A Note on Trees in Road Allowances

Why are trees removed from Municipal Road Allowances?

Often trees are removed from municipal road allowances primarily due to safety concerns. There are two common scenarios in which trees are identified:

1. Resident Concerns: Residents report safety issues related to specific trees to the Municipality. Commonly the reported concern identifies large dead limbs or significant splitting of the trunk of larger limbs.
2. Regular Inspections: Municipal staff identify unhealthy or unsafe trees during patrols. Typically, municipal staff will consult arborists for assessments if the health of the tree is in question.

Trees may also be removed as part of a road reconstruction project. In these situations, the Municipality does apply effort to keeps trees. However, in some cases this is not possible or practical.

When a tree is removed, the Municipality offers replacement trees to the adjacent homeowner for planting within the municipality. If homeowners decline, the municipality selects suitable locations for planting. Placement of all new trees on municipal lands and road allowances is required to be in alignment with the municipal tree policy. For this reason, it may not be possible to plant a tree in the same location as the one that had been removed.

As part of efforts applied toward the replacement of removed trees, the Municipality attempts to plant 150+ trees annually in appropriate locations throughout the Municipality.

For more information about requesting a tree planting or reporting a damaged/unhealthy tree, please visit our Request for Tree Planting on Municipally Owned Properties page.