Best privacy trees for Washington and Oregon yards

How to choose privacy trees for a Northwest yard

Start from the site, not the plant. Two arborvitae in identical 5-gallon pots can end up 4 feet wide or 18 feet wide in the same spot, depending on which one you bought. Six checks sort the shortlist.

If a big tree is already standing near the house, the drop-zone and foundation questions are covered in is that tree too close to your house.

12 good privacy trees compared

Sizes below are typical mature ranges from university plant databases and extension bulletins, not nursery tags, and growth ratings are the databases’ own. A single plant on a good site can outgrow them. A sheared hedge can be held smaller only by trimming from the start, because arborvitae do not regrow from bare stems (OSU).

Sources: OSU = Oregon State University Extension (arborvitae hedge guide; EC 1577; EM 9661); OSU LP = OSU Landscape Plants database; NCSU = NC State Extension Plant Toolbox; WSU = WSU Extension EM089E and WSU forest health; NWCB = Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board. Zones are USDA cold-hardiness ratings from OSU LP. Checked 2026-10-02.

Six of the twelve can pass 30 feet, the top of PGE’s range for anything under a distribution line. Those six are trees, and cutting them down to size later is not a real option for the conifers among them: OSU Extension notes that arborvitae do not produce new growth if cut back to bare stems. What a hedge can and can’t take is covered in arborvitae and hedge trimming.

Tall, narrow privacy trees for small yards and fence lines

On a small lot, width is the constraint. Emerald Green is the default for a reason: OSU calls it the most common hedge arborvitae in the Pacific Northwest and, at 3–4 feet wide, a good fit for small urban lots. WSU’s screens bulletin suggests letting it grow 8–20 feet tall and warns against topping it.

If the bed is dry and sunny, narrow Rocky Mountain juniper cultivars do the same job with less water: OSU’s database lists ‘Medora’ as a dense column of 10–15 by 5 feet and ‘Wichita Blue’ as a looser pyramid of 18 by 6–8 feet. Both are poor choices for soggy west-side clay, since NC State notes the species does not tolerate wet soils. Where the bed gets part shade, tall Oregon grape (sun to shade, per OSU EC 1577) grows 8–10 feet with what the state weed board calls an almost pillar-like habit.

For a taller screen on a bigger lot, incense cedar is narrowly columnar when young (OSU) and Serbian spruce forms a narrow spire, though both end up 10–25 feet wide at maturity. A side-by-side of the two arborvitae is in Emerald Green vs Green Giant arborvitae.

Fence line privacy trees: set them back half the mature width

A plant spreads about half its mature width on each side of the trunk. Plant that far from the property line and the branches stay on your side.

Widths from OSU Extension, OSU Landscape Plants and NC State Extension (see table above); setback is half the width, computed by Westcoast-Tree.org.

A Green Giant planted 3 feet off the fence will push 3–6 feet into the neighbor’s yard at maturity. Who may trim what crosses the line is covered in Washington neighbor tree law and Oregon neighbor tree law.

Evergreen trees and shrubs for privacy on each side of the Cascades

Cold limits the east side; summer drought limits both. In USDA’s 2023 zone data, 63% of Washington ZIP codes and 70% of Oregon ZIP codes sit in zones 8a–9b, nearly all of them west of the Cascades. Seattle is 9a, Tacoma 8b, Olympia 8a, and Portland 8b or 9a depending on the ZIP. East of the mountains, Spokane, Yakima and Wenatchee are 7a, Kennewick 7b, and Bend and Pullman 6b. Look up any ZIP in the Washington and Oregon hardiness zone guide.

Water is the bigger filter. OSU’s tree-planting bulletin says trees need the equivalent of 1 inch of rain a week from June through September, which works out to roughly 17 inches over those 17 weeks. No city in the table below gets a third of that from the sky.

Sources: NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 monthly normals (airport or nearest station); USDA ARS 2023 hardiness zones by ZIP (PRISM, Oregon State University); OSU EC 1438 for the 1-inch-a-week guideline. Shares computed by Westcoast-Tree.org, checked 2026-10-02.

