Burlington Tree Removal Permit: The 20 cm Rule, the Urban Boundary Catch, and the Fees

When you actually need a permit in Burlington

Burlington protects private trees under its Private Tree By-law (By-law 040-2022), in effect since April 2022. The trigger is size. Any privately owned tree measuring 20 cm or more across the trunk (about 8 inches), measured at 1.37 m off the ground, needs a permit before it comes down.

That 20 cm line sits right in the middle of the western GTA. Toronto's rule only starts at 30 cm, while Oakville and Mississauga both catch trees at 15 cm. Burlington lands between them. So do not carry a number across a municipal line. A tree that is fair game in one town can be protected the moment you cross into the next.

Want to check your own tree before you call anyone? Wrap a tape measure around the trunk at chest height, then divide that number by about 3.14. That is your diameter. If it lands anywhere near 20 cm, treat it as protected until the city tells you otherwise.

• Permit needed: any private tree 20 cm or more across the trunk, inside Burlington's urban boundary.
• Usually no permit: a tree under 20 cm across, measured at 1.37 m up the trunk (still worth confirming).
• Protected at any size: heritage trees and endangered, threatened, or at-risk species.

The urban-boundary catch most guides skip

Here is the Burlington wrinkle the other GTA bylaws do not have. The Private Tree By-law only applies inside the city's urban boundary. Burlington is a large municipality, and a real chunk of it sits north of that line in rural and Greenbelt land, up around Lowville, Kilbride, and the escarpment.

If your property is outside the urban boundary, the city's private-tree permit does not govern your backyard trees the same way. That does not mean anything goes. Other rules can still apply: conservation authority regulations near valleys and the escarpment, woodland rules at the Region of Halton level, and species-at-risk protections. The point is that the city tree permit is not automatically the rule for your tree.

Quick check before you assume: a Burlington address alone does not tell you which side of the line you are on. Lots near the QEW and the lake are clearly urban. Properties up near the escarpment often are not. When the boundary is in question, we confirm it against the city map before reading you the bylaw, because the wrong assumption here changes the whole answer.

What the permit costs you, in money and in time

The application itself is cheap. The tree permit application processing fee is $54 plus HST, per application. That part rarely scares anyone off.

The replacement obligation is where it adds up. Burlington uses a size-based compensation ratio. The bigger the tree you remove, the more trees you owe back:

• 20 to 35 cm trunk: 2 replacement trees for every 1 removed.
• 36 to 74 cm trunk: 3 replacement trees for every 1 removed.
• 75 cm and up: 4 replacement trees for every 1 removed.

Take down one mature 80 cm maple and the city can ask for four trees back, or cash in lieu where there is no room to plant them. That is the real cost of a removal in Burlington, and it is the strongest argument for asking whether you need one at all.

Time is the other cost. The city has been working through high volumes of tree permit requests, so this is not a same-week approval. Budget several weeks from application to decision, and longer through the busy spring stretch. If a closing or a build depends on the work, plan the wait into your timeline rather than against it.

What happens if you skip it

Removing a protected tree without a permit is an offence under By-law 040-2022. Burlington enforces it through its administrative penalty system, so a quiet weekend removal can turn into a penalty per tree plus an order to replant what you took down.

The bigger exposure is the replacement order. The city can require the same 2 to 1, 3 to 1, or 4 to 1 trees back after the fact, on a tree you have already removed, with no say from you on where they go. Skipping the permit does not skip the replanting. It just removes your input on it.

Most homeowners miss this: a neighbour complaint is the usual trigger. Tree work is loud and visible. By the time a chipper is running in the driveway, everyone nearby knows a tree came down, and a protected-tree removal in plain sight is an easy call for someone to make.

The part most homeowners miss: you might not need a removal at all

Here is what the search hides. People look up the Burlington tree removal permit because they have a problem they want gone. A limb over the roof. Mess on the deck. Roots lifting the patio. Too much shade on the garden.

Removal is the biggest, slowest, most regulated answer to all of those. Often it is the wrong one.

Pruning is not a removal. Cutting back, thinning, or shaping a tree you are keeping does not trigger the removal permit at all. Burlington's own bylaw lets you prune up to a third of a tree's live crown without a permit. A good prune fixes most "this tree is a problem" complaints without the permit, the fee, or the replacement obligation. One bad branch is a limb removal, not a tree removal.

A real example of how this plays out: a homeowner calls about a big silver maple shading the whole backyard and dropping seeds everywhere, sure it has to go. Nine times out of ten the fix is a crown thin and a couple of low limbs off. Light comes through, the mess stops, no permit, no replacement trees owed. The tree stays and the bill is a fraction of a removal plus four replanted trees.

Sometimes removal really is the answer. A dead tree, a failing trunk, a species planted in the wrong spot. When that is the case you need the permit, and we will tell you so plainly rather than talk you into a prune that will not hold.

How we handle protected trees on a Burlington job

We do two things: tree pruning and limb removal. For most problem trees, one of those is the fix, and it keeps you clear of the removal permit, the fee, and the replanting altogether.

We do not do full tree removals yet, and we say so up front. If your tree genuinely has to come down, you need the Burlington permit, and we will point you toward who can handle that part rather than pretend it is something we offer.

What you get from us is a straight read. We will tell you whether pruning solves it, whether you are looking at a permit, and what the job actually involves before any work starts. No deposit to find out, no pressure either way.

Owner-led, by appointment, evenings and weekends, across Burlington and the wider south Ontario service area. Send a photo and your address through the contact page and we will read your tree against the bylaw and tell you straight whether a Burlington tree removal permit is even in play.