Frequently Asked Questions

The City passed a Private Tree By-law in 2018. It is time for the By-law to be reviewed and updated. 

Your ideas about the By-law are important. 

Your input will be used to help identify and frame options to be considered as part of the Private Tree By-law review and update to be undertaken in 2023.

The City is gathering ideas from the community, key stakeholders and partners between July 11 and August 8, 2022.

The City is gathering ideas about:

1. How well the current Private Tree By-law is understood 
2. Experiences with the Private Tree By-law permitting process, and
3. Perspectives on how the Private Tree By-law and / or its processes could be improved.

Your input will be used to help identify and frame options to be considered as part of the Private Tree By-law review and update to be undertaken in 2023.

All the trees in the City of Cambridge are referred to as its “urban forest”.  The City of Cambridge values and takes care of the trees on its property, and also values the trees across the City. 

In 2014, City Council approved a 20-year Urban Forest Plan (2015) that included 32 actions to help the City, stakeholders, and members of the community work together to protect, maintain, restore, enhance and expand the urban forest. Action #10 called for a Private Tree By-law to be implemented. As a result, Cambridge’s first Private Tree By-law (124-18) was developed and approved by Council in July 2018. 

Cambridge has about 27% tree canopy cover. The recent Climate Adaptation Plan (2019) sets a specific goal of increasing the City’s tree canopy cover to 30% by 2031. However, most (about 80%) of the City’s tree canopy cover is from trees growing on private lands. In addition, many of the lands where additional trees could be established are in private ownership. 

A Private Tree By-law is a good tool to encourage residents to maintain existing trees and to require the replacement of trees approved for removal on private lands.

The Private Tree By-law is not intended to prohibit the removal of regulated trees on private lands. Rather, its intent is to:

• Raise awareness about the benefits trees provide to the entire community
• Encourage retention of trees on private property, and 
• Serve as a tool to support the replacement of trees permitted to be removed.

Cambridge’s current Private Tree By-law (124-18) regulates the injury and / or removal of any tree on private property with a diameter of at least 20 cm (measured at 1.4 m from the ground). These trees are referred to as “regulated trees” in relation to this by-law.

This by-law requires a permit for the removal of most regulated trees.

You do not need a permit to remove a tree on your property that presents an imminent hazard or is dead, but you do need to provide proof to the City – typically with an Arborist Report - that the tree is a hazard or dead before removal or within 48 hours of removal.

No, a permit is not required to prune trees on your property. 

However, pruning should be done to support the healthy growth and development of the tree. Pruning that results in permanent or long-term damage (or injury) to trees on your property regulated by City’s Private Tree By-law, could be considered an infraction under the by-law. 

If you are unsure about how to prune trees on your property, you may wish to seek professional advice from a Certified Arborist or another comparable professional.

Trees are known to provide many benefits and services to the communities in which they grow. These benefits and services tend to increase exponentially as trees mature and grow.

• Trees help build local resilience to climate change by storing carbon in their trunk, branches, roots and associated soil
• Trees provide shade and cooling in the summer, sometimes lowering local temperatures by up to 4 degrees C, and
• Trees help to absorb and filter storm water.

Trees and natural areas are also able to support the community’s physical and mental health by providing local green spaces and connections to nature, which have been shown to significantly reduce stress levels in people.

The input gathered will be compiled into a “What We Heard” summary report to be shared with City staff, Council, interested parties, and the community. 

This report will inform the City’s five-year review of its Private Tree By-law, which is expected to be a priority item for the first term of the new Council to address in 2023.

The survey will be the primary tool for collection of feedback.

City staff and their consultants will be providing information about the current Private Tree By-law and available to answer questions and gather comments at several virtual and in-person engagement events, as follows.

• An on-line survey posted on the project Engage page at cambridge.ca/PrivateTrees  
• An in-person Information Session 
  1. Thursday, July 14 from 6 - 7:30 p.m. at the Preston Memorial Auditorium, 1458 Hamilton Street – free trees for the first 100 residents to attend!
• A virtual Information Session 
  1. Tuesday, July 19 from 6 - 7 p.m. 
  2. Note: Registration is required - Register now (External link)
• Two informal pop-up information booths at the Cambridge Farmer’s Market
  1. Saturday, July 9 from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm
  2. Saturday, July 16 from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm

Virtual Focus Groups will also be held with City staff and local agency representatives (e.g., the Region of Waterloo, Grand River Conservation Authority), interested community representatives and local Arborists familiar with the Private Tree By-law, the City’s Leadership Team and Council to gather supplemental input and insights.

Trees that are shared between two private properties are called “Boundary Trees”. A tree is considered a Boundary Tree if any part of its trunk is shared. If you or your neighbour want to cut down a tree that straddles your property line, then the Private Tree By-law permit application must include a signed letter of consent that indicates that the other landowner is aware of the intent to remove the tree and agrees to this.

For trees shared with the City, the City assumes maintenance responsibilities and the tree cannot be removed without a permit under the City’s public tree-by-law.

Please email forestry@cambridge.ca