Macon-Bibb County, GA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Section 17-35 of the Tree Preservation, Protection and Replacement article requires a property owner adjacent to county-owned property or a public right-of-way to obtain the forester's approval before removing, transporting, destroying, breaking, cutting, spraying, defacing or otherwise disturbing any tree located on that adjacent public property or within its tree protection zone. The forester must respond 'as expeditiously as possible,' but in any event within sixty days; if the forester misses that deadline, the request is presumed approved unless the applicant is otherwise informed. This authority reaches beyond removal alone: the same section bars attaching signs or ropes to public trees, placing stone or cement near their root systems, or planting new trees in rights-of-way, all without forester sign-off.

Once a tree covered by the article is removed, Section 17-36 requires replacement using caliper or diameter as the mitigation factor set by the county's Arboricultural Specifications Manual, with aggregate replacement caliper matching the removed tree's total diameter, and Section 17-38 lets the forester issue a written notice giving fifteen days to correct a violation before a summons issues. This protection is explicitly limited by Section 17-31's jurisdiction clause to public rights-of-way and county-owned property; it does not create a permit requirement for removing trees on strictly private residential land outside those zones.