Sidney tree permits and the Tree Preservation Bylaw

Sidney's tree rules are in Tree Preservation Bylaw No. 2138. According to the Town's bylaw page, it regulates the cutting, pruning and removal of trees and sets requirements for replacing protected trees.

Under the bylaw, no one may cut, remove or damage a Protected Tree, or allow that to happen, except as the bylaw permits.

Council adopted the bylaw on July 10, 2017, and it repealed the earlier Sidney Tree Preservation Bylaw No. 1663. The copy on the Town website is a consolidation, which means the original text and the four amendment bylaws listed below are combined into one document.

The Town says this consolidated copy is for convenience only and can't be used in court. Certified copies come from the Municipal Clerk.

The Town's power over trees comes from section 8(3) of the Community Charter, a British Columbia law, as the bylaw itself states. That section lets a council regulate, prohibit and impose requirements on trees by bylaw.

• Amendment Bylaw No. 2195, September 2020
• Amendment Bylaw No. 2202, December 2020
• Amendment Bylaw No. 2274, April 2024
• Amendment Bylaw No. 2291, May 2025

The bylaw names a group of native trees as Protected Species. Douglas-fir, bigleaf maple, grand fir and western redcedar count once they reach 1.2 metres tall.

For the species below, the bylaw goes by trunk size instead of height. They count once the trunk is 3 centimetres (cm) or more in diameter.

• Arbutus
• Cascara
• Garry oak
• Pacific dogwood
• Seaside juniper
• Shore pine
• Western yew

Protected Species are only part of the bylaw's list of Protected Trees. Any tree with a trunk diameter greater than 60 cm is a Protected Tree, whatever its species. The other groups are listed below.

The Official Community Plan mentioned in the list is the Town's long-range plan for land use. The bylaw does not apply when the Town or its authorized agents cut or remove trees on Town-owned property or highways.

If you can't tell whether a tree on your lot falls into one of these groups, ask the Town before you plan any work.

• Replacement Trees
• Trees a Development Permit requires to be planted or kept
• Trees inside a development permit area that the Official Community Plan sets aside to protect the natural environment, its ecosystems and biological diversity
• Trees on a highway, park or other land the Town owns or occupies

Diameter is measured 1.4 metres above the average ground level at the base of the tree. Wrap a tape around the trunk at that height and divide the result by 3.142.

So a trunk that measures 190 cm around works out to about 60.5 cm across, which is greater than 60 cm.

Trees with several trunks at 1.4 metres are counted differently. You take the full diameter of the largest trunk, then add 60% of the diameter of each of the others.

To count as a tree at all, a plant has to be a living perennial with a woody, self-supporting main trunk more than 3 cm in diameter.

In the bylaw, Cut means cutting all or any part of a Protected Tree by any means. It includes felling, pulling up or pushing over a Protected Tree, and it also includes pruning. Pruning covers cutting or removing roots as well as branches, limbs and stems.

You can do some pruning without a permit. The bylaw lets a person prune up to 20% of a Protected Tree's crown in a season to maintain or improve its health. The work has to follow International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) or American Society of Consulting Arborists (ASCA) standards.

This allowance is for the crown only. The bylaw defines the crown as a tree's branches, leaves and reproductive structures, so it does not cover roots. A separate section of the bylaw bans cutting or damaging a Protected Tree's roots inside its Protected Root Zone, as explained below.

The 20% allowance also has size limits. Even within it, a Tree Permit is needed to prune any branch, limb or stem of a Protected Tree larger than the sizes below. The bylaw's size rule names roots as well, but it does not lift the separate ban on cutting roots inside the Protected Root Zone.

• Over 5 cm in diameter for most Protected Trees
• Over 2.5 cm in diameter for arbutus, dogwood and Garry oak

The Protected Root Zone is the ground around a Protected Tree's trunk out to the drip line. The drip line sits directly below the tips of the outermost branches.

Inside this zone, no one may cut or damage a Protected Tree's roots, or let that be done. Other activities are banned there as well, including the ones below.

The bylaw's list is longer than this, so read that part of the bylaw before you plan work near a protected tree.

• Placing fill or building materials
• Driving a truck, backhoe, excavator or other heavy equipment
• Removing soil
• Blasting

Sometimes a Protected Tree is in imminent danger of falling and injuring people or property, and there is no reasonable way to get a permit first. In that case the bylaw says the tree may be cut or pruned without a permit, and a permit must then be applied for within the next business day.

Leave the tree or its parts on the lot until a Town employee has visited and confirmed the danger.

For an emergency removal, the Director may waive the permit fee and may also reduce the number of replacement trees. The Director is the person Council appoints as Director of Engineering, or their designate.

The Director can send an owner or occupier a written notice to trim, remove or cut trees, hedges, bushes or shrubs. This applies when the plants are a hazard to people on public land, are likely to damage public property, or are a serious public inconvenience.

A hedge, in the bylaw, is five or more trees or shrubs planted in a row, all less than 1.25 metres apart.

The bylaw does not apply to Protected Trees cut or removed for airport navigational safety. It also does not apply to work under the Railway Safety Act, the Hydro and Power Authority Act or the Oil and Gas Activities Act.

For tree removal, heavy pruning or topping on private property, the Town's permits page says to contact the Parks Department before you start. (Topping means cutting off the top of a tree.) Parks can put you in touch with the Town's arborist. Their phone number and email address are on that page.

You can hand in a Tree Permit Application Form in person at Town Hall or send it by email.

The bylaw also defines a Certified Arborist as a person certified by ASCA or ISA. It defines a Specimen Quality Tree as a tree of any size of exceptional value for its species, condition, form, age or size. An arborist, a landscape architect or the Director makes that judgment. Ask the Town how the Specimen Quality Tree term applies to your lot.

Oakstead Tree & Property Care is an independent arborist consulting business and has no role in the Town's permit decisions. We can measure trunks, identify species and assess tree condition. Air Spading uses compressed air to expose roots without cutting them, and resistograph testing checks the wood inside a trunk for decay. We write arborist reports and tree protection plans, and we refer pruning and removal to partner companies.