Do You Need a Permit to Remove a Tree in Puget Sound? City-by-City Rules

It happens more than you’d think, and almost never on purpose. The rules here change at the city line. A tree you can remove on a Tuesday in Tacoma needs a permit, an arborist report and two replacement trees a few miles north in Bellevue.

So before anybody starts a saw — yours or a tree removal crew’s — the question worth ten minutes is a narrow one: what does your city require, at your tree’s size, on your lot?

One question decides most of it

Most Washington cities regulate trees in one of two ways, and knowing which kind you live in tells you most of what you need.

Some cities only care about trees when something is being built. No construction, no permit. Others regulate the tree itself, standing in your backyard, whether or not you’re touching anything else on the property.

That single distinction separates Tacoma from Bellevue more than any diameter number does.

Where each city lands

Seattle: four tiers, small allowances

Seattle has the most worked-out system in the region, and it’s worth understanding because the thresholds start low. A 6-inch trunk is a regulated tree here.

The tiers

Seattle sorts trees by diameter at standard height, which arborists write as DSH:

• Tier 1 — heritage trees, designated under Seattle Municipal Code Title 15
• Tier 2 — 24 inches and up, tree groves, and certain species below 24 inches
• Tier 3 — 12 inches up to 24 inches
• Tier 4 — 6 inches up to 12 inches

What you can take without asking

In Neighborhood Residential and Residential Small Lot zones, you can remove no more than two Tier 4 trees in any three-year period without SDCI approval. That’s it. Two of the smallest category, across three years.

In other zones the allowance is three Tier 3 and Tier 4 trees combined in any one-year period.

Anything above those allowances, and anything in Tier 1 or Tier 2, goes through SDCI. Removals of Tier 1, 2 and 3 trees also carry replacement planting requirements when they come out for development, hazard, death, invasive status, or obvious damage.

The current framework came in with Seattle’s 2023 tree protection code. The details live in SDCI Tip 242B, and Tier 2 species designations sit in Director’s Rule 7-2024.

The Eastside: assume you need a permit

Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and Issaquah all regulate standalone removal. The numbers differ, the paperwork differs, but the answer to “do I need permission” is yes far more often than not.

Bellevue

A significant tree is 6 inches DBH measured four feet up. A landmark tree is 24 inches. Removing either requires a Tree Removal Only permit, even with no construction anywhere on the property.

How many you can take without triggering replacement planting scales with lot size — a lot of 10,000 square feet or less gets one landmark or two significant trees, and larger lots get somewhat more, with a minimum number of trees required to stay standing. Replacement runs one tree per significant tree and three per landmark tree.

Bellevue’s current tree provisions were adopted by Council in July 2024. The provisions sit at BCC 23.76.035. Note that the 24-inch landmark figure is not universal — several slower-growing native species reach landmark status below it.

Kirkland

Kirkland splits the difference. A regulated tree is 6 inches DBH; a landmark tree is 26 inches. Both are set out in KZC 95.25. Within annual allowances you file a notification rather than a full permit — two trees per twelve months on lots of 10,000 square feet or less, three or four on larger lots, with a minimum number that must remain.

Go past the allowance, or touch a landmark tree, and it becomes a permit. Landmark replacement is three-for-one, or a fee in lieu paid into the city’s forestry account.

Redmond

Significant starts at 6 inches DBH, landmark above 30 inches. Annual removal allowances scale by lot size from two trees a year up to eight on the largest lots. One replacement per significant tree, three per landmark.

Worth knowing: Redmond is actively rewriting its tree code. The numbers above are the ones in force now, under RZC 21.72.020. A third draft of the replacement code went out in September 2026 and Council adoption is expected in early 2027, so check before you rely on them.

Issaquah

The strictest of the four. A permit is required to remove a significant tree whether or not anything is being built. Significant means 6 inches DBH, or 8 inches for alder and cottonwood. Landmark is above 30 inches. The thresholds are in IMC 18.812.

Issaquah does have a sensible emergency provision: if a tree is an imminent danger to people or a dwelling, you can take it down first and file within three business days with evidence of the threat. That is what an emergency removal is for.

Tacoma, Everett and unincorporated King County

The picture loosens considerably south and north.

Tacoma does not currently regulate removal of a healthy tree on a developed private lot with no construction. Its rules apply to development, critical areas, and trees in the public right-of-way, which do require a permit. Tacoma is running a Tree and Landscape Code Update, and private-property removal standards are an open item in it — so this is the answer most likely to change. Two caveats before you take that as a green light: a tree inside a critical area still needs review, and taking several trees at once can trip the clearing and grading rules. Tacoma’s own permit desk will not give a blanket yes or no — they ask you to confirm your address first.

Everett works the same way. Its tree management chapter covers streets, rights-of-way and city property, not your backyard, though commercial and multifamily sites can still be tied to landscaping conditions carried over from their development approval. Inside a critical area buffer it’s a different story: removal is limited to trees over 6 inches DBH, capped at ten percent of buffer trees once every five years, with three or more replacements per tree.

Unincorporated King County ties permits to clearing thresholds rather than individual trees — removal from critical areas, clearing more than 7,000 square feet on RA-zoned land, or taking 5,000 board feet or more of merchantable timber. A single healthy tree on an ordinary lot usually sits below all of that. Because the county administers significant-tree retention through the clearing and grading process rather than a standalone tree permit, confirm your specific parcel with King County Permitting before assuming you’re clear.

Dead and hazardous trees are handled separately

This is the exemption people ask about most, and it’s real in every jurisdiction here — but it is almost never a free pass.

The pattern is consistent. A tree that is clearly, visibly dead is the easiest case; several cities will accept photographs. A tree that is dying, diseased or structurally failing but still standing usually requires an assessment from a qualified arborist, often specifically an ISA Basic Tree Risk Assessment. Bellevue wants a hazard declaration form alongside it. Redmond wants a declaration with a certified arborist’s assessment. Kirkland accepts photos for dead, an arborist report for hazard.

Seattle charges nothing to permit a dead tree and charges a reduced fee for a hazard tree.

The practical takeaway: document it before it comes down. Photographs from several angles, dated. Once the tree is on the ground, proving it was hazardous is much harder than it sounds, and “it looked dead” is not an assessment.

If you’re not sure whether what you’re looking at counts, our six-point storm prep check walks through the specific warning signs — root plate movement, shelf fungus, crown deadwood, bad fork angles — that an arborist would flag.

What getting it wrong actually costs

Penalties vary, but the expensive part usually isn’t the fine. It’s the restoration order.

Cities that catch unpermitted removal typically require replacement planting calculated off the size of what came down, and the ratios are unforgiving — larger trees can generate multiple replacements each, with maintenance obligations attached for years afterward. You end up paying for the removal, the fine, several new trees, the planting, and the monitoring.

Set against a permit application and an arborist’s hour, it isn’t close.

How to check your own address in ten minutes

• Measure the trunk properly. Diameter, not circumference, at roughly four to four and a half feet off the ground. Wrap a tape around it and divide by 3.14 if that’s easier.
• Confirm which jurisdiction you’re actually in. A Bellevue or Renton mailing address does not mean you’re inside city limits. Unincorporated King County parcels are common and the rules are different.
• Check for critical areas. Streams, wetlands, steep slopes and their buffers change the answer everywhere.
• Search your city’s site for “tree removal permit.” Every jurisdiction above publishes its own page, and the city’s own page beats anything else you’ll find.
• Call before you commit. Permit counters answer this question all day and would rather talk to you first.

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