Tree Removal in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Tree removal in Fort Lauderdale is shaped by three things you don't deal with in most of the country: hurricanes, a water table close to the surface, and lots squeezed between a house and a canal. The city sits about seven feet above sea level and has some 165 miles of canals and inland waterways. Trees here grow fast in heat and roughly 61 inches of rain a year, then meet a storm season that runs from June through November. A tree that looks healthy in March can be on a roof by October, and a palm that looks green from the street can already be dying from the crown down.

Why storms knock trees over here

When the water table is high, roots stay in the top layer of soil. University of Florida researchers note that trees on wet sites never develop the deep sinker roots that anchor them, so as they grow larger they become prone to tipping over, and they are especially vulnerable when construction digs into the ground around them. Hurricane Wilma crossed Broward County on October 24, 2005; the National Weather Service recorded a 99 mph gust in Fort Lauderdale that morning and described large trees and power lines down virtually everywhere in South Florida. That pattern of whole trees uprooted, not just limbs broken, is why we look closely at roots, soil and lean, not only at the canopy.

Which trees cause the most trouble

UF/IFAS studies of hurricane damage rank species by how well they stand up to wind. Live oak, gumbo limbo and sabal palm rank highest. Sea grape, mahogany, royal palm and coconut palm do reasonably well. Black olive, laurel oak and strangler fig rank lower, and Australian pine, weeping fig (Ficus benjamina), queen palm, Washington palm and Norfolk Island pine are among the weakest. Common removal requests in Fort Lauderdale involve big black olives and ficus planted decades ago on small lots, tall queen and Washington palms over roofs, and Australian pines along canals.

Lethal bronzing in palms

Lethal bronzing is a bacterial disease spread by sap-feeding insects, and UF/IFAS lists Broward County among the Florida counties where it has been confirmed. It attacks cabbage (sabal) palms, coconut palms, date palms and queen palms, among others. Fruit drops early, older fronds discolor first, and when the spear leaf at the very center collapses, the bud is dead. There is no cure once symptoms show; UF/IFAS advises removing an infected palm right away, testing palms close to it and protecting healthy ones with antibiotic injections. A dead palm head can drop without warning, so these removals should not wait for the next storm.

Permits come first

Fort Lauderdale's landscape and tree preservation rules require a tree removal permit for many trees on developed single-family lots: trees with a trunk diameter of eight inches or more, and coconut, royal and date palms with eight feet or more of trunk. Australian pine, Brazilian pepper and melaleuca can be removed without a permit or replacement. Under Florida Statute 163.045, a city also cannot require a permit, fee or replacement tree when the owner of a single-family home has a signed assessment from an ISA Certified Arborist or Florida licensed landscape architect showing the tree is an unacceptable risk. We sort out which rule applies before we quote a start date.

Fort Lauderdale is the center of our service area, from the beachfront and the Las Olas isles to Rio Vista, Colee Hammock, Victoria Park, Coral Ridge and the western neighborhoods along I-95. Around it we work in Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Plantation, Davie, Dania Beach, Hollywood and Tamarac. Each city in Broward writes its own tree rules, so a palm that needs a permit in Fort Lauderdale may follow a different process two miles away; we check the rules for the address on the quote. Waterfront lots on the isles bring seawalls and docks into the plan, older inland neighborhoods tend to have big black olives and ficus near small houses, and newer western subdivisions often have HOA rules on what can be removed and what must be replanted.