Appleton, WI Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Sec. 21-47 of the Appleton Municipal Code bars any person, except on order of the committee of jurisdiction, from planting, transplanting, moving, spraying, bracing, trimming, pruning, cutting above or below ground, disturbing, altering or doing surgery on any public tree or shrub without first getting a written permit; the exemption covers only the city itself, public utilities and their agents. To get one, the committee must find the proposed work necessary and consistent with the article's purposes, weighing public safety and health, nearby utilities, sidewalks, driveways and street lights, the character of the area, soil type, and the species' physiological needs.

Permits are issued on committee forms describing the work, species, size, nursery grade and planting location, and expire six months after issuance; work must strictly follow the permit's terms. Remove a public tree and you must replace it with one of equivalent dollar value nearby; deliberate or negligent damage that devalues a tree makes the responsible party liable for the lost value, calculated by the Forestry Division of the Department of Public Works using the International Society of Arboriculture's Guide for Establishing Values of Trees and Shrubs.

If no suitable replacement site exists nearby or the new tree is worth less, the responsible party must pay the city the difference in value between the removed tree and its replacement. The committees also meet annually with utility companies doing tree trimming or removal work in the city to set clearance practices and grant written twelve-month permission for that work.