Spring Branch, Texas · Comal County
Tree removal in Spring Branch
Guadalupe River hill country at the far southwest edge of where I go.
No permit needed — Spring Branch has never adopted a tree ordinance.
About 48 minutes from me in Kyle. Whatever the answer turns out to be, it is a form and a measurement rather than a refusal — these get approved all the time. Call me and I’ll tell you where you stand.
What Spring Branch actually regulates
Long drive and big properties, so I try to batch Spring Branch work. If you've got a neighbor who also needs something done, say so — it helps the price for both of you.
Under the threshold
Not regulated
No permit needed — Spring Branch has never adopted a tree ordinance.
The City of Spring Branch, incorporated in Comal County in 2015 (distinct from the older unincorporated community of the same name), has a full public ordinance archive going back to 2015 — flood damage prevention, subdivision regulations, signs, outdoor burning, junkyards — and none of it touches trees or vegetation. There's nothing to file for a straight removal. A deed restriction, plat note or HOA rule can still say otherwise on your specific lot, worth a quick check of your paperwork before you assume you're clear.
The ordinance, in its own words
The City of Spring Branch's ordinance archive, published year by year since incorporation in 2015, contains no tree, vegetation or zoning ordinance of any kind.
Source: City of Spring Branch, TX — ordinance archive. This is a reading of the code, not legal advice and not the city’s own determination. Ordinances change.
Everything else the Spring Branch code attaches
- If it's not construction-related
- Nothing to file with the city for a straight removal. If your lot is in an HOA or has deed restrictions, those are private rules, not government ones, worth reading before you cut.
- How it's measured
- Not applicable — no ordinance exists to measure against.
- Who to call
- City of Spring Branch — no tree ordinance on the books
Check your own tree against Spring Branch’s rule
Permit checker
Measure it, then check it
Pick Spring Branch, put the trunk measurement in, and it will show you exactly which band you are in and what the code says about it.
How a removal actually goes in Spring Branch
The far southwest edge of where I go, at forty-eight minutes, on big properties. I try to batch Spring Branch work. If a neighbour also needs something done, say so — it helps the price for both of you. Forty-eight minutes and the far southwest corner of where I work, on large properties with long approaches. It genuinely works better batched, and if a neighbour needs something too it helps the price for both of you. Steep private drives, switchbacks, and lots that fall to the river. The realistic question on most of these jobs is whether a chip truck can turn around at all, and sometimes the answer is that everything comes out in smaller loads. It's about an hour out, so it wants planning rather than a same-day run.
Everything gets hauled away and the ground raked off behind us. Want the logs kept for firewood? Say so before we start and my crew will cut them to length and stack them rather than running them through the chipper.
The trees I get called about here
Guadalupe River hill country — live oak and ashe juniper on the uplands, cypress and pecan where the river runs. Large properties with mostly unmanaged trees, so deadwood and clearance work dominates. Guadalupe River hill country — upland live oak and juniper on the slopes, with bigger bottomland trees down near the water. The slope trees are the shallow-rooted ones that go over whole in a wind event rather than shedding limbs. Spring Branch runs along the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake, and the canyon is what shapes the work. Cypress on the river itself, live oak and Ashe juniper on the slopes above, and the soil between them measured in inches. The failure I'm called to after high water isn't in the canopy, it's at the base: moving water scours soil off the upstream side of a root plate and drops silt on the downstream side, and a cypress or pecan that leans afterwards has had its anchorage rearranged rather than its health damaged. Silt piled against a trunk is its own slow problem, because bark that stays buried and damp doesn't stay sound.
Before you decide to remove it
A mature live oak took fifty years to reach that size and I can take it down in a morning. Neither of us can put it back. So the first thing I want to know is whether it actually needs to go — a tree that looks finished is quite often a tree that needs the deadwood out of it and nothing more. Here’s how to tell the difference, and here’s the risk check if you want to work it through yourself.
If it does need to come out, the permit side is the easy part. The rules for every town I’ve read are here, and here’s everything else I do in Spring Branch.
Questions I get asked
Do I need a permit to remove a tree in Spring Branch?
It depends on the trunk size. The City of Spring Branch's ordinance archive, published year by year since incorporation in 2015, contains no tree, vegetation or zoning ordinance of any kind. That is City of Spring Branch, TX — ordinance archive, and it is quoted in full further down this page.
How do I measure my tree for Spring Branch's rules?
Put a tape around the trunk 4.5 feet above the ground to get the circumference, then divide by 3.14 for the diameter. Spring Branch writes its rule in inches in diameter. If the trunk splits into several stems below 4.5 feet, measure below the split — that usually puts you in a higher bracket than you expected.
What if the tree is dead or dangerous?
Most ordinances around here treat a dead, diseased or genuinely hazardous tree differently from a healthy one somebody would simply rather not have, and a written assessment from a Certified Arborist is usually what the city wants to see. There is one on my crew. Get the condition documented before you file anything, not after.
How much does tree removal cost in Spring Branch?
Access is the biggest driver, ahead of size — whether there is a drop zone or whether every piece has to be roped out over a roof is the difference between a morning and a full day. Then trunk diameter, then lean and deadwood. Send me a photo and the circumference and I can usually price it from that.
Got a tree in Spring Branch you’re not sure about?
Text me a photo and the measurement round the trunk. I’ll tell you which side of the line it’s on and what it takes to get it done.
Same-day callback on estimates
Call or text before 5pm on a weekday and you'll hear back from me the same day. Not an answering service — me.