Bannock County, ID Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

Bannock County Code Section 17.24.050(A) governs new nonresidential construction in the Recreation (REC) zoning district, which the county applies to golf courses, ski facilities, campgrounds, and other tourist and outdoor-recreation uses in unincorporated Bannock County. Before site plan approval, existing attractive and healthy trees with trunk diameters of eight inches or more must be preserved, and the applicant's site plan must be arranged so qualifying trees can be saved wherever possible. Planning and Development Services reviews every tree removal plan for compliance. The county allows removal only where a tree conflicts with the proposed building footprint, creates a safety hazard, or falls on the planning and zoning department's list of species excluded from protection; ordinary landscaping preference is not a listed exception.

If a protected tree is found removed without one of those justifications, the property owner must replace it with one or two replacement trees, at the planning director's discretion, each at least twelve feet tall for conifers or two inches in trunk caliper for deciduous stock. The same section requires a fifty-foot landscaped buffer, reviewed under Sections 17.52.310 and 17.52.320, wherever REC nonresidential development abuts a residential use, and one canopy tree for every fifty feet of business lot width or length under 17.24.050(C). Because the rule sits in the performance standards for nonresidential development, it does not reach single-family homes or agricultural uses in the district. General zoning enforcement under Section 17.56.030 applies to noncompliance.