West side: Puget Sound, the Willamette Valley, the coast

Mild winters open up broadleaf screens rated to zone 7 or 8: false holly, Pacific wax myrtle, strawberry tree and coast silk tassel. OSU’s database says strawberry tree needs no summer water once its taproot is established, and that wax myrtle withstands both damp spots and summer drought. Western redcedar belongs only on moist sites: WSU forest health researchers link its dieback to warmer, drier summers. Its yard-tree profile is on western redcedar.

East side: Spokane, Yakima, the Tri-Cities, Central Oregon

Rocky Mountain juniper’s native range reaches eastern Oregon; OSU’s database rates it hardy to zone 3 and able to withstand drought. Incense cedar (zone 5) tolerates drought once established, and tall Oregon grape is rated to zone 5 (NCSU). Emerald Green survives the cold but still needs the dry-spell soaking OSU recommends through July and August.

Fire country: WSU’s Chelan-Douglas Master Gardeners describe arborvitae as “like plant torches” because of oily foliage and dead material that collects inside the plant, and NC State rates Rocky Mountain juniper highly flammable. In wildfire-prone areas, keep them away from the house; see creating a defensible space.

Popular privacy plants that are invasive here

English laurel (cherry laurel) and English holly both make dense evergreen screens, and birds carry their seed out of the yard. King County says cherry laurel shades out tree seedlings and native shrubs. The state weed board’s 2025 findings on holly report that birds, often robins, spread its seed 10–50 meters (about 33–164 feet) and as far as 500 meters (about 1,640 feet), and that holly can come to dominate a forest understory.

Sources: WSNWCB 2026 state list and species pages; King County 2026 noxious weed list; ODA Noxious Weed Policy and Classification System 2025; City of Portland Nuisance Tree List. Checked 2026-10-02.

Two more are worth checking before you plant. Ivy trained on chain-link is on noxious weed lists in both states: Washington lists four ivy cultivars as Class C noxious weeds, and English and Atlantic ivy are both on ODA’s B list, with an ODA profile describing vines that reach the tops of trees. Russian olive is a Washington Class C noxious weed; it is not on ODA’s 2025 list.

The state boards suggest replacements. Washington’s list of western Washington alternatives to English holly names false holly, which it calls great for screening, tall Oregon grape and Meserve hybrid hollies. GardenSmart Oregon, published by Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services and partners, adds Pacific wax myrtle and Chinese holly.

Taking out an old laurel hedge is real work. OSU warns that cherry laurel may regrow if all the roots are not removed, and suggests keeping hedges trimmed so they don’t set berries in the meantime. Clearing and stump options are on brush clearing and stump grinding.

Planting, spacing and watering a new screen

1. Look up firstUnder distribution lines, plant only small trees with a mature height of 20–30 feet (PGE). OSU advises keeping large shade trees 25 feet from overhead wires. Utility-by-utility rules are under utility tree trimming.
2. Space for the mature widthOSU Extension spaces arborvitae 3 to 4 feet apart, and WSU sets Emerald Green 4 feet apart in rows. For wider plants, use the width column in the table: anything set much closer will crowd its neighbors.
3. Dig wide, plant highMake the hole 2 to 3 times as wide as the root ball and set the ball 1 to 2 inches above grade. OSU says you don’t need to fertilize at planting.
4. Mulch the root zoneSpread 2 to 4 inches of wood chips in a 3-foot circle, kept 3 inches off the trunk (Portland Urban Forestry). Where to get chips is covered in free wood chips.
5. Water for three summersOSU says to water regularly for at least 3 years after planting. Portland Urban Forestry suggests starting with 15 gallons per tree per week in the dry season, May through October.

Timing matters too; planting windows for each side of the Cascades are in the best time to plant trees in the Northwest. If a new screen browns in its first August, the patterns to check are in why arborvitae turn brown.