Santa Fe, NM Tree Protection: Protected Tree Species (2026)

4(F)(5)(b) carves out a species-specific quota inside the city's broader significant-tree rule: at least 40 percent of the piñon (Pinus edulis) trees on a development site that meet the significant-tree size threshold, six-inch caliper or greater, must be preserved in place, relocated on site, or replaced, rather than simply cleared for construction. 4, effectively rewarding developers who work around mature piñon stands instead of clearing them. Not every species gets this protection; the same chapter runs the opposite direction for four species the New Mexico Department of Agriculture classifies as noxious weeds, Russian olive, Siberian elm, tree of heaven and salt cedar, which are exempt from the removal-approval process entirely when they are under twelve inches in caliper, and which the code separately bars from being sold or installed within city limits at all.

The piñon quota and the noxious-species carve-out sit in the same subsection specifically because Santa Fe's landscape code treats native piñon-juniper woodland as worth keeping and invasive plantings as worth eliminating.