Tree removal permit rules in Orange County, NC — sometimes called heritage tree, protected tree, or street tree ordinances — list which trees require a permit before you can cut them down.
Whether you need approval to fell a tree depends entirely on where you live. Chapel Hill and Carrboro regulate significant trees during land development and protect their street trees, while an unincorporated-county homeowner generally needs no tree-removal permit but must respect watershed and stream-buffer rules.
Orange County has no single tree law. In Chapel Hill, the Land Use Management Ordinance Section 5.7 requires a Landscape Protection Plan and tree protection when land is disturbed, and rare, specimen, and significant tree stands are surveyed and preserved during development review; a 2010 update removed the old blanket permit for private trees 36 inches and larger, so most routine single-family removals are no longer a Town case. Carrboro protects trees similarly through its Land Use Ordinance. In the unincorporated county, a homeowner clearing a yard tree needs no county permit, but watershed-protection overlays around University Lake and Cane Creek and required stream buffers restrict clearing near water.
None from the county for removing your own yard tree outside a buffer. Removing protected trees during Chapel Hill or Carrboro development review, or damaging a town street tree, brings fines up to $500 per day plus replacement or mitigation.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Orange County, NC
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Orange County, NC
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Orange County, NC
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Orange County, NC
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Orange County, NC
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Orange County, NC
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See how Orange County's tree removal & heritage trees rules stack up against other locations.
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