Howard County, MD Tree Protection: Protected Tree Species (2026)

Section 16.1205 of the Howard County Forest Conservation subtitle sets which trees a developer must leave standing, not merely try to save. Subsection (a), On-Site Forest Retention Required, commands that subdivision, site development, and grading leave three categories of vegetation undisturbed: trees and other vegetation on the rare, threatened, and endangered species lists kept by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Maryland Department of Natural Resources; trees that are part of a historic site or associated with a historic structure; and state champion trees, along with any tree at least 75 percent of a state champion's diameter or 30 inches in diameter or larger on its own. Unlike the priority list in subsection (b), which allows the Department of Planning and Zoning to permit disturbance of lower-priority resources such as green infrastructure or steep slopes if reasonable efforts and alternate siting are demonstrated, subsection (a)'s three categories carry no such balancing test in the text; they are simply required to be left undisturbed.

Off-site retention under subsection (c) cannot substitute unless the county or a developer commits two acres of off-site forest retention for every one acre of forest conservation obligation, using the same priority order, and the off-site parcel cannot already be protected in perpetuity by an easement or other long-term measure.

Enforcement carries a specific penalty tied to these trees. Section 16.1213(e) requires the county to assess a noncompliance penalty against a violator, and it fixes the disturbance of any tree identified under Section 16.1205(a), meaning the rare-species, historic, or champion-caliber trees, at a standard 500 square feet of forest per tree removed, calculated the same way as any other unauthorized forest clearing under the subtitle.