Conway, AR Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Conway's only citywide rule on damaging or destroying trees sits in Chapter 5.12, a single-section holdover titled Unlawful to destroy. Conway Municipal Code Section 5.12.01 prohibits building a fire against a live tree or otherwise mutilating it anywhere within the city, but the prohibition only reaches trees that are not on the violator's own premises and that the tree's owner has not authorized. Read the other way, the section leaves property owners free to remove or damage trees on their own land, or to authorize someone else to do so, without a city permit or Tree Board review; Conway's tree-protection permitting instead attaches to public trees in the right-of-way under Section 5.36.05, and separately to tree trimmers who work for hire under Chapter 5.16.

The penalty for violating Section 5.12.01 traces to Henry's Digest, Section 837, an old provision carried forward into the current code: conviction brings a fine of not less than three dollars nor more than fifteen dollars, among the smallest dollar penalties anywhere in the Conway Municipal Code. Because the ordinance predates the current zoning and property-maintenance framework, it does not define mutilate, set a trunk-diameter threshold, or require notice before enforcement; it functions as a narrow anti-vandalism rule protecting trees belonging to someone else, not as a private-property tree-removal permit requirement.

Anyone planning to remove a tree from land they do not own, including a neighbor's yard or an unowned parcel, needs the owner's authorization first to avoid the fine.