Overview
Urban and wildland trees have many benefits. The District has updated its Tree Management Bylaw to align with the latest best management practices and our community's environmental stewardship values..
The 2025 OurSquamish Urban Tree Canopy Study revealed:
“Squamish residents showed a strong sense of care for preserving mature trees, expressing frustration with developers for removing large, established trees, often replacing them with smaller, less effective plantings that fail to provide comparable shade or environmental benefits."
Why update a Bylaw?
Bylaws are living regulations that require regular updating
to reflect evolving community needs and conditions, and a changing physical
landscape. District Staff have identified areas where the bylaw may be amended
to improve the regulations and align with best management practices.
Background
The District’s current Tree Management Bylaw was adopted in 2018. This bylaw regulates tree management on all District lands including those located within Environmentally Sensitive and Riparian Areas.
For more information on how the Tree Removal Permitting process works, please visit this page: Trees and Soils Management - District of Squamish
Reporting Back on Public Engagement
The bylaw has been simplified and strengthened in response to public feedback. All changes made to the bylaw were supported by the data in the community survey, particularly regarding the protection of mature trees.
Our online survey collected public input to inform updates to the District of Squamish Tree Management Bylaw. The survey ran from December 3, 2025 to January 12, 2026 and received 153 responses, including 100 final written comments. Responses came from residents across 12 neighbourhoods, with the largest shares from Garibaldi Highlands/University Heights (23%) and Brackendale (21%). Most respondents were 35 to 64 years old.
Key findings that directly shaped the Bylaw update included community support for:
- Simplifying and streamlining the application process,
- Protecting mature and habitat trees,
- Integrating FireSmart principles into the Bylaw,
- Strengthening Replacement Tree considerations including an increase in the cash in lieu fee that allows the District to plant trees or enhance habitat when it is not feasible for residents or development sites to replant trees as required and,
- Stronger tree protection and meaningful tree replacement of mature canopy on development sites.
The new Bylaw and application forms can be found here: Tree Management - District of Squamish - Hardwired for Adventure And the full What We Heard report is below.
Did You Know?
Community Survey
Meaningful bylaw updates involve community input. The intent of this survey is to:
- Align community values, goals and concerns related to tree management within the District;
- Identify challenges and opportunities within the current bylaw; and
- Inform bylaw updates that further reflect community input as well as the latest best management practices, Council direction and available municipal tools.
These links will open in new tabs and may be helpful as you fill out the survey:
Tree Management (Bylaw 2640).pdf
Trees and Soils Management - District of Squamish
