Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Bloomington's tree work permit covers city trees only. The ordinance says so in its first sentence — it regulates flora "on public property and in the public right-of-way" — and the Parks Department adds that its urban forestry staff "does not manage trees on private property." There is no diameter threshold and no permit for an ordinary back-yard tree. Two things can change that answer: a recorded tree preservation or conservancy easement on your lot, and a removal large enough to decrease your lot's baseline canopy cover.
Size threshold
No general threshold for private tree removal. Inside a recorded tree preservation easement the code "prohibits the removal of any tree over six inches dbh within the easement area," with DBH measured at 4.5 feet above natural grade.
What's protected in Bloomington
- Street trees — "a tree on real estate abutting a public street or right-of-way that is owned or controlled by the city"
- Boundary trees — where the stem straddles the property line between the right-of-way and your lot. The code calls a boundary tree "the common property of both landowners."
- Park trees, meaning trees on city-owned platted park areas
- Specimen trees, "any tree or grouping of trees that has been determined by the urban forester to be of high value because of its species, size, age, form or historical significance"
- Any tree over 6 inches DBH inside a recorded tree preservation easement
- Vegetation inside a conservancy or karst conservancy easement
- Closed-canopy wooded areas during land-disturbing activity, and tree cover on steep slopes
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- Free. "Tree work permits are available without a charge from the department."
- Penalties
- Chapter 12.24 sets no dollar figure, providing instead for an official warning and then "a penalty up to the statutory limit as described in Indiana Code Section 36-1-3-8, as amended." Under the UDO, violation of environmental standards carries a $2,500 fine, doubling for repeat violations of the same provision within three years up to $7,500, with each day treated as a separate violation. Illegal removal also triggers mandatory replacement: "The aggregate caliper of replacement trees shall equal the aggregate caliper of removed trees."
- Ordinance
- Bloomington Municipal Code Chapter 12.24 — Trees and Other Vegetation (scope at 12.24.000, permits at 12.24.070, penalties at 12.24.120), substantially amended by Ord. No. 2024-01. Unified Development Ordinance provisions at BMC 20.04.030 (environment and tree preservation), 20.05.040 (easements) and 20.06.050(f) (certificate of zoning compliance).
Worth knowing
- The city can make you remove a tree on your own land. BMC 12.24.020(2) lets Bloomington "order the removal of any tree or part thereof on private property which is deemed to be in an unsafe condition" or diseased or threatening public improvements, and the owner pays.
- You already have a duty to clear hazards over public property: dead, diseased or dangerous limbs must be removed, with 15 feet of clearance above any street and 8 feet above any sidewalk.
- Topping is illegal citywide on trees the chapter covers — defined as cutting back to stubs limbs larger than three inches in diameter within the crown.
- You may prune the tree-lawn tree in front of your house without a permit, but only limbs under two inches in diameter and not more than twenty percent of the canopy.
- You may not pave, gravel or remove the grassed tree lawn.
- Bloomington runs a Tree Assistance Program that pays for high-risk tree removal and replanting on private residential property for income-qualified owner-occupants.
- For the canopy question — whether your removal decreases baseline canopy cover and therefore needs a certificate of zoning compliance — call Planning and Transportation at 812-349-3423.
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.
- — The decisive edge case. The UDO requires a certificate of zoning compliance for "tree removal requests that decrease the baseline canopy cover," and that trigger contains no single-family exemption — but "baseline canopy cover" is never defined in the UDO's definitions chapter. A homeowner cannot tell from the text whether an ordinary removal crosses it. The Parks Department's guidance points the other way. Call Planning at 812-349-3423 before removing anything on a wooded lot.
- — Any fee for a tree-removal certificate of zoning compliance — it is not on the published Planning and Transportation fee schedule.
- — A downloadable Tree Work Permit form. The city directs applicants to email or call the Urban Forester instead.
- — Monroe County rules outside the city limits. The county site returned TLS errors and we could not read it — if your property is not inside Bloomington, none of the above applies.
Sources
- City of Bloomington — Trees and Street Trees (Urban Forester, tree work permit)
- Bloomington Municipal Code Chapter 12.24 — Trees and Other Vegetation
- Bloomington UDO — BMC 20.04.030, Environment (tree and forest preservation)
- Bloomington UDO — BMC 20.06.050, Development permits and procedures
- City of Bloomington — Planning and Transportation Department