Washington County, MD Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Section 406, Tree Cutting, directs the Planning Commission to review every proposed subdivision with respect to the cutting of trees and lets it impose limitations on the number, location and distribution of trees proposed for removal. In the Antietam Overlay District, the Commission may disapprove a subdivision plan outright if the proposed tree removal would diminish viewshed quality, applying the criteria at Section 408. Section 408, Tree Cutting Guidelines, sets the numeric trigger that governs most rural development: cutting or disturbing more than 40,000 square feet of forest during site development must be done under an approved Forest Stand Delineation and Forest Conservation Plan, both filed under the Washington County Forest Conservation Ordinance (adopted February 2, 1993) and its Technical Manual.

Inside the AO-3 Red Hill Area of the Antietam Overlay, the rules go further: minimum cutting is allowed only for the access drive, parking, dwelling, accessory structures and septic system, additional cutting is allowed within 35 feet of the dwelling, and any cutting beyond that 35-foot ring requires a Forestry Management Plan prepared by a Maryland DNR Forest, Park and Wildlife Service forester or a registered professional forester, approved by that agency and filed with the Planning Department. Firewood cutting and removal of dead trees for personal use is exempt everywhere these rules apply, as is removal of a tree tall enough to threaten the dwelling if it fell from disease, insects, wind, lightning or erosion.

This ordinance applies only outside incorporated towns; Section 104 excludes land within municipal corporations such as Hagerstown, Boonsboro, Williamsport, Smithsburg, Funkstown and Hancock, which set their own tree rules within their limits.