Warwick, RI Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

Section 78-4 of the Warwick Tree Ordinance places pruning responsibility for privately owned trees that border a public street or thoroughfare on the person owning or occupying that property, not on the city or the tree warden's crews. The duty is framed around specific hazards: branches must not obstruct or shade streetlights, block pedestrians on a sidewalk, obscure a traffic sign, or block the view of a street or intersection in a way that threatens pedestrian or vehicular safety. The ordinance backs that duty with hard numbers rather than leaving 'adequate clearance' to interpretation: overhanging branches must clear sidewalks by at least eight feet and clear streets and thoroughfares by at least 12 feet, though the tree warden can specify a different clearance at his or her discretion where the standard figures don't fit a particular tree or corner.

Because this sits inside chapter 78, the same tree warden who administers removal and planting permits elsewhere in the chapter, appointed by the tree commission and required to have passed the state arborist exam, is the official who can set a site-specific clearance and who enforces the pruning duty. The section works alongside § 78-3, which gives the tree warden separate authority to order removal, trimming or treatment of a private tree that is unsafe or diseased, but § 78-4's pruning duty applies whether or not the tree is otherwise hazardous: any tree bordering a street simply has to be kept clear of the travel lanes, sidewalks and sightlines by the owner or occupant of the property it stands on.