Tree Removal Permits in Miami-Dade County

Miami-Dade County makes it unlawful to do tree removal work, or to effectively destroy any tree, without first obtaining a permit from the Department. The question that follows is what a city permit does when the city has one of its own. Section 24-49 provides that no municipal or County official shall issue a tree removal permit that does not comply with the section, and that any such permit shall be void. A city permit in Miami-Dade is not the whole answer on its own. TWQ Landscaping prepares and files these applications, and our ISA Certified Arborist (NY-6948A) produces the supporting report where one is required.

Does This Apply to Your Property?

Yes, across all thirty-four municipalities and the unincorporated county. The section reaches tree removal work and the effective destruction of any tree, and separately reaches the effective destruction of any understory within a natural forest community. Cities are not limited from requiring permits for species the county exempts, provided the tree is not within a natural forest community, so a municipality may add requirements the county does not have. What it cannot do is issue something looser than the county standard.

One thing to expect in correspondence. The county's own landscape ordinance cross-references the tree permit as Section 24-60, and Homestead and Doral both cite 24-60 or their local equivalent, while the permit section we read is numbered 24-49. Both numbers are in use for the same requirement, so a letter citing one and a code citing the other is not necessarily a contradiction.

Administration sits with the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, which Section 18A-5 makes responsible for administering and enforcing these provisions. Separately, the county Diseased Tree Removal Ordinance states that it constitutes a minimum standard for all municipalities in Miami-Dade County, and that nothing in it prevents a municipality from enacting more stringent standards. Diseased tree obligations therefore apply county-wide as a floor, whatever a city's own code says.

What Needs a Permit

Start from the position that every tree does, then work through the exemptions, because the county drafted it that way. The residential exemption carries three limits. Removal of trees within the yard area of an existing single-family residence is exempt, provided the trees are not within a natural forest community and are not specimen trees, and the exemption expressly does not apply to trees growing on County rights-of-way adjoining those homes. That third limit is the swale, so the strip between the sidewalk and the street is outside the exemption even where the rest of the yard is inside it.

New construction has a separate exemption with four conditions, all of which are required. The lot must be one acre or less if it is an AU zoned lot, or half an acre or less for any other zoning. The lot must be being developed as the principal residence of the owner-builder. It must not be within an area designated as a natural forest community. And the trees must not be specimen trees. Read the second condition closely: a house built to sell is not the owner-builder's principal residence, so a spec build does not qualify.

Also exempt: any dead tree outside a natural forest community, state-approved plant nurseries and botanical gardens, and bona fide groves and tree nurseries, except in a natural forest community or where specimen trees are affected. Against all of it, remember that a municipality can still require a permit where the county exempts one. Bay Harbor Islands does exactly that, requiring a town permit for single-family and two-family sites the county exemption would otherwise release.

What It Costs

Replacement is the number that decides a budget in Miami-Dade, and the county calculates it by canopy area rather than by counting trees or measuring trunk inches. The Department establishes existing canopy coverage from aerial photography, on-site inspection or a tree survey, determines the impact area meaning the existing canopy the project will affect, and converts that area into trees. A Shade Tree 1 compensates for 500 square feet, a Shade Tree 2 for 300, a Palm Tree 1 for 300, a Palm Tree 2 for 100 and a Small Tree for 200. Any combination is acceptable provided the totals compensate for the canopy lost.

Two things move that arithmetic. Removal of a specimen tree carries replacement requirements twice those the section otherwise specifies. And planting larger stock reduces the count, because where a replacement tree actually has more canopy coverage at planting than the formula credits, the applicant receives full credit for the canopy the tree provides. Where the site cannot hold the required trees, the applicant plants off site with Departmental approval, or as a last alternative makes an equitable contribution to the Miami-Dade County Tree Trust Fund. Two thresholds change the paperwork rather than the cost: more than twenty replacement trees, or a replacement canopy area exceeding 10,000 square feet, requires a landscape replacement plan approved before the removal permit will issue.

Replacement inside a natural forest community runs on a different and much heavier scale. For pinelands, each additional half acre cleared requires fifty replacement slash pines, plus 626 or 676 pineland understory and ground cover plants depending on which size standard the pines meet, prorated below half an acre, with species diversity maximized and an eighty percent survival rate guaranteed after one year. A contribution to the Tree Trust Fund equal to plant, installation labor and survival guarantee costs is available as an alternative. That scale is the reason natural forest community status is worth establishing before a site is priced rather than after.

