Boston, MA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

L. Chapter 87, and city property trees on parkland, school, or other city-owned grounds, with separate rules for each. For public shade trees, anyone wanting to cut, trim, or remove one must submit a written request to the Parks and Recreation Department and get the Tree Warden's written approval before touching the tree; the Tree Warden weighs tree health and size, growing conditions, and whether construction plans could avoid removal. The Tree Warden can attach conditions to an approval, such as requiring a certified arborist to do the work or ordering site clean-up after removal.

If a healthy tree is removed with approval, the applicant must plant a replacement at or near the same location, never in a different neighborhood, sized and species-approved by the Tree Warden, and warranty it for at least two years. When on-site replacement isn't feasible, the applicant instead pays $550 per caliper inch of the removed tree's diameter at breast height into the Fund for Parks and Recreation, a fee the Department revisits every three years. L. Chapter 87, Section 5 without triggering the replacement requirement.

City property trees, by contrast, generally cannot be cut, trimmed, or removed at all without a noticed public meeting or hearing, reflecting the ordinance's 2023 overhaul (Ord. 2023 c. 14) aimed at protecting the city's tree canopy in environmental-justice neighborhoods where canopy is thinnest.