Petaluma Tree Removal, Trimming & Arborist Services

Petaluma's protected trees

Chapter 17 of Petaluma's Implementing Zoning Ordinance, Tree Preservation, lists the trees the city treats as protected. Section 17.040 covers:

• Native oaks, including valley, blue, coast live, black, interior live, and Oregon oak, at 4 inches trunk diameter or more
• California buckeye at 6 inches or more
• California bay at 12 inches or more
• Coast redwood at 18 inches or more
• Heritage trees designated by City Council resolution, significant groves, trees in riparian corridors, trees in the public right-of-way, and trees that had to be planted or kept as a condition of an earlier approval

Diameter is measured at 4.5 feet above grade. Permits under the chapter are issued by the Community Development Department. As the code reads, the chapter's exemptions include removals not tied to a development application or permit, but that exemption does not cover trees that a prior approval required to be kept or planted, and designated heritage trees are governed separately under Chapter 8.28. Many east side lots were built under subdivision approvals, so it is worth asking the Planning Division whether your trees carry conditions before you assume you are exempt.

Heritage and landmark trees, and emergencies

Heritage and landmark trees are handled under Municipal Code Chapter 8.28. Section 8.28.100 requires a permit from the director before a designated heritage or landmark tree is removed. The code also has an emergency exemption for a tree that poses an imminent threat to public safety, which matters after a winter storm when a split oak is hanging over a roof or the street. Even in an emergency, take photos before and after and keep any arborist notes, so you can show why the tree had to come down.

If a permit is needed, the city may want a written assessment of the tree's health and structure. A contractor who works with a certified arborist can prepare one; see arborist reports and tree permits for what a report covers. No one can promise a permit will be approved.

West side, east side, and the river

The west side's Victorian and early 1900s neighborhoods around downtown hold the city's oldest yard trees: large oaks, walnuts, redwoods, and elms planted generations ago, often over narrow lots with garages and fences on the line. Removals there are usually rigging jobs, taken down in sections with ropes, and sometimes a crane where there is no room to lower wood. The east side's 1970s to 1990s subdivisions have a different problem. Street and yard trees planted when those homes were new are now big enough to rub roofs, fill gutters, and push roots into driveways and sewer laterals, which is mostly tree trimming and pruning and selective removal.

Along the Petaluma River and the creeks that feed it, saturated winter soil and wind are what topple trees. Trees in riparian corridors are on the protected list, so creekside work is one place to check with the city first.

What Petaluma tree work usually involves

• Dead and declining oaks. Old oaks decline slowly and then drop large limbs. oak tree removal or structural pruning depends on what an assessment finds.
• Redwoods near foundations. Redwoods planted close to houses on the west side often outgrow the lot. An 18-inch redwood is already protected under Chapter 17.
• Storm cleanup. Split trunks and hanging limbs after winter storms; see storm-damaged and fallen tree removal.
• Stumps. Grinding is often quoted separately from the removal; ask. See stump grinding.