Newark, OH Invasive Plant Rules: Tree-of-Heaven Removal (2026)

Newark City Council adopted the prohibited-tree list in Section 1028.08 as part of Ord. 93-4, passed January 4, 1993, the same ordinance that created the Newark Tree Commission. The section reads that the listed trees shall not be planted on Municipally-owned property, and it names Ailanthus altissima by both its Latin and common name, Tree of Heaven. The list is a planting ban, not a removal program: it keeps the species out of City parks, public places and rights of way that the City of Newark, Ohio controls.

Tree of Heaven shares the list with other fast-growing or weak-wooded trees. Silver Maple, Box Elder, Common Horse Chestnut, every birch, catalpa, mulberry, poplar and willow species, female Ginkgo, European Mountain Ash, Black Locust, Common Apple, Tuliptree, Moline Elm, Siberian Elm and Eastern Cottonwood all appear. The text covers municipal land, so Section 1028.08 does not by its own words reach a private lot.

Other sections of Chapter 1028 sit behind the ban. Section 1028.03 requires a work permit from the Director of Public Service before anyone plants or disturbs a tree in a public place. Section 1028.04 lets the Director require an abutting owner to remove all or part of a tree that, in the Director's judgment, endangers the public good, and Section 1028.05 sets the notice, fifteen-day compliance period and appeal route when the City trims or removes a hazardous tree itself. Under Section 1028.07, the ten-member Newark Tree Commission, appointed by the Mayor with the Superintendent of Parks as its Secretary, can recommend planting and removal policy to Council, which is the route for changing the list.