Tree of Heaven on private property outside the subdivision-approval process; it is a planting restriction tied to new development, not a standalone invasive-species eradication ordinance.