Escambia County, FL Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

The Land Development Code's Design Standards Manual (DSM) sets a tiered protected-tree system. Any tree 12 inches or greater in diameter at breast height (DBH) on public or private property, including rights-of-way, cannot be removed or willfully harmed without county authorization (LDC DSM Ch. 2 Sec. 1(a)). Sand live oaks on Pensacola Beach, Perdido Key, or in a shoreline protection zone are protected at a lower threshold: five or more stems, or three or more stems each 3 inches DBH (Sec. 1(b)). A protected tree 60 inches DBH or greater is designated a heritage tree and given a greater protected status than ordinary protected trees precisely because of the outsized benefits and landscape character these large mature specimens provide (Sec.

1(d)). The county's general residential-lot exemption, which lets homeowners remove ordinary protected trees on a single-family or two-family dwelling lot without county sign-off, is written to exclude heritage trees by name: it covers only a "non-heritage tree" (Sec. 1(e)). That means a homeowner can clear a 20-inch oak from a house lot but still needs county authorization to touch a 60-inch heritage tree on that same lot. Heritage and other protected trees also carry a critical root zone, a protected circle centered on the trunk with a one-foot radius for every inch of DBH, inside which grading, trenching, compaction and root raking are barred unless the county specifically approves the activity (Sec.

2(a), Sec. 4(b)). Removal of any protected or heritage tree requires the county find one of the listed conditions in Sec. 1, such as no reasonable use of the site otherwise, the tree blocking all lot access, proximity that structurally impairs a building, or a certified-arborist finding of disease or major structural defect.