Manatee County & Bradenton Tree Removal Permits (2026): Exemptions, Rules & Fees

In unincorporated Manatee County you do not need a permit to remove or replace a tree in your own private back yard or side yard. The county states it directly on its Residential Tree Removal page, posted 2/14/2025 — linked in Sources below. Nuisance exotics need no permit either. Manatee is the most permissive large jurisdiction in Southwest Florida for routine residential work.

The City of Bradenton runs a different default — contact Planning & Zoning before removing any tree — but it exempts most palms outright, charges no application fee for dead, dying, infrastructure-damaging, or utility-required removals, and reprints FS 163.045 on the face of its own permit supplement.

Every threshold, fee, and code section on this page is linked in the Sources list at the end: the county's own residential and commercial guidance, its Tree Removal Permit Instructions PDF, Land Development Code Chapter 7, and Bradenton's Tree Removal Permit Application and Supplement. Jurisdictions revise these — Bradenton's supplement was last revised September 2025 — so confirm with Environmental Planning or Bradenton Planning & Zoning at 941-932-9400 before work starts.

The exemption that overrides all of this: FS 163.045

Section 163.045, Florida Statutes, applies in both jurisdictions and beats every local rule on this page. A local government may not require notice, an application, approval, a permit, a fee, mitigation, or replanting for pruning, trimming, or removing a tree on residential property when the owner possesses documentation from an ISA-certified arborist or a Florida-licensed landscape architect that the tree poses an unacceptable risk.

Both jurisdictions already work from it. Manatee County cites the statute as the reason certified-arborist dangerous-tree documentation cancels the 30-day street-tree replacement obligation. The City of Bradenton reprints the statute in full on its Tree Removal Permit Supplement — you can hand a city document back to the city.

• The documentation must be an onsite assessment under the ISA Best Management Practices: Tree Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition (2017), signed.
• Unacceptable risk means removal is the only practical means of reducing the risk below moderate under that BMP.
• Residential property means a single-family detached building on a lot actively used as a single-family residence — conforming or legally nonconforming. Condos, townhomes, multifamily, HOA common area, and commercial are outside it.
• No replanting may be required — § 163.045(2).
• You must possess the documentation before the work, not obtain it afterward.
• Mangroves are excluded and go to the Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act instead.

“In Manatee County the signed arborist report is the difference between a 30-day street-tree replacement obligation and none at all.”

Unincorporated Manatee County — what needs no permit

If you have a question about a specific tree, Environmental Field Inspections takes calls at (941) 748-4501 extension 6895.

• Removing or replacing a tree in your own private back yard or side yard. No authorization required.
• Nuisance exotic species. No Tree Removal Permit — the one exception is a species installed as part of the site's original required landscaping.
• A documented hazardous tree under FS 163.045, anywhere the statute's residential-property definition is met.

Where a Tree Removal Permit IS required in unincorporated Manatee County

Greenbelt Buffers and Conservation Areas go further than a permit requirement — removal is not allowed in them at all. The permit itself is a Tree Removal Permit (TRP), fee $144, filed through the Accela portal as application type A24 — Tree Removal. The county publishes step-by-step Tree Removal Permit Instructions with the full submittal list; that PDF is linked in Sources below.

• HOA common areas.
• Commercial property.
• Conservation areas and conservation easements.
• Wetland buffers.
• Landscape buffers.
• Utility easements.

The street-tree rule, and the arborist escape

The rule that catches homeowners in newer subdivisions: a required tree within 25 ft of the right-of-way, in a development approved after 10/15/1990, is a street tree. It is not an ordinary yard tree even if it sits on your lot.

• Provide certified-arborist documentation that the tree is dangerous and no replanting is required — the county cites FS 163.045 as the basis. That is the path to yes.
• Remove a street tree without that documentation and a replacement is due within 30 days.
• Replacement standards: within 25 ft of the right-of-way, Florida #1 grade stock. Frontage of 100 ft or more requires one canopy tree per 50 ft. Frontage of 60 to 100 ft requires one canopy tree. Frontage under 60 ft requires one understory tree.

