Lassen County, CA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Lassen County does not maintain a stand-alone tree-protection or tree-removal-permit ordinance for routine removal of trees from ordinary private parcels, and a homeowner generally may remove trees on their own land. Two regimes apply to larger or forested situations. Land zoned Timber Production Zone (TPZ) under County Code Title 18, Chapter 18.70 is legally restricted to the growing and harvesting of timber and compatible uses; the county adopted TPZ under the Z'berg-Warren-Keene-Collier Forest Taxation Reform Act, and a registered professional forester's timber management plan and minimum-acreage rules (a minimum of forty acres as part of at least one hundred sixty contiguous acres of TPZ land) govern that timberland. Separately, commercial timber harvesting anywhere in the county is regulated by CAL FIRE under the California Forest Practice Act, which generally requires an approved Timber Harvest Plan or a qualifying exemption rather than a county permit. For typical homeowners, removing a yard tree does not trigger a county permit, and the defensible-space framework (PRC 4291) actually directs removal of dead, dying, and hazardous trees and ladder fuels around structures in the State Responsibility Area. Trees on a discretionary development project may carry retention or replacement conditions through county planning and CEQA review.