Minnehaha County, SD Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

A heritage-tree (or 'landmark', 'significant', or 'specimen') ordinance typically protects individual trees above a diameter threshold (e.g., 30-inch DBH) or of designated species (e.g., bur oak, cottonwood) from removal without special review. Minnehaha County has enacted no such ordinance. The county Code of Ordinances published at minnehahacounty.gov/residents/countyOrdinances lists only: Control/Regulation of Parks, Rural Addressing, the 2004 Revised Public Nuisance Ordinance, the Obstructions of Highway Right-of-Ways ordinance, the County Zoning Ordinance, the Subdivision Regulations, the Floodplain Management Ordinance, the Solid Waste Ordinance, the Animal Control Ordinance, and the Fireworks Ordinance — none mention heritage or landmark trees. The 1990 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Minnehaha County does require Planned Development applicants to identify 'natural features' worth retaining (e.g., PD-3 Willow Ridge Estates: 'Natural features in the subarea shall be retained to the greatest extent possible'), but that is a discretionary site-plan standard applied during PD approval, not an across-the-board heritage-tree protection. Statewide, SDCL §41-1 (Game, Fish, and Parks) and SDCL Chapter 41-15 (state parks) protect trees only on state-owned land. Inside Sioux Falls city limits, the Sioux Falls Forestry Division maintains the city's public-tree inventory and replaces approximately 2,500 boulevard trees as part of the post-emerald-ash-borer reforestation grant (USDA-funded, beginning 2026), but there is no Sioux Falls heritage-tree ordinance either.