Hanover County, VA Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

Sec. 5-2 defines a heritage tree as any tree individually designated by the county board of supervisors to have notable historic or cultural interest, one of four designation types the chapter recognizes alongside memorial, specimen and street trees. Sec. 5-3 sets the designation process: an arborist or urban forester makes the designation, which becomes effective only when the board adopts it by ordinance, and the individual property owner must be notified by certified mail of the proposed designation before the hearing on that ordinance is held.

Once a tree carries heritage status, Sec. 5-4 bars removing, relocating or altering it, or disturbing land within its canopy, unless the owner gives the planning director fourteen days' written notice in advance and the action fits a safety-hazard exception (a traffic hazard, disruption of public services, or danger to people or buildings) or a diseased-or-weakened-tree exception (disease, age, storm, fire or other injury). Sec. 1 of title 25 of the Code of Virginia.