Burlington, Ont.—Dec. 22, 2025—The City of Burlington has amended its Public Tree Bylaw to align with the Private Tree By-law and industry best practices.  

Public trees refer to those located on City property, such as road allowances, parks, creek blocks, and boulevards. The Public Tree Bylaw applies to any work around public trees, such as construction, landscaping, utility work, development, or other maintenance activities.

The focus of the amendments is to ensure regulations reflect modern urban forestry practices and reduce overall forestry operating costs. The changes also align the Public Tree Bylaw with the City’s Private Tree Bylaw, which was updated in 2022.

Key changes to the Public Tree Bylaw include:

More accurate tree valuation

The updated bylaw adopts the trunk formula technique, a widely accepted industry standard for determining the appraised value of a tree. This approach considers the tree’s size and condition when calculating the cost of removing or replacing it. This provides a more accurate and standardized replacement cost than the current method.

Updated pay-per-use fees for tree services

The City is introducing several updates to its forestry-related fees and by-laws as part of the 2026 Rates and Fees By-law update. These changes reflect a more accurate fee for service as it relates to compliance oversight, exploratory works, and securities.

The updates include the introduction of a tiered compliance inspection fee to better align with the Private Tree By-law. Additionally, a new pre-exploratory excavation fee is required for applications needing additional investigation to support canopy retention. This may apply when a proposed project is close to a public tree, and more information on the root structure is required to better understand whether the tree can be kept. For example, repairing or disconnecting underground utilities, or installing a new driveway.

The City is also shifting to a tiered structure for public tree removal fees, ensuring administrative costs are applied more equitably across permit types, and creating a new tiered security deposit system to help customers better plan the costs associated with their projects.

To learn more about the City’s public and private tree bylaws, visit burlington.ca/forestprotection

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Quotes

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward

“The updates to our Public Tree Bylaw will ensure stronger protection for our tree canopy, combined with additional resources for new trees, and better compliance oversight and cost recovery. This is one more measure we are taking to be responsible stewards of our natural assets and mitigate the impacts of climate change.”

Scott Hamilton, Commissioner, Public Works, City of Burlington

“The refreshed Public Tree Bylaw gives us a clear, consistent framework to guide how we preserve, maintain and grow Burlington’s urban forest. By updating how we value and protect public trees, we can support the City’s long-term vision for a healthier, more resilient tree canopy, and work towards achieving the action items outlined in our Urban Forest Master Plan.”

Quick Facts

• The City has an inventory of more than 85,000 public trees.
• As part of the City’s Urban Forest Master Plan and Woodland Management Strategy, the City is working to maintain its current forest volume and increase its overall canopy cover to 35 per cent by 2060.

Links and Resources

• To learn more about the City’s public and private tree bylaws, visit: burlington.ca/forestprotection   
• To read the report provided to Committee of the Whole on Dec. 1: Public Tree By-law update (PWS-22-25)
• To learn more about forestry initiatives and find opportunities to get involved, visit: getinvolvedburlington.ca/forestry
• To read the Urban Forest Master Plan, visit getinvolvedburlington.ca/ufmp

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