Toronto Tree Removal Permit: Rules, Fees & Arborist Reports

Toronto has two tree bylaws

Toronto’s tree bylaw amendments took effect on September 1, 2026. The amendments create a Distinctive Tree category for trees over 61 cm DBH and protect condition-planted trees from the day they go in the ground. The same effective date applies to a separate fee schedule for ravine (RNFP) applications. The 30 cm permit threshold for other private trees stays the same. Our guide to Toronto’s September 2026 bylaw amendments explains what each change means for an application.

Two separate bylaws govern tree removal by location. A lot that crosses the ravine line falls under both.

The same rules apply across every part of the city, including the former municipalities of Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough. Each has its own ravine geography, covered in our Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough permit guides.

Urban Forestry, part of the City’s Environment, Climate and Forestry division, runs both permits through two separate teams. A tree outside the mapped ravine limit goes to the Tree Protection and Plan Review (TPPR) office for its district. A tree inside the limit goes to the Ravine and Natural Feature Protection (RNFP) team, which covers the whole city. Cutting a protected tree under the wrong permit, or with no permit, can result in fines from $500 to $100,000 per tree.

Toronto’s tree rules protect four different classes of tree differently, and the class matters as much as the size does:

• Private trees need a permit once they reach 30 cm or more in diameter at breast height (DBH), measured at 1.4 metres above ground.
• City street trees are protected regardless of size. Any activity that can harm or remove a street tree of any size requires a permit.
• RNFP trees in ravine and natural feature areas are also protected regardless of size, under the separate rules described below.
• Condition-planted trees receive protection under the amendments effective September 1, 2026. A tree planted to satisfy a development approval, a compliance order, or a permit condition is protected from the day it goes in the ground, at any size.

Chapter 813: Private Tree Bylaw

Toronto’s Municipal Code Chapter 813 protects trees on private property with a trunk diameter of 30 cm or more, measured at 1.4 metres above ground (diameter at breast height, or DBH).

The bylaw covers removal, injuring (including root cutting and significant pruning), and destruction of protected trees. Construction that injures a protected tree’s roots needs a permit, even if the tree stays. See our guide to what a tree protection zone means for a construction or landscaping project for what a build near a protected tree involves in practice.

From September 1, 2026, the amended section 813-12 also protects trees below the 30 cm threshold when they were planted under specified conditions: a variance or consent approval, a Site Plan agreement or approved plans, a compliance action such as an Order to Comply, or a planting condition attached to an earlier permit. These trees are protected from the moment of planting, with no minimum size and no grace period. If you are closing out a project with replanting obligations, treat the new stock as bylaw-protected the day it is planted.

Exemptions

A few situations do not require a permit under Chapter 813:

• Trees that are 100 percent dead, once the City has provided its permit exception confirmation
• Terminally diseased or imminently hazardous trees, once the City has certified them (s. 813-13 A)
• Emergency work certified by the City (s. 813-13 D)
• Pruning in line with good arboricultural practice to maintain tree health (s. 813-13 B)
• Trees in rooftop gardens, interior courtyards, solariums, or on elevated podiums (s. 813-13 E, as amended September 1, 2026)

For the dead-tree exception in particular, the confirmation from the City must be in hand before removal begins, unless the tree poses an immediate danger that requires emergency work.

Send the exception request with photos of the whole tree and its defects. Keep the City’s confirmation on site during removal. A tree confirmed dead needs no replacement tree. A tree that is not completely dead gets no exception, and staff offer a regular removal permit instead, with the fee and a replanting plan.

On a ravine (RNFP) lot, the exception request goes to the RNFP team instead. RNFP confirms an exception in writing for a dead or imminently hazardous tree. That tree has to come down within three calendar days of the confirmation, with no extension, and RNFP wants photos once it is gone.

Chapter 658: Ravine and Natural Feature Protection

If part of your property falls within an area designated under Chapter 658, the Ravine and Natural Feature Protection (RNFP) bylaw, the trees in that part fall under Chapter 658 instead of Chapter 813. RNFP areas include ravines, valleys, bluffs, and other natural features that the city has mapped and designated for protection.

Under RNFP, trees of any size are protected, and you need a permit for tree removal, grading, filling, and construction. The RNFP limit on the City’s map decides which trees the bylaw covers. Being near a ravine does not.

