Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
Oklahoma City's tree permit reaches public property only. Section 53-3 makes it an offense to remove, cut or even trim a tree "located on public property" without a permit from the enforcement officer, and Section 53-74 tells Parks staff they may not go past the City right-of-way onto private land without the owner's written permission. Nothing in Chapter 53 sets a permit, a diameter threshold or a species list for a tree standing in your own yard. The strip between your sidewalk and the curb is the catch: that is City right-of-way, so the tree in it is a public tree and needs the permit even for pruning.
Size threshold
None. Chapter 53 contains no diameter or DBH threshold of any kind - the trigger is location, not size. The diameter figures in Oklahoma City's code all sit in zoning Article XI and govern what you must plant on a development site, not what you may remove: Section 59-11400 (Existing Tree Credits) scales credit from "6 inch caliper" up to "Over 25 DBH." Section 59-11150.B is the sentence that matters for a homeowner: "A final landscape plan shall not be required for individual single-family or duplex lots."
What's protected in Oklahoma City
- Any tree, plant or shrub on public property, which includes the parkway strip in front of your house. Section 53-3: "No person shall remove, destroy, break, cut, deface, trim, or in any way injure or interfere with any tree, plant, or shrub located on public property without a permit issued by the enforcement officer." Trimming is named alongside removal and there is no homeowner carve-out.
- Required landscaping on a site with an approved landscape plan. Section 59-11150.M(3) makes the owner "Replace any required planting(s), which have been removed, are diseased or no longer living, within one year or the first planting season, whichever occurs first." Single-family and duplex lots are excused from needing a landscape plan in the first place by Section 59-11150.B.
- Species you may not plant, which is a planting rule and not a removal rule. Section 53-5: "No person shall plant or permit the planting of black locust, seed-bearing female cottonwood, or any other tree condemned by the Director of Parks and Recreation." The male non-seed-bearing cottonwood is expressly excepted.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Section 53-75: "Each day a violation of this article exists shall constitute a separate offense. Each separate infraction or violation, at each different location, residence or business property, shall constitute a separate offense." For the abutting-owner trimming duty, Section 53-22 lets the Board of Park Commissioners direct abatement and assess the cost "as a special tax against the lot or parcel of land," collectible on the county tax rolls if not paid within 30 days.
- Ordinance
- Oklahoma City Municipal Code 2020, Chapter 53 (Trees and Shrubs), Sections 53-1 through 53-75, carried forward from Code 1970 and Code 1980. Section 53-5 was amended by Ord. No. 16179 on May 5, 1981. The licensing division of Article III (Sections 53-46 through 53-54) was repealed by Ord. No. 26755, Section 11, adopted May 25, 2021. Zoning Article XI (Landscaping and Screening Regulations) sits in Chapter 59. State law reference given in the code itself: 11 O.S. Sections 36-106 and 36-107 (trees generally; authority of abutting property owners relative to trees on public property). Code codified through Ordinance No. 28070, adopted April 21, 2026 (Supp. No. 5, Update 1).
Worth knowing
- Who legally issues the permit: Section 53-1(2) defines the 'Enforcement officer' as "the City official who is in charge of the City department which manages the property upon which the tree, plant or shrub in question is to be located, or the authorized representative of such official." For street and parkway trees that is Parks and Recreation, and the Code of Forestry in Article IV assigns the substantive decisions to the Director of Parks and Recreation.
- The duty runs the other way for the trees along your frontage. Section 53-21(a) requires the owner of every lot with trees "adjacent to any street, sidewalk, parking area or parkway" to trim them so they do not block streetlight or travel, "and remove any dead trees." Section 53-21(b) adds a duty to treat disease and insect pests. Notice gives you five to ten days.
- Oklahoma City repealed its tree service license in 2021 and left a dangling requirement behind. Section 53-36 still says each crew "shall have a person in charge who shall be designated the foreman who shall be properly licensed as a tree serviceman" - but Division 2 of Article III, which created that license, was repealed by Ord. No. 26755 on May 25, 2021, and the editor's note says so. Chapter 26 (Licenses and Permits) still carries a cross-reference to "tree surgeons, tree sprayers, etc., Section 53-36 et seq." This file records the contradiction rather than resolving it: as written, there is a license requirement with no license to obtain.
- The Code of Forestry in Article IV is a workmanship standard, not a permit. It bans "dehorning" (Section 53-68(d): no removal of more than one third of the tree from the top down "for any trees located on the unpaved portion of a street easement" without Parks permission) and "muletailing" (Section 53-68(e)), and it prescribes how cuts, cavity fills, cabling and stump removal must be done. Section 53-67: "No person shall engage in the business of servicing trees in violation of the provisions of this article."
- Bagworms are a declared public nuisance in Oklahoma City. Section 53-23 makes "permitting or allowing the bags of the larval moth, commonly called bagworms, to remain upon or attached to any tree, shrubbery, or other vegetation within the City" a public nuisance.
- Planting on public property needs its own permit. Section 53-2 requires the enforcement officer to approve "the kind and variety" and designate the location before anything goes in the ground on public property.
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.
- — A direct phone number, email and street address for Oklahoma City forestry. okc.gov is behind a Cloudflare challenge that blocked every automated fetch attempted for this entry, so no contact detail is asserted here. Call the City's main line and ask for Parks and Recreation forestry before you cut a parkway tree.
- — Whether a Section 53-3 public-property tree permit carries a fee. Chapter 60 (General Schedule of Fees) was not read for this entry.
- — The application form and turnaround for a Section 53-3 permit. Chapter 53 describes no procedure at all beyond "a permit issued by the enforcement officer."
- — Whether Historic Preservation, Landmark, Neighborhood Conservation or Scenic River Overlay districts impose tree rules of their own. Section 59-11150.D says landscaping requirements "more or less restrictive" than Article XI "may be imposed" in those districts, but the individual district texts were not read.
- — Whether an ordinary private tree truly needs nothing. Chapter 53 is silent rather than permissive on private trees, and Oklahoma City publishes no homeowner-facing page that answers the question either way. Silence is what is being reported here, not permission.
Sources
- Oklahoma City Municipal Code 2020, ch. 53 - Trees and Shrubs (Municode)
- Oklahoma City Municipal Code 2020, ch. 59 art. XI - Landscaping and Screening Regulations (Municode)
- Oklahoma City Municipal Code 2020, ch. 26 - Licenses and Permits (Municode)
- Oklahoma City Code of Ordinances landing page - codified-through banner (Municode)