Riverside County, CA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Unincorporated Riverside County does not impose a blanket permit for removing ordinary, non-native trees on private residential property below the protected-elevation band. However, County Ordinance 559 regulates the removal of living native trees: no person may remove a living native tree on a parcel greater than one-half acre in size, located above 5,000 feet in elevation within the unincorporated county, without first obtaining a permit from the Planning Department. Applications require a filing fee and a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) environmental assessment. This protects higher-elevation mountain communities (such as the Idyllwild and San Bernardino-front areas) where native conifers and hardwoods are ecologically important. Oak trees are separately addressed under the County's Oak Tree Management Guidelines, which require protecting oaks and their dripline-defined protected zones during development; encroachment or removal during projects can require mitigation or conservation easements. Trees in the public right-of-way or on public land may not be removed without county authorization, and removal there is limited to circumstances such as disease, hazard, or utility conflicts. Note that fire-hazard abatement under Ordinances 695 and 772 can compel removal of dead, dying, or hazardous trees and orchard/grove trees as part of defensible-space and weed-abatement requirements, separate from the native-tree protections.