Caddo Parish, LA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Article 10 of the Caddo Parish Unified Development Code sets standards for trees planted, maintained, and removed on street rights-of-way and other public grounds, and Section 10.5.B is the operative rule for removal. It starts from a default prohibition: trees cannot be taken out of a right-of-way or public ground without approval from the Parish Public Works Department. That default has one built-in exception for parish employees, who may remove a tree without going through the approval process when it is necessary to complete emergency repairs to sewer or water systems or to alleviate flooding or another emergency.

On top of the general approval requirement, the section adds a permit trigger tied to size: a tree removal permit is specifically required to remove any tree that measures 30 inches or larger in caliper, meaning the diameter of the trunk. The surrounding provisions in the same article reinforce how seriously the parish treats public trees: Section 10.5.C makes it a violation to damage, destroy, or mutilate any tree on a right-of-way or public ground, or to attach ropes, wires, signs, posters, or handbills to one, and Section 10.5.E reserves the parish's own right to plant, prune, maintain, or remove trees on public grounds when they interfere with street lighting, block sight lines to a traffic control device, or need attention to preserve the symmetry of public grounds.

Storm-damaged trees needing impractical pruning are exempted from the article under Section 10.5.G, and public utilities keep the right to prune or remove trees encroaching on their electric, telephone, cable, gas, sewer, or water lines under Section 10.5.H. This tree removal standard applies to the right-of-way and other public grounds; it does not, on its own text, regulate removal of trees on private residential lots.