Programs for Public Trees

What makes a tree a public tree?

The city of Palo Alto owns and maintains approximately 46,000 public trees. A tree is considered a public tree if it is on public property or within the street right-of-way of a city maintained roadway. City parks, city buildings and other city facilities make up the majority of public property in Palo Alto. Street right-of-way includes median islands, round-a-bouts, sidewalk tree wells and parking strips. Parking strips are planting areas between the sidewalk and the street curb in residential neighborhoods. In neighborhoods without parking strips the right-of-way usually extends several feet into the front yard.

Public trees are maintained by the Urban Forestry section in-house crews and by city contracted tree trimming companies. The Urban Forestry section has five programs that deal primarily with public trees. The programs are listed below. Please visit the program pages for more detailed information.

Public Tree Planting Program

Street Tree Pruning Program 

Public Tree Removal Program

Tree Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Urban Forestry Emergency Operations