Escambia County Seeks Public Input On Tree Protection Standards

May 29, 2019

Escambia County is seeking public input on the county’s current tree protection standards.

Once the survey period has ended, the Escambia County Planning Board will host a workshop to discuss comments submitted through the survey and determine if revisions to the current tree protection standards are necessary.

Take the public survey here.

Tree protection standards were originally adopted by the Board of County Commissioners in 1998 with revisions last made in 2015. Existing regulations can be found in the Land Development Code and Design Standards Manual here. Tree-related standards are available in LDC Section 5.7 Landscaping and in DSM Article 2 Landscaping. Definitions are found in LDC Article 6.

Pictured: A giant oak tree towers over a residence on McElhaney Road in Bratt. NorthEscambia.com photo.

Comments

13 Responses to “Escambia County Seeks Public Input On Tree Protection Standards”

  1. Susie on July 13th, 2023 10:33 am

    Few years ago, I wanted buy a house but it had a huge Oak tree few feet from the back door and I had to cancel the same. Yes, trees are nice but hurricane prone Florida? If is too close to do the damage to any house around it, it should be allow to cut it done. It is safety issue – this is why all those homeowner insurance companies left! Trees are nice if you have money to maintain nice, off other people’s properties. If not, it is public nuisance. It’s jungle out there!

  2. J on May 30th, 2019 8:35 pm

    @ mr reality my deed says otherwise ;-)

  3. john smith on May 30th, 2019 1:06 pm

    Trees belong to the earth. People are just renting the land till they are all dead.

  4. ekg on May 30th, 2019 8:59 am

    If any tree is within 15 to 20 ft to the power lines, or to public roads, there should be cutting allowed by the road dept…..I have a lot of them on my 5 acres down the road and cannot afford the cutting down of them….and they are a menace to the power lines.

  5. MR REALITY on May 30th, 2019 12:20 am

    God lord alot of you are dumb. A 200 year old tree isnt “yours” ya clowns. It belongs to all of us.

  6. J on May 29th, 2019 8:01 pm

    Property owner owns the tree period…we do not need the county telling us what to do with a tree on our property. They make it sound like it is to save the trees but they will be making alot of money from tree removal permits, not to mention the permit process you will have to go through and wait on “approval” if you want to take your tree down, and lord help us if they reclassify a heritage oak to a smaller size it will be more $$ for permits because there are alot of smaller oaks.

    If you want to clear your property you are supposed to get a permit for clearing and now they want to tell you which tree you can clear or not…its crazy…too much control.

    The county allows houses to be built to close together, so how are they going to save heritage trees when they take up two lots for houses, your not builders will buy the permit and take the tree down anyways.

    I have oaks on my property and they are good trees but they are mine to do with as i please.

    If you want a huge live oak buy a piece of property that has one and then you will have one but dont tell others what to do with their trees. Wake up people !!!

  7. No big government on May 29th, 2019 6:11 pm

    Agree with @ M in Bratt. Its my property and i don’t need a survey !!! No Big Government

  8. Paul Bunyan on May 29th, 2019 5:49 pm

    If it’s brown chop it down if it’s black give it a whack

  9. mat on May 29th, 2019 1:08 pm

    Just think of how many tree houses you could build in that tree.
    Growing up I had a tree house in every tree on our property.
    That was 7 trees. I miss those days.

  10. EMD on May 29th, 2019 10:44 am

    To take that long survey properly, one would need to know the present laws/policies or read a legal document. Not many will do that. I just know that what a person does with the trees on their own property should be their own business. What the county did to the trees on my road is criminal in my opinion. I can no longer walk myself and my dogs anytime I want to, as when they paved my road (that I did not want paved), they cut down ALL of the big OLD shade trees across the road from my neighbors and myself from the highway to where the forests begin. Walking dogs in the grass on the side of the road is not safe due to the snakes there in the summer, and unseen things that could be harmful, such as glass, nails, fire ants, etc. No one I know on my street is happy about that. I was never told nor asked before this happened.

  11. tg on May 29th, 2019 7:16 am

    A live oak is a beautiful tree makes me know im down south.

  12. M in Bratt on May 29th, 2019 5:30 am

    It’s my tree, and my land. It should be nobody’s business what I do with it.

  13. Brianh on May 29th, 2019 4:40 am

    I have a bad feeling that developers are wanting even less restrictions on bulldozing trees down. Just look at all the beautiful oaks that went goodbye where Pine Forest and Mobile Hwy meet.