Lassen County, CA Tree Protection: Tree Removal Permits (2026)

Lassen County's published code does not establish a routine tree-removal or 'heritage tree' permit for cutting trees on ordinary private parcels in the unincorporated county, so a property owner generally does not need a county permit to remove individual trees. Tree and timber regulation instead attaches to forested land and commercial harvest. County Code Title 18, Chapter 18.70 establishes the Timber Production Zone (T-P-Z) district, which restricts the use of zoned timberland to growing and harvesting timber and compatible uses; the county adopted TPZ under the Z'berg-Warren-Keene-Collier Forest Taxation Reform Act of 1976, and it requires a forest management plan prepared by a registered professional forester providing for eventual timber harvest, with a minimum of forty acres that is part of at least one hundred sixty contiguous acres of TPZ land under a single management plan. Lassen County has a large TPZ acreage given its extensive timberland. Separately, commercial timber harvesting is regulated by CAL FIRE under the California Forest Practice Act and generally requires an approved Timber Harvest Plan or a qualifying exemption, independent of county zoning. For homeowners, removing a yard tree does not trigger a county permit, and defensible-space law (Public Resources Code 4291) actually directs removal of dead and hazardous trees around structures in the State Responsibility Area. Trees on a discretionary development project may carry retention or replacement conditions through county planning and CEQA review.