Tree Removal Permits in Bethlehem, PA

Verified against Bethlehem city sources · last checked 2026-08-06

Do you need a permit?

No permit required for most private trees

Bethlehem's tree ordinance is scoped to public areas, which the code defines as "all parks, streets, and any planting area between streets and property lines." The city states the rule directly: "No person in the City of Bethlehem may perform work on a street tree along the right of way or on any public property without first obtaining a tree permit." A tree standing entirely in your back yard is outside that. The permit for a public-area tree costs $25 and the work must be done by someone holding a City of Bethlehem arborist license — which is the most useful thing to check before hiring anyone here.

What's protected in Bethlehem

Every tree in a "public area," defined at section 910.01(b) as "all parks, streets, and any planting area between streets and property lines." Section 910.01(c) adds that "Trees" includes shrubs and all woody vegetation.
Street trees, defined at section 910.01(j) as "a tree the base of which lies wholly or partially within a public right-of-way." A tree straddling your property line and the right-of-way is a street tree.

How to apply in Bethlehem

1
Confirm the tree is in a public area. Section 910.01(j) makes a tree a street tree if its base "lies wholly or partially within a public right-of-way," so a trunk straddling the line counts.
2
Get the Tree Permit Application from the Bureau of Urban Forestry page or in person at the Department of Public Works, 4th floor, City Hall.
3
Hire from the city's Licensed City Arborists list. Section 910.10(a): "All pruning, cutting, removal, spraying, fertilizing, moving, and injecting shall be performed only by a person holding an arborist's license issued by the City of Bethlehem."
4
Pay the $25 non-refundable application fee, one application per property.
5
Post the permit at the jobsite for the duration of the project. Section 910.04(d): "The permit shall be posted near the front entrance and visible from the public right-of-way."
6
Plant the replacement. Section 910.04(e): "Replacement trees shall be planted within six months of the issue date on the approved permit or as directed by the City Forester," at minimum two inches caliper, single-stemmed, trunk clear of branches to six feet.
7
Notify the Bureau of Urban Forestry within 10 days of finishing so an inspection can be scheduled (section 910.05(c)).

Fees, penalties, and the ordinance

Fee: Section 910.05(b): "A non-refundable fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00), payable to the City of Bethlehem, shall be charged for each permit application. A separate permit application shall be required for each property." Arborist licensing under section 910.10(b) is a $50 non-refundable application fee, then $25 a year for a commercial arborist and $5 a year for a property owner licensed to work only on property they own.
Penalties: Section 910.99: "(a) First violation - A fine of $200.00, or thirty days imprisonment, or both; (b) Second violation - A fine of $500.00, or sixty days imprisonment, or both; (c) Third and each subsequent violation - A fine of $1,000.00, or ninety days imprisonment, or both." Separately, section 910.08(m): "Any unauthorized removal or damage that necessitates removal of a tree on public property shall be subject to a minimum fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) per tree. Both the abutting property owner and the person responsible for the actions shall be held jointly and severally liable for the fine and restitution to include replacement tree(s)." Failing to plant a required replacement within six months lets the city plant it and bill you a $300 administration fee plus all costs.
Ordinance: Codified Ordinances of the City of Bethlehem, Article 910 — Trees, sections 910.01 through 910.99. Built up from Ord. 1853 (passed 2/18/64) and Ord. 2776 (passed 5/26/81), with later amendments by Ord. 3010 (1985), Ord. 3063 (1986), Ord. 3320 (1990), Ord. 3481 (1992), Ord. 3927 (1/5/99), Ord. 3947 (4/6/99) and Ord. 2010-34 (12/21/10). The most recent comprehensive rewrite is Ord. 2014-34, passed 12/2/2014, which amended most sections including 910.01, 910.03, 910.04, 910.05, 910.07, 910.08, 910.10, 910.11 and 910.14. Penalties at section 910.99 come from Ord. 3038 (10/22/85) and Ord. 3242 (2/7/89).

