What does Caledon's tree by-law cover on a private lot?

The Town's page says By-law 2025-101 regulates injuring, removing or destroying trees outside woodlands on private property with a diameter of 30 centimetres or more at breast height, 1.37 metres above the ground, and that applications are required as of January 1, 2026. Dead trees, trees with less than 30% of their crown left and hazardous trees are among the exemptions, and the Town may ask for an arborist's opinion. There is no application fee as of January 2026, but replacement trees are required for every tree injured or destroyed, counted by the trunk's diameter, with refundable securities; cash in lieu is only for sites that can't take the planting.

Trees inside a woodland fall under the separate Woodland Conservation By-law 2000-100, which needs an application to destroy trees in a woodland, with some exceptions, and the page says tree removal in the Niagara Escarpment Plan area may carry additional requirements. A tree on a property line needs the neighbour's consent to the application. A rule summary says what the by-laws cover; it doesn't say who owns a given tree or how wide its trunk is.

• Tree Preservation By-law permitting process: the Town's page on regulated trees, exemptions, permits and replacement trees
• Tree Preservation By-law 2025-101: the by-law (PDF)
• Woodland Conservation By-law: the Town's page on permits to destroy trees in a woodland

Tree and ravine limits is in the free check as a summary of the Town's rule, from our hand-kept table, with a link to the Town's page. It is a rule for the town, not a survey of the trees on a lot.

Free check: pick “Tree and ravine limits” See the sample report