Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Elko has the narrowest tree ordinance found in any state so far. Its entire tree chapter is three sections long, and the middle one is an applicability clause that reads: "This chapter concerns the management of all trees located in public parks." Not streets, not parkways - public parks. Removing a tree on your own Elko property requires nothing from the city, and even the street tree out front is outside the chapter as written.
Size threshold
None. Elko City Code Title 8, Chapter 17 contains no diameter, caliper, DBH or height figure of any kind, and no species list.
What's protected in Elko
- Trees in public parks, and nothing else in the chapter. Elko City Code 8-17-3: "It is unlawful for any person to damage, transplant, top, remove, or mutilate any public tree without the consent of the Elko city parks and recreation board."
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- None. There is no permit and no fee. Consent under 8-17-3 comes from a board, not from a permit counter.
- Penalties
- The chapter states none. Elko City Code 8-17-3 makes the act "unlawful" without attaching a fine, forfeiture or per-day penalty, and the chapter contains no cross-reference to a general penalty section.
- Ordinance
- Elko City Code Title 8 (Public Ways and Property), Chapter 17 (Public Tree Management), sections 8-17-1 through 8-17-3, enacted by Ord. 673 on April 10, 2007 and amended by Ord. 684 on January 22, 2008 (the amendment affects 8-17-3). The chapter is three sections long: Purpose, Applicability, Public Tree Protection. Code current through Ordinance No. 909, passed April 28, 2026 (2026 S-8).
Worth knowing
- The applicability clause is the whole story and it is one sentence. Elko City Code 8-17-2: "This chapter concerns the management of all trees located in public parks."
- The stated purpose is broader than the applicability, which is worth knowing. Elko City Code 8-17-1 says the chapter exists "to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare by providing for the regulation of the planting, maintenance, and removing of public trees; to provide a basis for the professional management of public trees; to provide for their enduring viability and safety." That language would fit a street-tree program; the applicability clause the city actually enacted does not reach one.
- Elko's Title 8 was reviewed chapter by chapter. It has 22 chapters covering city real property, utility rights-of-way and excavation permits, the Park Commission, franchises, park lands and facilities, sidewalk cafes, sidewalk displays, and sidewalks, curbs and gutters. Chapter 17 is the only one about trees.
- Title 3, Zoning Regulations, was also walked chapter by chapter. It has nine chapters - Reserved, General Zoning Ordinance, Divisions of Land, Planning Commission, mobile home parks, Reserved, Movement of Buildings, Floodplain Management and Sign Regulations. There is no landscaping chapter and no tree preservation chapter, which is where most western cities hide the private-property rule.
- Elko sits at about 5,000 feet in the high desert of northeastern Nevada. Any mature shade tree in town was planted and irrigated deliberately, which is part of why the city protects park trees specifically and leaves private ones alone.
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 Chapter 2 of Title 3 (the General Zoning Ordinance, which is by far the largest chapter in the Elko code) contains landscaping or tree-preservation standards inside it. The chapter list was verified and no tree chapter exists, but the general zoning ordinance itself was not read section by section.
- — Whether Elko licenses or bonds tree services. Title 4 Chapter 1 (Business Regulations and License) was identified but not read.
- — Whether Elko has a nuisance provision reaching a dead or hazardous private tree. Title 9 (Health and Sanitation) contains the water code and the solid waste code; its remaining chapters were not read.
- — Whether Elko is a Tree City USA community and whether the Park Commission established by Elko City Code 8-3 functions as a tree board.
- — The direct phone numbers for Elko Parks and Recreation and the Public Works and Street Department, and the schedule and agenda process for the Parks and Recreation Board whose consent 8-17-3 requires.
- — Whether street trees in the Elko right-of-way are regulated anywhere. Chapter 17 does not reach them, Chapter 21 (Sidewalks, Curbs, Gutters) is about paving, and no other provision was found - but silence is what is being reported here, not permission.