Burlington County, NJ Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Rule 24 sits directly under the document's VEGETATION heading, right after the WILDLIFE heading (Rule 23) that bars releasing animals into park property, showing the Rules and Regulations treat natural-resource protection as a distinct block of the code. The prohibition is broad by design: it covers planting as well as removing, and reaches soil and water alongside living vegetation, so a visitor cannot dig up dirt, divert a stream, or plant a garden bed in a Burlington County park any more than they can cut down a tree, without the Board's written sign-off first.

That authorization must come from the Board of County Commissioners itself, not from on-site park staff, consistent with Rule 1's statement that the Board adopted these rules and retains sole discretion to modify or waive any of them. Enforcement runs through the same disorderly-persons framework used across the document: a person who removes vegetation without authorization can be told to leave under Rule 36, is treated as a disorderly person under Rule 37, and if they refuse to leave when asked, Rule 38 treats that refusal as defiant trespass, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The Parks System Rules and Regulations were first adopted May 14, 2008 by Resolution No. 328 and most recently amended April 23, 2025 by Resolution No. 2025-00249, and apply uniformly to every facility, structure, and natural resource area the Burlington County Parks System manages.