Bozeman, MT Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

Bozeman Municipal Code § 16.05.330.A.3 sets the trimming standards. Its clearance paragraph expressly reaches trees and shrubs on private property. All trees and shrubs with branches overhanging a public street must be trimmed to a minimum clearance height of 14 feet above the parking lane. Branches overhanging a public sidewalk must be trimmed to a minimum clearance height of nine feet. In both cases the exception is a location where the city forester determines the clearance would be detrimental to public safety, and the forester can waive the requirement if the tree or shrub does not interfere with public travel, obstruct the light of any streetlight, or endanger public safety.

The permit rule sits in the same paragraph group. No person, except for city crews or licensed arborists with which the city has contracted for tree trimming services, can trim a tree without first obtaining a permit and paying any permit fee established by resolution of the City Commission. The opening of § 16.05.330.A frames these standards as applying to trees and shrubs in the public area, while the clearance paragraph names private property directly.

Other standards apply. Dead wood, stubs, broken branches, badly formed branches, and disease-infected and insect-infested branches interfering with public travel, lighting, existing buildings and traffic signs must be removed, with consideration given to the symmetry and beauty of the tree or shrub. Topping of trees is prohibited.

A second sidewalk number appears in the weed article. Section 16.04.010 treats a tree or shrub whose limbs extend over a public sidewalk at a height of less than seven feet as a nuisance once the city engineer gives ten days' written notice. The definition of public nuisance in § 16.05.300 also covers a tree or shrub that obstructs the free safe passage of pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or obstructs a streetlight or sight triangle. Under § 16.05.330.A.4.c, the abutting property owner and tenant must maintain street trees and vegetative growth in front of and adjoining their property.