Tree Removal in Cambridge, Ontario

Three rivers run through Cambridge, and a great many of its best trees grow on the banks. The Grand through Galt, the Speed through Preston and Hespeler, and the Eramosa and Mill Creek between them have cut deep valleys, and the houses built along them from the 1850s onward sit on steep lots under willow, silver maple, black walnut, oak and basswood that have never been anybody's problem until a limb comes down on the roof or the bank starts to move. Those lots come with two layers of rules that most of the region does not have. The first is the City's Private Tree Preservation By-law 23-105, in force since January 2024, which requires a permit, an arborist report and either replacement trees or a cash payment before a healthy private tree of 20 centimetres or more in diameter is removed anywhere in Cambridge. The second is the Grand River Conservation Authority, whose head office is on Clyde Road and whose regulated area covers the valley slopes, where grading a bank or driving equipment across it needs permission. Add the dead ash the emerald ash borer has left standing across every ward since it was first found at Homer Watson and the 401, and tree work in Cambridge is as much about doing it in the right order as about the cutting. The order, the method and the number are settled on the site visit.

By-law 23-105: the permit most Cambridge owners do not know they need. Since 1 January 2024 the City of Cambridge has regulated trees on private land through its Private Tree Preservation By-law 23-105. A permit is required before injuring or destroying any private tree with a diameter of 20 centimetres (8 inches) or more, measured at 1.4 metres above the ground, on any size of lot, and the by-law counts regrading or compacting inside the drip line as injury. The application needs an arborist report from a qualified tree professional giving the tree's location, species, diameter and condition, clear photographs of the whole tree, and a signed consent from the adjoining owner if the tree sits on or near the boundary. The permit has to be posted on the property at least five days before work begins and it expires after twelve months. Removing ten or more trees over 20 cm is a different process altogether, a Site Alteration Permit through the City's engineering division. The fines for cutting without a permit run to $25,000 for an individual on a first offence, and every tree counts as a separate offence. The practical upshot is that a healthy maple in a Preston back yard cannot simply be booked and cut: the report and the application come first, and we build the time for them into the schedule.

Dead, dying and dangerous trees: how the exemptions actually work. The by-law does not make you pay to remove a tree that is already dead or about to fall, but it does not let you simply decide that yourself either. A dead tree can be removed without a permit once a removal request with a photo, the location, species and diameter has been submitted to the City and approved. An imminent hazard, such as a split union over the house or a tree whose roots have lifted, needs a qualified tree professional's assessment submitted before it comes down. A genuine emergency, a tree on the roof after a storm, can be dealt with immediately, but the City must have a description and photographs within 48 hours, to forestry@cambridge.ca. Maintenance pruning is exempt when a qualified professional determines it. The emerald ash borer has made the dead-tree route the busiest one in Cambridge. The City's forestry page notes the beetle is well established across the city and that more than 4,000 of its roughly 55,000 street trees were infested, and the private ash has fared no better. A dead ash is still a private tree under the by-law and still goes through the dead-tree request, which is quick, rather than being cut on a whim.

Replacement trees or cash-in-lieu. A permit to remove a healthy tree comes with a condition: the canopy has to be replaced. Schedule A of By-law 23-105 sets the number by the size of the tree removed, one replacement tree for 20 to 30 cm, two for 31 to 40 cm, three for 41 to 70 cm and four for anything over 70 cm, and the owner can plant them, pay a per-tree cash-in-lieu amount into the City's replacement tree fund, or do some of each. Replacement trees have to be a minimum size, 20 mm calliper in at least a 7-gallon pot, and the City's figures are on the forestry page and summarised on our cost page. For a big old silver maple that genuinely needs to go, the replacement requirement is often the largest part of the permit cost, which is one more reason to look hard at whether pruning and reduction can keep the tree before applying to remove it.

The rivers, the GRCA and the valley lots. Galt, Preston, Hespeler and Blair all grew up on riverbanks, and the Grand River Conservation Authority regulates development, grading, the placing or removal of fill and any alteration to a watercourse or wetland inside its regulated area under Ontario Regulation 41/24. Cutting a tree is not in itself one of the listed activities. What a tree removal on a valley lot can involve is: regrading the bank once the stump is out, bringing a crane or a mini-excavator down a slope above the water, grinding a stump that is holding a bank together, or clearing a strip of vegetation that was stabilising the slope. Those are the parts the GRCA will want to hear about, and the by-law's own exemption list treats GRCA work as a separate category. The GRCA's Map Your Property tool shows whether an address sits inside the regulation limit, and a call to 519-621-2761 settles what, if anything, needs a permit. On a steep Galt lot the right answer is often to leave the stump and the roots in the bank and take the tree down to a low monolith rather than grind it.

City trees, GrandBridge lines and the Region's woodlots. The tree between the sidewalk and the curb is the City's, and where there is no sidewalk the City's Forestry Call Centre through Service Cambridge at 519-623-1340 will send a technician to confirm ownership. Trimming or removing a city tree breaches the City's Tree By-law 71-06, and dead or dangerous public trees are reported to the same number, including after hours. Trees in Cambridge's hydro lines are GrandBridge Energy's concern, at 1-877-871-2215, and no one from our side works within reach of a primary line without the utility involved. Beyond the built-up area, along the Grand toward Blair and out past Hespeler, trees often stand in woodland rather than yards, and the Region of Waterloo's Woodland Conservation By-law 08-026 requires a permit before cutting in any woodland of one hectare or more. The Regional Forester is at 519-580-0296 and the Region's by-law takes precedence over the City's for those trees.