Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Worcester answers this directly: "If the tree is clearly on private property or on a private street, then it is the responsibility of the property owner," and its FAQ adds that "Removing a tree on a private property is the property owner's responsibility." The city's own Urban Forest Master Plan is blunter still — "there are no tree protection regulations for trees in Worcester on either public or private property." The catch is not a permit. It is that all of Worcester sits inside an Asian longhorned beetle quarantine, which controls where your wood can go.
Size threshold
None exists for private removal. Two diameter figures appear in Worcester law and neither restricts a homeowner: the zoning ordinance requires site plans to show "trees in excess of nine (9) inches in diameter," but Article V section 2(A) exempts by-right residential work; and DBH is used only to price the replacement of a removed public tree.
What's protected in Worcester
- Public Shade Trees — "No Public Shade Tree shall be cut, trimmed, or removed, in whole or in part, without the prior written approval of the tree warden." The definition comes from state law and reaches trees on the boundaries of the way, so a front-yard tree straddling the street line can be public.
- Park Trees — "any trees, shrubs, bushes and all woody vegetation on land lying within public parks having names and in all other areas owned by the city of Worcester and to which the public has access."
- Trees the city planted through its front-yard program, which go in "within the first twenty (20) feet of the public way layout on private property."
- Anything within 100 feet of a freshwater wetland, bank, lake, river, pond or stream. This one does apply on private land, through the Conservation Commission under Revised Ordinances Chapter 6.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- No fee on private property, because there is no permit. For a public shade tree the requester pays hearing advertising and notification costs plus "a fee reflecting the city's full costs," halved when the removal is needed for a driveway and a curb cut permit is already in hand, plus a DBH-based replacement fee "established annually by the commissioner of the department of public works & parks."
- Penalties
- None for your own tree. For a public or park tree: "a fine not more than three hundred ($300.00) dollars for each separate offense. Each day during which any violation of the provisions of this section shall occur or continue shall be a separate offense," plus the cost of repair or replacement. Section 28(c)(3) adds that anyone who destroys a healthy public shade tree without the Tree Warden's consent "shall pay the full removal fee and the full cost of replacement... in addition to any and all applicable fine(s)." Overhanging vegetation is a separate $25 per day.
- Ordinance
- Worcester Revised Ordinances of 2008, Chapter 12, section 28 — Protection of Public Trees (ordained October 20, 2009), covering public and park trees only. Also c.12 s.21(g) (vegetation overhanging the way), c.8 s.42(b)(2) (hazardous trees as a nuisance), c.6 (Wetlands Protection), and Revised Ordinances of 2015 Part Two Article 19 s.3(28) (Tree Warden). State law: M.G.L. c.87 ss.1-8.
Worth knowing
- All of Worcester is inside the Asian longhorned beetle regulated area — the city describes it as 74 square miles covering all of Worcester and West Boylston plus parts of Holden, Boylston and Shrewsbury. The rules restrict moving wood, not cutting it: infested or host material may not leave the zone. Hire a tree company approved by the Massachusetts ALB Cooperative Eradication Program (508-852-8090 or 1-866-702-9938), or your debris has nowhere legal to go.
- You may keep wood from your own trees as firewood, but host-tree wood must be inspected for ALB signs first, and anything infested is taken by program officials.
- ALB host species, per the city: maples including boxelder, Norway, red, silver and sugar; birches, Ohio buckeye, elms, horse-chestnut and willows; occasionally ashes, European mountain ash, London planetree, mimosa and poplars.
- Chainsaw hours are regulated and the noise ordinance names tree work by name. In residential districts, tree and brush removal is allowed only 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, without written emergency permission.
- If the crew parks a bucket truck or chipper in the street, that is a separate street-obstruction permit from the DPW Commissioner at 508-929-1300.
- The ordinance text is stale on one point. Chapter 12 section 28 still assigns enforcement to the DPW commissioner, but the 2015 reorganization moved forestry and the Tree Warden to Parks, Recreation and Cemetery, which is where the city website puts them today. Call Parks, not DPW admin.
- Worcester lost more than 30,000 public and private trees to ALB and the December 2008 ice storm — the tree ordinance says so in its own purpose clause. That history is why the city has a Tree Warden with real authority over public trees, a free front-yard tree program, and still no private-tree permit.
- Brush drop-off is at 1065 Millbury Street, April through November. Limbs up to 8 inches in diameter and 8 feet long. No stumps.
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.
- — The current ALB regulated-area boundaries from the issuing agency. USDA APHIS was unreachable and mass.gov returned 403, so the 74-square-mile figure and municipality list come from worcesterma.gov rather than the agency that set them. The city's own linked regulated-area map is dated October 17, 2011. Confirm boundaries with the ALB program before relying on them.
- — Whether a USDA or state compliance agreement is legally required before a homeowner removes a host tree inside the zone. The federal rules found govern interstate movement; the intrastate order is a Commonwealth document that could not be reached.
- — The dollar amounts of the public shade tree removal and replacement fees. The ordinance delegates them to an annual administrative schedule that is not published on the city site.
- — Whether Massachusetts licenses arborists as distinct from foresters. M.G.L. c.132 licenses foresters; no arborist-licensing provision was found. Worcester requires ISA certification only for public tree work.
- — Any city application form or online portal for a public shade tree removal. The only published instruction is to contact 311.
Sources
- City of Worcester — Trees in the City
- City of Worcester — Asian Longhorned Beetles
- Worcester Revised Ordinances of 2008, Part One (PDF)
- Ordinance Relative to the Protection of Public Trees (PDF)
- Worcester Urban Forest Master Plan (PDF)
- City of Worcester — Ordinances and Regulations
- M.G.L. c.87 s.1 — public shade trees