Replacement planting in ravine areas depends on the diameter of the tree. Urban Forestry’s Tree-Based Compensation, in use for ravine and natural feature areas since November 1, 2022, sets the number of replacement trees by DBH. Chapter 813 private trees have no such table. For a permitted removal, the count starts at 1 tree for a tree 19 cm or smaller and rises by one for each further 10 cm band. Trees in poor condition, and trees injured rather than removed, are replaced 1:1. Unauthorized removal in a ravine area follows a steeper table.

Tree DBH	Permitted removal	Unauthorized removal
19 cm or less	1 tree	2 trees
20 to 29 cm	2 trees	3 trees
30 to 39 cm	3 trees	5 trees
40 to 49 cm	4 trees	6 trees
50 to 59 cm	5 trees	8 trees
60 to 69 cm	6 trees	9 trees
70 to 79 cm	7 trees	11 trees
80 to 89 cm	8 trees	12 trees
90 to 99 cm	9 trees	14 trees
100 to 109 cm	10 trees	15 trees
110 to 119 cm	11 trees	17 trees
120 to 129 cm	12 trees	18 trees
130 to 139 cm	13 trees	20 trees
140 to 149 cm	14 trees	21 trees
150 to 159 cm	15 trees	23 trees

Larger trees continue the pattern in Urban Forestry’s table.

RNFP finishes its review before it issues its pre-approval conditions. A replacement tree planted on the ravine portion carries a refundable planting security deposit of $583 per tree, backed by a signed planting guarantee agreement. A replacement tree that does not fit is paid as a separate cash-in-lieu of $583 per tree, and that payment is not refunded. Ravine-side hoarding is solid plywood with silt fence fixed to it, and RNFP does not accept snow fence there. Send photos of the installed protection and book an inspection with the RNFP planner.

A tree inside the designated RNFP area needs a Chapter 658 permit only, because Chapter 813 exempts trees in designated ravine protection areas. A tree on the same lot outside the RNFP line falls under Chapter 813. That lot has two files, one with each office, and each office sets its own conditions. This is common along the Don Valley, Humber River corridor, Highland Creek, and the Scarborough Bluffs.

How to Apply for a Tree Removal Permit

Step 1: Determine if You Need a Permit

Check whether your tree is 30 cm or more in diameter at breast height. If yes, you need a permit. Then check the city’s RNFP mapping tool to see if your property is in a designated natural feature area.

Step 2: Hire an ISA Certified Arborist

Toronto requires an arborist report with every permit application. The report should include the tree’s species, size, health condition, and the reason for removal. For construction-related applications, the report should also address how nearby trees will be protected during the work.

Step 3: Submit Your Application

Apply through the city’s online permit portal or in person at a district service counter. Toronto does not accept applications by email. A tree outside the RNFP limit goes to the Tree Protection and Plan Review office for its district:

• Toronto and East York, at the City Hall counter
• North York, at the North York Civic Centre
• Scarborough, at the Scarborough Civic Centre
• Etobicoke York, at the Etobicoke Civic Centre

The counters are open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. A tree inside the RNFP limit goes to the RNFP team, which covers the whole city. You will need:

• A completed application form
• An arborist report
• A site plan showing tree locations
• The permit fee ($145.87 per tree for a standard residential removal not tied to construction; $436.39 per tree if the removal is part of a construction or development project; boundary or neighbour trees cost $304.51 per tree non-construction and $913.58 per tree construction)
• Photos of the tree

RNFP applications need a plan of survey, a site plan, an arborist report (covering trees on the site and on adjacent properties within 12 metres of construction), landscape and forest restoration plans, grading plans and a geotechnical report on soil conditions, slope stability and drainage. Stewardship plans are added where they apply.

A construction application also needs proof that the project meets zoning. Staff accept a building permit, a zoning certificate, a Committee of Adjustment Notice of Decision with its Final and Binding letter, or a Toronto Local Appeal Body decision. Send the full site plan set, a current survey, the grading plan, the landscape plan and the servicing plan. If there is no servicing plan, mark the gas, hydro, water and sewer routes on the site plan. The tree protection plan covers the whole site and matches the site plan. Where the TRCA regulates the lot, staff also ask for the TRCA permit.

