New Orleans, LA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Chapter 106, Article IV of the Code of the City of New Orleans, rewritten by Ordinance No. 30255 on March 27, 2025, governs 'city trees', any tree on city property or right-of-way, and 'city vegetation,' shrubs, plants or groundcover on the same land. Section 106-213 bars anyone but a department-approved arborist from working on a city tree, and separately bars removing, cutting or disturbing a city tree without prior written department approval, along with related prohibitions: excavating or filling more than two inches deep within a tree's critical root zone, attaching signs, wires or decorations to a city tree, paving under its canopy, or dumping oil, salt or concrete near its roots.

Section 106-217 restates the core planting-and-removal rule: no tree, shrub or plant may be planted on city property without written department permission, and no city tree may be removed, cut, pruned or treated without that same written permission. Anything planted on city property becomes city property and can be removed by the department at the planter's expense. The department keeps a public record of every permitted removal, planting and maintenance action. Requests to remove a city tree damaging private property go through Section 106-219, which requires at least ten working days' notice and requires an arborist to do the actual cutting.

Construction work within a tree's critical root zone additionally triggers Section 106-214's protective-fencing, irrigation and compensation requirements, including replacement at one caliper inch per inch of the removed tree's diameter.