Martin County, FL Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Sec. 666 of Division 15, Landscaping, Buffering and Tree Protection, defines a protected tree in Sec. A as 'any hardwood native tree having a diameter of eight inches DBH or greater,' any native hardwood four inches DBH or greater, or any native softwood including pines at eight inches DBH or greater 'located in the perimeter area of any development site,' plus any tree inside a canopy road tree protection zone. Before construction can disturb the ground near a protected tree, Sec. B requires the tree to be surveyed and physically flagged, with a barricade of quarter-inch yellow or orange rope at least four feet off the ground around the critical protection zone for the duration of construction, and bright flagging where work will come within 15 feet of that zone.

Removal is not automatic: Sec. C lists the only grounds for approval, including a safety hazard to people, buildings or traffic, disease or pest infestation, thinning competing trees or removing exotics, and removal 'essential for reasonable and permissible use of property,' such as the access corridor needed for construction equipment, capped at 20 feet from the structure. A removal permit comes with a replacement obligation under Sec. D, sized to a table keyed to the diameter of the tree removed: a tree over 60 inches DBH requires 30 replacement credits, while a 4-to-6-inch tree requires 2 credits, generally met with 8-to-16-foot native trees at 2-to-4-inch caliper.

If the replacement trees cannot reasonably fit on site, the applicant can pay Martin County a monetary equivalent for public landscaping under Sec. 2, and any credited replacement tree that dies within three years of project completion must be replaced again at the original required size. Sec. E requires the project to preserve at least ten percent of the site's protected trees, unless the applicant shows the property would otherwise be denied reasonable use.