Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
The City of Waukesha tree ordinance is a public-area ordinance: a permit is required to work on "a tree or shrub in the public right-of-way or any public area," and nothing in it requires a permit to remove a single tree from your own yard. The catch is that Waukesha put its real private-property restriction in the zoning code instead. Zoning Section 22.19 prohibits clear cutting of woodland areas outright in the RS-1, RS-2 and RS-3 residential districts, and zoning Section 22.46 caps removal in the Upland Conservancy Overlay District at ten percent of the natural vegetation on a parcel in any calendar year. Check your zoning and your overlay before you clear anything.
Size threshold
None in the tree ordinance. The zoning code sets two, and they attach to development and to woodland clearing rather than to a single tree. Section 22.19: "Deciduous shade trees five (5) inches or larger in caliper and coniferous trees ten (10) feet or greater in height shall be preserved unless it is demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Plan Commission that they will unduly restrict development of the site," and "All deciduous trees five (5) inches or larger in caliper or coniferous trees ten (10) feet or greater in height destroyed during the development process which were not identified for destruction in the approved landscape plan shall be replaced."
What's protected in Waukesha
- Trees and shrubs in the public right-of-way or any public area, under the tree ordinance permit clause.
- Woodland areas in the RS-1, RS-2 and RS-3 residential districts, where zoning Section 22.19 states flatly: "No clear cutting of woodland areas shall be permitted in RS-1, RS-2, and RS-3 residential districts." There is no permit to apply for. Clear cutting in other districts, and removal of topsoil, "shall be permitted by conditional use permit only."
- Everything growing in the Upland Conservancy Overlay District. Zoning Section 22.46: "Lands lying within the Upland Conservancy Overlay District shall not be clear cut of trees, shrubbery, or underbrush. No more than ten percent (10%) of the natural vegetation shall be removed from a parcel in any one given calendar year." Normal pruning, removal of dead, diseased or insect-infested vegetation, and silvicultural thinning on a forester's recommendation are exempt. The overlay exists "To preserve, protect, enhance, and restore all significant woodlands, wildlife habitat areas, areas of rough or steep topography, and related scenic areas."
- Any tree or shrub the City Forester finds to be a public nuisance on private premises, defined as one "which by reason of its condition interferes with the use of any public area, is infested with a plant disease, is infested with injurious insects or pests, is injurious to public improvements or endangers the life, health, safety or welfare of persons or property."
- Anything over 30 inches tall in a clearsight triangle at an intersection, on private or public property, which the ordinance declares a public nuisance.
How to apply in Waukesha
- 1
These steps are for a public right-of-way or public area tree.
- 2
Apply to the City Forester for a written permit. There is no published online form; call 262-524-3737.
- 3
The Forester weighs "the safety, health and welfare of the public, location of utilities, public sidewalks, driveways, street lights, general character of the area in which the tree or shrub is located or proposed to be located, type of soil, characteristics and physiological need of the genus, species and variety of tree or shrub."
- 4
Permits expire 30 days after the date of issuance, which is shorter than most Wisconsin cities.
- 5
No permit is needed to cultivate, fertilize or water a public tree or shrub.
- 6
If you are clearing woodland rather than taking one tree, this is the wrong office. Zoning Section 22.19 and the Upland Conservancy Overlay are administered by the Plan Commission through conditional use permits, not by the Forester.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Section 25.05(1): where a provision imposes a monetary penalty but names no amount, a first offense draws "Not less than $10 nor more than $2,500 together with the costs of prosecution," and subsequent offenses "Not less than $100 nor more than $5,000 for each such offense." Section 25.05(4): "Each violation and each day a violation continues or occurs shall constitute a separate offense." Section 25.05(2) allows jail until payment, not to exceed 90 days, and Section 25.05(3) allows execution against the violator's property.
- Ordinance
- City of Waukesha Municipal Code chapter 3 (Boards and Commissions), the Park and Recreation Board sections on City Forester, Tree Planting, Removal or Maintenance, and Special Assessments for Tree Care, all repealed and recreated by Ordinance #15-76. Zoning is chapter 22: Section 22.19 (Woodland Preservation) and Section 22.46 (UCO Upland Conservancy Overlay District), both repealed and recreated by Ordinance #66-01; Section 22.45 (Overlay Districts) was repealed and replaced by Ordinance #2020-14. The special assessment accounting and levy provisions were amended by Ordinance #27-02 and Ordinance #9-14. Waukesha publishes its code at waukesha.municipalcodeonline.com; the code carries amendments dated as recently as March 2026.
Worth knowing
- The city can order you to cut, and the bill becomes a lien. On finding a nuisance tree on private premises the City Forester notifies the owner by registered mail or police delivery that it "must be sprayed, removed or otherwise abated as directed in the notice within 30 days unless the City Forester shall determine that immediate action is necessary for public safety." If you do not comply the Forester abates it and reports the expense to the City Treasurer, "who shall enter it as a charge against the property."
- Tree care costs on the terrace can be specially assessed. The code lets the Park and Recreation Board charge "the entire or any part of the cost of protecting, trimming, spraying, planting, renewing and removal of trees and shrubs between the lot line and the curb" against the abutting lot after a public hearing, and those amounts "shall constitute a lien thereon and shall be collected as other special taxes."
- You get 2 weeks notice before the city removes a living shade tree in front of your house, and a hearing if you object. If the owner objects, "he may apply to the Park and Recreation Board for a hearing," and after it the Board directs the Forester to abandon or proceed.
- Digging within 10 feet of any tree - public or private - is separately prohibited without consent. The injury provisions bar anyone from "Excavate any ditch, tunnel or trench or lay any drive a radius of 10' from any tree or shrub" without the owner's consent for a private tree or the Forester's written permit for a public one.
- There is a species list, but it governs planting in the parkway, not removal. Norway maple, red maple, elm, sugar maple, hackberry, ash, ginkgo, thornless honeylocust, ironwood, red oak and linden are allowed; poplar, ailanthus, box elder, catalpa, mountain ash, birch, willow, conifers, silver maple and any fruit- or nut-bearing tree are not.
- Waukesha does not license tree services. Chapter 8 (Licenses and Permits) runs 36 articles covering everything from junk dealers to commercial electric scooters and contains no tree, arborist or landscaping license.
- You have 7 days to appeal a Forester determination to the Park and Recreation Board, which must hear it within 45 days.
- Stump work is specified in the code: a removed tree must have "the root stump grubbed out or ground out to a depth of at least 9" below grade," with surface roots taken to 5 inches below grade.
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 zoning Section 22.19's clear cutting prohibition reaches an established single-family lot with no development proposed. The section is headed by a policy sentence about "specific site development," but the operative sentence - "No clear cutting of woodland areas shall be permitted in RS-1, RS-2, and RS-3 residential districts" - contains no development trigger. This is the decisive question for a Waukesha homeowner clearing a wooded back lot, and the code does not answer it. Call the Plan Commission through City Hall at 262-524-3500.
- — The definitions of "clear cutting" and "woodland area." Neither term is defined anywhere in the Waukesha zoning code.
- — Whether your parcel is inside the Upland Conservancy Overlay District. The overlay is mapped rather than described, and the map was not retrieved.
- — The fee, if any, for the City Forester's permit. No amount appears in the code and the city publishes no forestry fee schedule.
- — The application form and process for the Forester's permit. Nothing is published on waukesha-wi.gov; the forestry page describes the division's work and its emerald ash borer program but not permitting.
- — Whether the city currently employs a City Forester. The code says the Board "may employ a City Forester or designate a municipal employee," and no forester is named on the city website.
- — A direct phone or email for forestry as distinct from the Parks Director.