What a permitted Manatee County removal costs

• Tree Removal Permit: $144.
• Replacement ratios where replacement applies: 4–15 in DBH removed, one 3 in caliper replacement per tree (1:1); 16–30 in DBH, two 4 in caliper replacements (2:1); over 30 in DBH, three 4 in caliper replacements (3:1).
• Replacement stock: canopy trees at least 2.5 in caliper, 25–30 gallon, 10 ft tall; understory trees at least 1.5 in caliper, 25–30 gallon, 6 ft tall; palms in groups of at least two with an overall height of 15 ft. All Florida #1 grade per the Florida Grades and Standards for Nursery Plants.
• In lieu of replanting, Tree Protection Trust Fund payment: $445 per 3 in caliper replacement tree, $585 per 4 in caliper replacement tree. Available only when the removed trees were not part of required landscaping in approved landscape buffer areas.
• Removal includes grinding stumps to at least 6 in below grade, and landscape and irrigation installation follows § 701.8 of the Land Development Code.
• Apply: Development Services — Environmental Planning / Environmental Review, through the Manatee County Accela portal. Field inspections (941) 748-4501 extension 6895.
• Not published: the DBH thresholds that define the residential exemption, and the penalty schedule for TRP violations. Confirm both with Environmental Planning before removing anything beyond routine yard work.

City of Bradenton — the exemptions first

Bradenton's baseline is an ask-first rule rather than a size threshold: contact Planning & Zoning before removing any tree, with a valid reason and a site plan or aerial marking the trees. The governing text is Land Use Regulations § 2.2.3.1. But the exemptions are broad, and the fee waivers are broader.

• Palms are exempt from Tree Removal Permit requirements — except Sabal palms, and except groupings of four or more silver, paurotis, key thatch, and Florida thatch palms — unless they are part of an approved landscape or PDP plan.
• No application fee for dead or dying trees, trees damaging infrastructure, or trees a utility company requires removed (Resolution 19-09). Documentation such as an arborist letter is required, and dead trees must still be inspected before removal — they are fee-exempt, not permit-exempt.
• FS 163.045 is reprinted in full on the city's own Tree Removal Permit Supplement, revised September 2025.
• Single-family replacement waiver: where the Planning & Community Development director determines that planting replacements would hinder the growth of remaining trees, or three or more significant trees will remain after the removal, the replacement requirement may be waived or reduced. Submit a letter of request with the application.
• Protected tree: a woody, self-supporting plant with a main stem or cluster of main stems 4 in DBH (measured 4.5 ft above ground), of a species that matures to at least 15 ft in the Manatee County area. Groups of four or more trees under 4 in DBH covering 50 sq ft or more are protected as a unit.
• Size classes: non-significant 4 in to 7.99 in DBH; significant 8 in to 30 in DBH; grand 30.01 in DBH and larger.
• Replacement ratios: Live or Laurel Oak 4–7.99 in, 2 replacements per tree; significant Live or Laurel Oak 8–30 in, 4 replacements; Grand Tree 30.01 in and larger, 10 replacements; all other species non-significant 4–7.99 in, 1 replacement; all other significant species 8–30 in, 2 replacements. Significant stands of live oaks are set by the PCD Director.
• Replacement stock: minimum 2 in trunk diameter at 4.5 ft and a 6 ft canopy spread, rechecked at 30 days.
• In-lieu payment: $200 per required replacement tree into the City Tree Fund.
• Clear-cutting a property larger than half an acre carries an additional $1,500 per acre.
• Penalty: fines up to $5,000.
• Apply: Planning & Zoning, 941-932-9400 (Planning & Community Development, 101 Old Main Street, 941-932-9423), with a site plan or aerial marking the trees to be removed. The Tree Removal Permit Application and the Tree Removal Permit Supplement are both linked in Sources below.
• Whether Bradenton has any blanket single-family exemption from the permit itself is not published — assume none until the city confirms otherwise for your parcel.

County lines matter here

Manatee County's permissive residential rule stops at the city limits. Bradenton, Palmetto, Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, and Bradenton Beach are separate jurisdictions — county rules do not apply inside their limits, and each administers its own code. The Town of Longboat Key runs its own Chapter 98 tree code, covered in the Sarasota County guide in this section.

Permit questions get flagged during the estimate — we check the parcel's jurisdiction before quoting, and a photo bid costs nothing. Where a permit is required the application is the owner's; the offices and phone numbers above are the ones that review it.