Worth knowing

The arborist licence is the practical screen on who you hire. A commercial arborist must pass an exam set by the City Forester or hold current ISA certification, and must carry General Liability insurance of at least $1,000,000, Products and Completed Operations insurance of at least $1,000,000, and Workers Compensation, with the City named as an additional insured. Vehicles must display the company name and phone in letters at least three inches high readable from 50 feet.
A homeowner can get their own $5 arborist license, but only to work on property they own, and only after showing homeowner's or liability insurance.
Section 910.11(b) allows "Minor tree work ... by the individual homeowners to trees planted in public areas on the homeowner's property, provided the homeowner had obtained prior approval from the Director." The Director or City Forester decides what counts as minor.
Section 910.11(a) puts real duties on you for the right-of-way tree in front of your house: maintaining clearance of eight feet over sidewalks and fourteen feet over roadways, pruning so street lights and traffic signals are not obstructed, and removing dead, diseased, damaged or decayed limbs.
A private tree can become the city's business. Section 910.12(a): any tree "growing upon private property or in the public right-of-way but overhanging or interfering with the use of any street, park or public area of the City, endangering the life, health, safety or property of the public is a public nuisance," and the owner gets 30 days to fix it before the city does and bills them.
After a storm, section 910.14(c) lets Police, Fire, Public Works or Parks and Public Property authorise emergency work without notice, with costs assessed to the property owner.
Bethlehem does have a Shade Tree Commission — the zoning ordinance at section 1319.01(j) requires parking-lot shade trees "of a type and size approved by the Shade Tree Commission" — even though the Urban Forestry page does not mention it.

What we could not confirm

We would rather tell you what we don't know than guess. Call the office below to confirm these before you cut.

— No City of Bethlehem source states affirmatively that a tree standing entirely on private property, away from the right-of-way, may be removed without a permit. The answer above rests on the definition of "public area" in section 910.01(b) and on the city's own statement that the permit covers "a street tree along the right of way or on any public property."
— Section 910.10(a) is ambiguous. Its first sentence says all pruning, cutting and removal "shall be performed only by a person holding an arborist's license issued by the City of Bethlehem" with no location qualifier, while its second sentence limits the requirement to "public property trees." Whether the city applies the licence requirement to a purely private back-yard job is not resolved in the text.
— The "code current through" date for Bethlehem's codified ordinances. The city publishes them as individual article PDFs with no codification banner. The City Clerk's office, 610-865-7130, is the place to confirm currency.
— We reviewed zoning Articles 1302 through 1326 and the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Articles 1341-1350) and found no private-property tree removal permit. Section 1318.29 requires steep-slope applicants to map "healthy trees of over six (6) inches in trunk width measured at a height of three (3) feet above the average surrounding ground level" that will be removed or preserved, but it is triggered only by "The development of a new principal building" or an expansion over 1,000 square feet on slopes over 15 percent. We did not review every zoning article in full.
— The tree permit fee has not changed since Ord. 2014-34; whether the city has since raised it by resolution outside the codified text is not confirmed.

Sources

Who to contact in Bethlehem

Bureau of Urban Forestry, Department of Public Works, City of Bethlehem

610-865-7073 (City Forester Olivia Teel). Permit appeals go to the Director of Public Works, 610-865-7050. Official page

10 East Church Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018

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What's protected in Bethlehem

Every tree in a "public area," defined at section 910.01(b) as "all parks, streets, and any planting area between streets and property lines." Section 910.01(c) adds that "Trees" includes shrubs and all woody vegetation.

Street trees, defined at section 910.01(j) as "a tree the base of which lies wholly or partially within a public right-of-way." A tree straddling your property line and the right-of-way is a street tree.

How to apply in Bethlehem

1
Confirm the tree is in a public area. Section 910.01(j) makes a tree a street tree if its base "lies wholly or partially within a public right-of-way," so a trunk straddling the line counts.
2
Get the Tree Permit Application from the Bureau of Urban Forestry page or in person at the Department of Public Works, 4th floor, City Hall.
3
Hire from the city's Licensed City Arborists list. Section 910.10(a): "All pruning, cutting, removal, spraying, fertilizing, moving, and injecting shall be performed only by a person holding an arborist's license issued by the City of Bethlehem."
4
Pay the $25 non-refundable application fee, one application per property.
5
Post the permit at the jobsite for the duration of the project. Section 910.04(d): "The permit shall be posted near the front entrance and visible from the public right-of-way."
6
Plant the replacement. Section 910.04(e): "Replacement trees shall be planted within six months of the issue date on the approved permit or as directed by the City Forester," at minimum two inches caliper, single-stemmed, trunk clear of branches to six feet.
7
Notify the Bureau of Urban Forestry within 10 days of finishing so an inspection can be scheduled (section 910.05(c)).

Fees, penalties, and the ordinance

Fee

Section 910.05(b): "A non-refundable fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00), payable to the City of Bethlehem, shall be charged for each permit application. A separate permit application shall be required for each property." Arborist licensing under section 910.10(b) is a $50 non-refundable application fee, then $25 a year for a commercial arborist and $5 a year for a property owner licensed to work only on property they own.