Two defined routes reduce the obligation and both are worth knowing. Where an applicant is in doubt whether a site can sufficiently accommodate the number and species of replacement trees required, the applicant submits a statement prepared by a landscape architect registered in the State of Florida, and on receipt of that statement the Department reevaluates its initial determination and issues a revised one. A written professional opinion compels a second look rather than merely inviting one. Separately, where the Director determines that a tree located in the right-of-way and adjacent to single-family residential property is causing damage to a home, accessory building, pool, septic tank or other structure on that property, replacement is no more than one for one, replacement trees are not subject to any requirement for minimum height at planting or canopy replacement, no contribution to the Tree Trust Fund may be required, and the permit fee is $100.00 or less. Palm trees may not be used to satisfy that replacement.

The ordinary permit fee is not in the code and cannot be quoted from it. Section 24-49.8 provides that the Department charges and collects application and permit fees and trust fund contributions at rates established by separate administrative order, which does not become effective until approved by the Board of County Commissioners. That is why no amount appears in the code text, and it has to be obtained from the Department. Applications from government agencies for removals in areas dedicated to public use may be exempted from fees at the Director's discretion.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

The threshold is lower than the language suggests at a glance, and that is the part worth carrying away. Section 24-49(1) does not only reach felling a tree. It makes it unlawful to do tree removal work or to effectively destroy any tree, so work that leaves a trunk standing can still fall inside it. Heavy pruning is one route into that, and a crew can reach it while believing no permit was needed because nothing was coming down.

On what the county assesses for a violation, we will not quote a figure. The provision setting out the consequences of ignoring the construction protection requirements, including its cross-reference to the penalty sections of Chapter 24, is one our review could not confirm against the published code, and we do not publish an unverified figure or section number. Confirm current exposure with the Department before relying on any number, including one quoted to you by a contractor.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Section 24-49.5 sets the construction protection standard and it binds every preservation tree on a permitted job. Protective barriers go around each tree, cluster of trees or the edge of the preservation area at no less than a six foot radius from the trunk unless the Department specifies a lesser distance, stand a minimum of four feet above ground level, are constructed of wood, plastic or metal, and must be in place prior to the start of any construction. They remain until development is completed and the Department has authorized their removal. Understory plants inside the barrier are protected as well.

The prohibitions inside the barrier name materials rather than gesturing at care. No excess oil, fill, equipment, building materials or building debris within the barriered area, and no disposal of waste material such as paints, oils, solvents, asphalt, concrete or mortar. Trees may not be braced in a fashion that scars, penetrates or perforates them. Natural grade must be maintained inside the barriers, and where grade changes enough that the safety of the tree may be endangered, tree wells or retaining walls are required.

Two requirements reach work that is not tree work at all. Underground utility lines are placed outside the barriered areas, and where that placement is not possible the disturbance is minimized using techniques such as tunneling or overhead utility lines. Fences and walls are constructed to avoid disturbance, with post holes and trenches close to trees dug by hand and adjusted as necessary, using techniques such as discontinuous footings, to avoid damage to major roots. Exceptions to any of this are approved only where the permittee receives specific written authorization from the Director or the Director's designee, so a verbal allowance from anyone on site is worth nothing.

What to Do Next

Three things are worth settling before work is scheduled anywhere in Miami-Dade. Whether any tree in scope is a specimen tree, since that doubles replacement. Whether any part of the site sits within a designated natural forest community, since that changes the scale of replacement and removes the exemptions above. And whether your municipality adds requirements on top of the county, since it may, and its permit is void if it undercuts the county standard.

We settle those before quoting. We inspect the trees, document species, size and condition, prepare the arborist report where the application calls for one, file with the Department, install protection barriers to the county specification, and handle replacement planting or the trust fund contribution where mitigation applies. TWQ Landscaping handles tree permitting for the properties we maintain across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade: community associations and condominiums, commercial and industrial sites, medical and senior living campuses, schools, religious campuses, hotels, multifamily rental, self-storage, dealerships, retail outparcels, marinas, mobile home communities, municipal grounds and mixed-use. Call (954) 583-4752 or request a proposal.

The information presented on this page was accurate as of 27 August 2026.

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