Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Winston-Salem regulates trees on public property and does not require a permit to remove a healthy tree on your own land. City Code Article XI states its purpose as regulating trees "within the City of Winston-Salem rights-of-way or on any City of Winston-Salem property," and the only private-property section, Sec. 74-301, is a nuisance provision - it lets the city make you deal with an unsafe or diseased tree, not stop you from removing a sound one. The Urban Forestry program says the same thing plainly: "we only plant and maintain on city property and rights of way."
Size threshold
No diameter threshold applies to a private-property tree, because the ordinance does not reach one. The public-property permit requirement in Sec. 74-302 has no size threshold either - it applies to any tree on public property.
What's protected in Winston-Salem
- Any tree on public property, which the code defines as property owned or controlled by the City of Winston-Salem, including rights-of-way
- Trees in the public right-of-way whose root systems extend onto private property - the ordinance names protecting those root systems as an explicit purpose
How to apply in Winston-Salem
- 1
This applies only to a tree on public property; there is no application for a tree in your own yard.
- 2
File a permit application with the assistant city manager for public works or designee not less than 48 hours before the work is to begin.
- 3
For a removal, the application must state the number, species and reasons for removal.
- 4
The city may require replacement with trees of a species, size and placement it specifies, under the city tree replacement policy. The permit holder pays the full cost of removing the tree and the stump and of the replacement.
- 5
If the public tree is dead or hazardous and a citizen requests removal, the city removes it at no charge.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Sec. 74-304: for most violations the city issues a notice of violation and an order to correct; after the order expires, a civil penalty of $50 accrues for each uncorrected violation, and each day is a separate violation. Unpaid penalties can be pursued in a civil action under G.S. 160A-175(c). Violations of Sec. 74-301 (the private-property nuisance section) work differently - the owner gets 10 days from written notice, after which the city may correct the condition and assess the cost, which becomes a lien on the property collected like unpaid ad valorem taxes.
- Ordinance
- City of Winston-Salem Code Chapter 74, Article XI - Trees, Sections 74-300 through 74-304 (Ord. No. 4382, Sec. 4, adopted December 18, 2000).
Worth knowing
- Sec. 74-301 is the only section aimed at private property, and it is about hazards: no owner may allow a tree to remain that is "in an unsafe condition so as to affect the health or safety of the general public," is injurious to public improvements, is infected with a fungus, insect or other pest, or otherwise threatens public property or public safety. The assistant city manager for public works may require you to treat or remove it.
- The city may enter private property to spray or treat a tree infested with a parasite, fungus or other pest when treatment is needed to stop it spreading to public trees.
- Topping is against city ordinance in Winston-Salem, and Urban Forestry says so directly.
- A separate permit is required just to work within the drip line of a public tree - building, excavating, ditching, trenching, tunnelling, or placing stone, sand, soil, concrete or impervious surfaces there.
- Attaching anything to a public tree - rope, wire, chain, nail or sign - or cutting, carving, breaking, transplanting, climbing with spikes or killing one requires prior written permission.
- Winston-Salem reports an average urban tree canopy density of 47.28 percent across its eight wards, against a national average of 27.1 percent, and has been a Tree City USA for nearly 25 years.
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.
- — Any permit fee for public tree work. The ordinance and the city pages do not publish one.
- — What the Winston-Salem and Forsyth County Unified Development Ordinance requires for tree preservation or landscaping on development sites. The UDO is published separately from the City Code and was not read for this entry, so if you are developing or subdividing land rather than removing a single yard tree, call before you rely on this page.
- — Whether any local historic district in the city reviews tree removal on a private lot.