Gulf Shores has the strictest tree rules in Baldwin County, and it is the place where homeowners most often find that out too late. A permit here is not a formality, and what the city protects is broader than most owners assume.
Tree & Land Services
in Gulf Shores, Alabama
What Gulf Shores protects
Under the city’s tree protection ordinance, no protected tree may be removed, relocated, destroyed or injured inside the corporate limits without a tree removal permit.
| Category | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Protected tree | 12 inches diameter at breast height, or a live oak or sand live oak at 6 inches |
| Heritage tree | 30 inches diameter, or a live oak at 24 inches |
Recognized invasive species are excluded. Heritage trees are a tighter case again. One may be removed only where it stands within the footprint of a principal building, and the city can reduce a setback to save one instead. Approved removals come with a replanting requirement, and a tree taken without a permit brings a fine plus mandatory replacement.
Applications go to Planning and Zoning at 205 Clubhouse Drive, with roughly a five day review. We handle the tree, not your paperwork, but we will tell you at the estimate whether your tree is protected and what the city is likely to say. Measuring the trunk at four and a half feet off the ground before you plan anything is a good habit here.
Lot clearing that stays inside the rules
Clearing a lot in Gulf Shores is where the ordinance bites hardest, because clearing does not distinguish itself from removal in the city's eyes. Trees inside the building footprint are one conversation. Trees outside it are another, and a machine operator working fast can take out a protected live oak in the time it takes to reverse.
Our approach on land clearing here is to walk the lot first and mark what is protected before any equipment starts. Underbrush, scrub and invasives come out. Protected trees stay unless they are permitted, and the ones you are keeping get barricaded so nothing runs over the root zone.
If you are planning a build or a lot clean-up, call 251-551-1087 and we will walk it with you before you commit to a plan.
Removals in tight subdivisions
Foley lots sit close together, and most removals here happen with a fence on one side and a neighbor’s roof on the other. We take those apart in sections from the top and rope every piece into a cleared landing zone.
Then we grind the stump below grade so the ground can be turfed, and we haul the debris rather than leaving it stacked at the curb.
Storm work
South Baldwin catches weather coming in off the Gulf, and after a named storm we work through the calls with trees on structures first. If a limb is on your roof, phone 251-313-1846 instead of using the form.
One thing is worth watching in the months afterward. A pine that looks untouched can still be dying. Researchers who went back three months after Hurricane Charley found that 27 percent of standing slash pines and 48 percent of standing longleaf pines had died, and pines can fail six months to two years after a blow.
Foley’s heritage tree permit
Foley protects heritage trees by ordinance, and it is unlawful to cut or intentionally harm one without a permit. A heritage tree is a healthy native tree at 30 inches diameter or more, measured at four and a half feet up, with dogwood and redbud protected from 10 inches. The species named include cypress, oaks, magnolias, sweet gums, black gums, juniper and longleaf pine.
The ordinance does not cover the invasives: mimosa, tree of heaven, camphor, chinaberry and Chinese tallow. There are exemptions worth knowing too. Emergency work immediately necessary to protect life or property is exempt, so is agricultural and nursery activity, and so are trees destroyed by a federally declared natural disaster.
Most single trees in a Foley yard fall under the 30 inch threshold. The ones that do not tend to be exactly the trees people most want to remove, so it is worth measuring before you plan.
Get a free estimate
Keep it or take it down, we will give you the answer before you pay for anything. Coastal Tree & Land Services works Foley out of Fairhope. Family operated, veteran owned, licensed and insured, with a five-star record across the county. Call 251-313-1846 or use the form below.
