In Cupertino, severe pruning of a protected tree, meaning removal of more than one-fourth of its leaf and stem area in any twelve months, is legally treated as a tree removal and requires a permit under Municipal Code Chapter 14.18. Routine light pruning of unprotected trees needs no permit.
Cupertino's Protected Trees ordinance, Municipal Code Chapter 14.18, defines tree removal to include severe pruning, the removal of more than one-fourth of the functioning leaf and stem area of a protected tree in any twelve-month period, as determined by the Community Development Director (Section 14.18.020). Because severe pruning counts as removal, over-pruning a heritage or specimen tree requires a tree removal permit just like cutting it down. Protected trees include all heritage trees plus specimen species (native oaks, California buckeye, big leaf maple, deodar and blue atlas cedar, bay laurel, western sycamore) at ten inches single-trunk or twenty inches multi-trunk diameter. Moderate pruning of a protected tree, and any pruning of a non-protected tree, needs no permit.
Severe pruning of a protected tree without a valid tree removal permit is an infraction under Section 14.18.240 and Chapter 1.12, and the owner may be required to file a retroactive permit and plant replacement trees at their own expense.
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