When staff cannot tell from the report whether a tree survives the work, they ask for a root exploration before they issue the permit. The dig needs no permit of its own. It is an investigation only. It must not injure the tree, and it must not double as construction work. Tell the planner the date, because staff or a City inspector can attend.

Step 4: Review and Comments

The portal emails a receipt with your application number. District staff then assign the file to one planner. Write to that planner and copy the district mailbox.

The planner decides whether to visit the site and can visit at any stage, including before the first comments. On site, staff measure each tree, check where it sits on your plan, rate its condition and decide whether it is a boundary tree. Their own rating and boundary finding are the ones the file uses, so the report has to plot every tree where it stands and give each diameter as measured.

Staff review the package as filed and list anything missing in writing. Answer every comment in a numbered list and send the revised report and plans to the planner. Review picks up again once the missing items arrive. In an RNFP file, each resubmission goes back into the queue by the date it arrives, so a complete first package avoids a second wait.

If staff cannot support a removal, they say so in their comments and offer choices: redesign around the tree, plant more replacement trees, send more evidence on the tree’s condition, or withdraw the application. A formal refusal follows only if you go ahead without changes.

Step 5: Meet the Conditions, Then Get the Permit

Urban Forestry answers in two steps. First it confirms in writing that it supports the application and lists the conditions. That email is not a permit. RNFP calls this list its pre-approval conditions. The list draws from these items:

• Any fee balance and any cash-in-lieu
• The Undertaking and Release, signed and dated by the owner in front of a witness
• Photos of the installed hoarding, for a construction or injury permit
• A copy of the approved building permit or zoning certificate, for a construction permit
• The neighbour notice period, for a boundary or neighbour tree

The Undertaking and Release is not the permit either. It binds the owner to the permit conditions, including planting the replacement trees and keeping them in good condition for two years. The owner signs it, not an agent, and a scanned copy is accepted.

For a boundary or neighbour tree, the City mails both owners a first letter when staff assess the tree and a second letter when they approve the application. The permit issues at least 14 days after the second letter.

The permit issues once every condition is met. It arrives by email with a second sheet to post. Post that sheet where it is visible from the street at least one day before work starts, and keep it up until the work is done.

Construction Permits Follow the Building Permit

On a construction file, Urban Forestry issues the tree permit after the building permit is approved, through its own application and fee. The tree permit lets you injure or remove the tree only once the building or demolition permit is in hand and that work has started. If every protected tree stays fully protected, no Urban Forestry permit is needed, and the Tree Declaration form goes in with the building permit application.

Hoarding goes up before the tree permit issues, built to the approved tree protection plan. On private property it is plywood, not oriented strand board. Mount a tree protection zone sign on the hoarding of each zone. District service counters hand out the signs for free. Then email the planner photos that show the inside and outside of each zone and how the hoarding is built. Staff approve from the photos or visit the site.

Hoarding stays up until all work near the tree is finished, decks and patios included. Then email the planner photos. Take the hoarding down only after the planner confirms in writing that it can come down. Toronto asks for no arborist close-out report for this step.

Fees and Processing

The permit fee is $145.87 per tree for a standard residential removal not tied to construction, and $436.39 per tree when the removal is part of a construction or development project, as of the City’s 2026 fee schedule. Boundary or neighbour trees cost $304.51 non-construction and $913.58 construction.

The portal charges the application fee when you file, and the City keeps it whether or not a permit issues. The exception is a file staff send to the other office, such as a ravine tree filed with a district office, where staff refund the fee. Staff confirm each tree’s category during review. If they find a boundary or neighbour tree, or the work is construction, they bill the difference. Every tree on a construction application pays the construction fee, including trees in poor condition. That balance and any cash-in-lieu are due before the permit issues. Staff take payment by a booked credit card phone call, at a district counter, by certified cheque, money order or bank draft, or by wire transfer.