Penalties

Section 910.99: "(a) First violation - A fine of $200.00, or thirty days imprisonment, or both; (b) Second violation - A fine of $500.00, or sixty days imprisonment, or both; (c) Third and each subsequent violation - A fine of $1,000.00, or ninety days imprisonment, or both." Separately, section 910.08(m): "Any unauthorized removal or damage that necessitates removal of a tree on public property shall be subject to a minimum fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) per tree. Both the abutting property owner and the person responsible for the actions shall be held jointly and severally liable for the fine and restitution to include replacement tree(s)." Failing to plant a required replacement within six months lets the city plant it and bill you a $300 administration fee plus all costs.

Ordinance

Codified Ordinances of the City of Bethlehem, Article 910 — Trees, sections 910.01 through 910.99. Built up from Ord. 1853 (passed 2/18/64) and Ord. 2776 (passed 5/26/81), with later amendments by Ord. 3010 (1985), Ord. 3063 (1986), Ord. 3320 (1990), Ord. 3481 (1992), Ord. 3927 (1/5/99), Ord. 3947 (4/6/99) and Ord. 2010-34 (12/21/10). The most recent comprehensive rewrite is Ord. 2014-34, passed 12/2/2014, which amended most sections including 910.01, 910.03, 910.04, 910.05, 910.07, 910.08, 910.10, 910.11 and 910.14. Penalties at section 910.99 come from Ord. 3038 (10/22/85) and Ord. 3242 (2/7/89).

Worth knowing

The arborist licence is the practical screen on who you hire. A commercial arborist must pass an exam set by the City Forester or hold current ISA certification, and must carry General Liability insurance of at least $1,000,000, Products and Completed Operations insurance of at least $1,000,000, and Workers Compensation, with the City named as an additional insured. Vehicles must display the company name and phone in letters at least three inches high readable from 50 feet.
A homeowner can get their own $5 arborist license, but only to work on property they own, and only after showing homeowner's or liability insurance.
Section 910.11(b) allows "Minor tree work ... by the individual homeowners to trees planted in public areas on the homeowner's property, provided the homeowner had obtained prior approval from the Director." The Director or City Forester decides what counts as minor.
Section 910.11(a) puts real duties on you for the right-of-way tree in front of your house: maintaining clearance of eight feet over sidewalks and fourteen feet over roadways, pruning so street lights and traffic signals are not obstructed, and removing dead, diseased, damaged or decayed limbs.
A private tree can become the city's business. Section 910.12(a): any tree "growing upon private property or in the public right-of-way but overhanging or interfering with the use of any street, park or public area of the City, endangering the life, health, safety or property of the public is a public nuisance," and the owner gets 30 days to fix it before the city does and bills them.
After a storm, section 910.14(c) lets Police, Fire, Public Works or Parks and Public Property authorise emergency work without notice, with costs assessed to the property owner.
Bethlehem does have a Shade Tree Commission — the zoning ordinance at section 1319.01(j) requires parking-lot shade trees "of a type and size approved by the Shade Tree Commission" — even though the Urban Forestry page does not mention it.

What we could not confirm

We would rather tell you what we don't know than guess. Call the office below to confirm these before you cut.

— No City of Bethlehem source states affirmatively that a tree standing entirely on private property, away from the right-of-way, may be removed without a permit. The answer above rests on the definition of "public area" in section 910.01(b) and on the city's own statement that the permit covers "a street tree along the right of way or on any public property."
— Section 910.10(a) is ambiguous. Its first sentence says all pruning, cutting and removal "shall be performed only by a person holding an arborist's license issued by the City of Bethlehem" with no location qualifier, while its second sentence limits the requirement to "public property trees." Whether the city applies the licence requirement to a purely private back-yard job is not resolved in the text.
— The "code current through" date for Bethlehem's codified ordinances. The city publishes them as individual article PDFs with no codification banner. The City Clerk's office, 610-865-7130, is the place to confirm currency.
— We reviewed zoning Articles 1302 through 1326 and the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Articles 1341-1350) and found no private-property tree removal permit. Section 1318.29 requires steep-slope applicants to map "healthy trees of over six (6) inches in trunk width measured at a height of three (3) feet above the average surrounding ground level" that will be removed or preserved, but it is triggered only by "The development of a new principal building" or an expansion over 1,000 square feet on slopes over 15 percent. We did not review every zoning article in full.
— The tree permit fee has not changed since Ord. 2014-34; whether the city has since raised it by resolution outside the codified text is not confirmed.