Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Birmingham has no tree removal permit for private property and no diameter threshold anywhere in its code. The chapter actually titled "Trees and Shrubs" is not a permit scheme at all - it is a vandalism offense that protects trees from people other than their owner, a set of cleanup duties on tree services, and the rules for selling Christmas trees. The tree requirements in the zoning ordinance attach to development review, and by their own terms apply only when a master development plan or final site plan is submitted, which an ordinary homeowner taking down a back yard tree never files. Two things still reach you: you must remove dead or dangerous limbs overhanging a street, and any tree service you hire has reporting duties about the debris it leaves.
Size threshold
None. No diameter, caliper or height threshold triggers a removal permit anywhere in the General Code or the zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance defines the terms without attaching a removal permit to them: "Caliper. Tree trunk diameter measured six inches above ground for trees with up to a four inch caliper" and "D.B.H. Acronym for diameter at breast height; diameter of tree measured at 4.5 feet."
What's protected in Birmingham
- Trees belonging to someone else, which is what Section 6-5-1 is really about. "No person shall, without proper authority, willfully or maliciously cut down or destroy or remove, steal or injure any tree, plant or shrub, planted or preserved for shade or ornament in any public street or square or in any yard, ground or park belonging to the city or to any individual inhabitant of the city, or remove therefrom any substance, earth, dirt or turf." Note the phrase "without proper authority" and the inclusion of yards belonging to "any individual inhabitant" - this is the provision that stops a neighbor or a contractor from cutting your tree, not one that stops you.
- Trees counted toward a landscape plan on a development site. Zoning Ordinance Title 1, Chapter 6, Section 6: "A tree protection plan is required for all plans where existing trees are counted toward landscaping totals," and "Any qualifying tree that is damaged or dies after the Tree Protection Plan has been developed and approved shall be replaced by a tree approved by the City Landscape Architect."
- Trees overhanging a street or right-of-way, which carry a duty to cut rather than a permit to cut. Zoning Ordinance Title 1, Chapter 6, Article I, Section 8(D): "Tree and other plantings shall not be allowed to become a public nuisance. The owner of any tree overhanging any street or right-of-way within the city shall remove all dead, diseased or dangerous trees, or broken or decayed limbs which constitute a menace to the safety of the public."
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- No tree removal permit exists, so no fee is published for one. The only tree-related fee in the General Code is Section 6-5-11, which charges 10 dollars for a permit to sell Christmas trees and refunds it under Section 6-5-12 if the lot is certified clean within six days after December 25.
- Penalties
- No penalty attaches to removing your own tree, because no permit is required. Section 6-5-1 offenses are prosecuted as general Code violations. The zoning ordinance requires replacement rather than a fine where a protected tree on an approved Tree Protection Plan is lost: the tree "shall be replaced by a tree approved by the City Landscape Architect."
- Ordinance
- The General Code of the City of Birmingham, Title 6 (Health and Environmental Control), Chapter 5 (Trees and Shrubs), Sections 6-5-1 through 6-5-14, derived from Code 1964 Sections 53-1 through 53-8 and carried into Code 1980 unchanged. The chapter carries a state law reference to Code of Ala. 1975, Section 9-13-21, on cutting or mutilating trees. Separately, City of Birmingham Zoning Ordinance, Title 1, Chapter 6 (Landscaping, Buffering and Screening), July 2026 edition; Birmingham passed its first zoning ordinance August 4, 1926. IMPORTANT CURRENCY WARNING: the Municode edition of the General Code is codified only through Ordinance No. 20-107, enacted June 29, 2020 (Supp. No. 3), so any tree ordinance Birmingham may have adopted in the six years since would not appear there. The zoning ordinance, by contrast, is a current July 2026 edition.
Worth knowing
- The tree service you hire has paperwork duties you should know about, because they are about your address. Section 6-5-3: "Every person engaged in the business of tree surgery work shall remove to a city dump any waste cuttings, trimmings, prunings or cut trees which that person has cut or has had cut in carrying on that business." Section 6-5-4 then requires that person to file daily, in writing, with the superintendent of streets and sanitation "the street address or legal description of any land upon which that person did any tree surgery work in the city during the previous day and from which that person failed to remove to a city dump any cuttings," together with the name of the person for whom the work was performed.
- "Tree surgery work" is defined broadly at Section 6-5-2 as "the work of cutting, trimming, pruning or removing trees or shrubs in any manner whatsoever," so the duty attaches to a pruning visit as much as a removal.
- The zoning landscaping chapter is triggered by an application, not by a chainsaw. Title 1, Chapter 6, Section 3: "A landscape plan shall accompany any application for master development plan or final site plan approval unless exempted by Section 7, Exceptions of this chapter." Section 7 then exempts "Improvements or repairs to interior and exterior features, such as painting and roofing of existing structures."
- Where the zoning code does reach residential lots, it exempts the smallest ones by name. Title 1, Chapter 6, Article I, Section 7(I) applies a 5 percent lot landscaping requirement in a list of districts "excluding single-family and two-family dwellings," and Section 8(B) excludes "landscaping planted on single-family or two-family residential property" from the watering requirement.
- The zoning ordinance points to two General Code sections for hazardous trees - Sections 2-5-320 and 2-5-321 - describing them as ordinances "regulating trees that constitute a hazard to life and property, or harbor insects or disease which constitutes a potential threat to other trees within the city."
- Birmingham does not license arborists or tree services as such. The General Code tree chapter imposes duties on people "engaged in the business of tree surgery work" without requiring them to hold a tree-specific license first. Any general city business license obligation is separate. Where there is no trade license, the vetting is entirely yours.
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.
- — Whether Birmingham has adopted any tree ordinance since June 29, 2020. This is the single biggest gap in this entry. The Municode edition of the General Code is codified only through Ordinance No. 20-107 of that date, and no more current consolidated General Code was found. Call 311 or the City Clerk before relying on the absence of a permit requirement.
- — The full text of General Code Sections 2-5-320 and 2-5-321. The zoning ordinance cites them by number as the hazardous and diseased tree provisions, but they sit in a title of the General Code that was not read in full here.
- — Whether Birmingham historic districts add tree or landscape review. Birmingham has locally designated historic districts and a design review process, and in every other Alabama city examined the historic district is exactly where private tree rules appear. No Birmingham historic district tree provision was located either way, so this is an open question rather than a negative finding.
- — Whether the Section 6-5-4 daily reporting duty is actually administered. The section names a "superintendent of streets and sanitation," a title that may no longer exist under the current Department of Public Works organization.
- — A street address and direct email for the Horticulture and Urban Forestry Division. Neither is published on the division page.
- — Whether any fee applies to a Tree Protection Plan reviewed as part of development approval.
Sources
- Birmingham General Code Title 6, ch. 5 - Trees and Shrubs (Municode API, product 10444)
- City of Birmingham Zoning Ordinance, July 2026 edition (PDF)
- City of Birmingham - Zoning Ordinance page (Planning, Engineering and Permits)
- City of Birmingham - Horticulture and Urban Forestry Division, Department of Public Works