Since September 1, 2026, By-law 402-2026 sets a separate RNFP application fee schedule for Chapter 658 permits. A tree inside the RNFP limit pays the ravine fee, not the private-tree fee. A lot with trees on both sides of the line files both applications, and each tree pays the fee for its own side. The ravine fees are $87.57 per tree for a non-construction ravine tree, $183.03 per tree for a non-construction ravine boundary or neighbour tree, $262.72 per tree for a construction ravine tree, $549.08 per tree for a construction ravine boundary or neighbour tree, and $632.51 for a grade alteration application involving no trees. The same by-law exempts some applicants from the new RNFP fee, including recognized non-profit and social housing providers and applicants with low incomes.

If a permit is denied, the applicant may appeal to the applicable Community Council. Community Council’s decision is final.

Penalties for Unauthorized Removal

Removing a protected tree without a permit in Toronto can result in fines from a minimum of $500 per tree up to $100,000 per tree. In addition to fines, the city can require you to plant replacement trees at your expense. From September 1, 2026, replacement ratios for contraventions are diameter based, starting at 5:1 and rising for larger trees.

The September 1, 2026 amendments also closed a measurement loophole for enforcement. If a tree has already been cut or damaged and its trunk can no longer be measured at breast height, officers treat it as a protected tree when the stump measures 40 cm or more at 0.3 metres above ground (s. 813-25 B(5)).

Replanting Requirements

Chapter 813 sets no replacement ratio. Urban Forestry sets the number of replacement trees as a permit condition, through the landscaping and replanting plan it approves. Where replacement planting is not physically possible on the lot, the city accepts cash-in-lieu at $583 per tree, which the bylaw sets at 120 percent of the cost to plant and maintain a tree for two years (s. 813-20 B). From September 1, 2026, replacement trees planted to satisfy a permit condition are themselves protected from the day of planting, whatever their size.

The permit sets the date for planting the replacement trees. Plant them on private property, not the City boulevard, and on the same side of the RNFP line as the tree removed. Once they are in, email the planner photos. A City arborist inspector then checks the planting before the file closes. If you need more time, ask the planner for a new planting date before the deadline passes.

Heritage and Distinctive Trees

The Chapter 813 tree permit applies to a tree on a Part IV or Part V heritage property. A heritage permit covers altering or demolishing a building or structure, so a heritage review applies only when the work does that. Chapter 813 bars a permit for a Heritage Tree, meaning a tree designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act or recognized by the Ontario Heritage Tree Program of Trees Ontario.

Since September 1, 2026, a healthy tree with at least one stem greater than 61 cm DBH can be designated a Distinctive Tree. The Executive Director, Environment, Climate and Forestry, decides whether a tree is healthy and qualifies, so designation is not an automatic result of size, and a tree that already holds a Heritage Tree designation under the bylaw’s separate heritage provisions is excluded from the category. Once designated, the tree’s status becomes a mandatory review criterion in both Chapter 813 and Chapter 658 applications (s. 813-16 L and s. 658-5.1 L), and Council has directed the Executive Director to refuse permits to injure or destroy these trees at the Executive Director’s discretion.

Alongside the amendments, the City launched the Mature Private Tree Maintenance Grant (formerly the Distinctive Tree Maintenance Incentive Pilot). It pays up to $1,500 toward pruning a healthy private tree over 61 cm DBH, done by a qualified arborist. Applications run from October 15 to November 16, 2026, or until funds run out. The pilot runs through 2026 and 2027. See our guide to Toronto’s September 2026 bylaw amendments for what these changes mean for a large-tree application.

Common Questions

When Toronto requires a permit

A permit is required if the tree is on private property and measures 30 cm or more at breast height. City street trees are protected no matter their size, and so is every tree in a designated ravine or natural feature area under Chapter 658.

What do Toronto tree permits cost in 2026?

Under the 2026 fee schedule, $145.87 per tree for a standard residential removal and $436.39 per tree when construction is involved. Boundary or neighbour trees run $304.51 without construction and $913.58 with construction. Since September 1, 2026, a tree inside the RNFP limit pays the separate ravine fee instead.

How big are the fines?

A minimum of $500 per tree up to $100,000 per tree, plus contravention replanting that starts at 5:1 and rises for larger trees (from September 1, 2026).

Is a dead tree exempt?

Only after the City issues its permit exception for it. Unless the tree is an immediate hazard, cutting ahead of that paperwork is treated as an unauthorized removal.

Working with The Arborist Group

We handle Toronto tree permit applications. Contact us before you file to confirm your application package is complete.