Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Concord's tree article is short and it is entirely about public land. Section 5-6-2 requires the written permission of the Director of Public Works to "cut, prune, break, climb, injure, or remove any living tree in a public highway," and Section 5-6-1 protects trees "planted upon any of the public ground in the City." Neither reaches a tree on your own lot, and the code sets no diameter threshold for a private tree anywhere. The rule that can still reach you is state law: NHDES shoreland standards under RSA 483-B within 250 feet of the Merrimack River, and a Notice of Intent to Cut under RSA 79:10 for anything larger than a single tree.
Size threshold
None for a private tree. Concord Article 5-6 uses no diameter, circumference or height threshold at all - the trigger is location, "in a public highway" or "upon any of the public ground in the City."
What's protected in Concord
- Any living tree in a public highway. Section 5-6-2: "No person shall without the written permission of the Director of Public Works, cut, prune, break, climb, injure, or remove any living tree in a public highway, or cut, disturb, or interfere in any way with the roots of any tree on a public highway or place any rope, sign, poster, or any other fixture on a tree or guard in a public highway, or injure, misuse or remove any device placed to protect such tree on a public highway." Pruning is named alongside removal, so you may not prune the street tree in front of your house either.
- Trees, shrubbery and flowers on public ground. Section 5-6-1: "No person shall willfully or mischievously beak down, or climb upon, or in any manner commit any injury to any of the trees, shrubbery, or flowers growing, or planted upon, any of the public ground in the City." (The typo is in the code.)
- Trees within 250 feet of the reference line of the Merrimack River, under RSA 483-B, administered by NHDES rather than by the City.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Article 5-6 sets no penalty of its own. RSA 231:156 supplies one for public shade trees: a violation for a natural person, a misdemeanor for any other person, and liability "for all damage occasioned thereby."
- Ordinance
- Code of Ordinances, City of Concord, New Hampshire, Title I (General Code), Chapter 5 (Public Works), Article 5-6 (Trees), Sections 5-6-1 through 5-6-3. The article carries a footnote directing readers "For state law relative to the Director of Public Works, Trees and Roadside Growth, see RSA Chapter 253" - a stale cross-reference, since the shade tree sections were recodified out of RSA 253 into RSA 231:139-156 by 1981, 87:1, effective April 20, 1981. Code codified through Ordinance No. 3193, adopted March 9, 2026 (Supp. No. 61).
Worth knowing
- Planting a tree in the right-of-way needs permission too, and it is a separate section. Section 5-6-3: "No person shall plant any shade or ornamental tree or shrub in any of the public highways of the City of Concord until such tree or shrub shall have first been approved and the place where it is to be planted designated by the Director of Public Works and a permit granted therefore."
- Article 5-6 is only three sections long. There is no application form, no fee schedule, no hearing procedure and no replacement requirement in it - which is a fair signal that Concord handles public tree work as a phone call to General Services rather than as a formal permit process.
- Concord licenses no tree services. Chapter 15 (Licensing and Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Occupations) contains no arborist or tree trimmer license.
- If you are clearing land rather than taking down one tree, file the RSA 79:10 Notice of Intent to Cut with the Concord assessing officials first. The exemptions in RSA 79:1, II(b) are generous for firewood and for permitted land conversion but they are not automatic.
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 Concord has an appointed tree warden under RSA 231:139. Article 5-6 assigns the function to the Director of Public Works instead and never uses the phrase "tree warden."
- — Whether Chapter 28, the Zoning Ordinance, regulates tree or vegetation removal. Concord has an overlay district article (Article 28-3) and development design standards (Article 28-4) that we did not read in full. If your lot is near a wetland, in a floodplain, or in the historic district, ask Planning before clearing.
- — Whether tree removal in the Concord historic district triggers any review.
- — Any fee for the Section 5-6-2 written permission. None appears in the article.
- — A direct phone number for General Services or for a City arborist. Only the City Hall main line is published on the department page.