Tree service in Tigard, Oregon

Tree removal permits in Tigard

For a tree in your own yard, Tigard’s answer is no permit. Title 8 of the municipal code, the Urban Forestry title, exempts single-family lots unless the tree is a street or median tree (8.08), a heritage tree (8.16), a tree planted with Urban Forestry Fund money (8.14), a tree required by a development approval (8.12) or on sensitive lands. The code defines removal broadly, as cutting 50 percent or more of the crown, trunk or roots (8.02.050), so a severe topping job counts as a removal even if the stump keeps growing.

What still applies is the public and protected category. A tree in the planter strip or right-of-way needs a permit, replacement is required in most cases, and the Permit Center at 503-718-2421 processes most of them within 10 days with no fee for a simple permit; commercial, industrial and multifamily sites need a permit for most removals, and a parcel outside the city limits falls under Washington County instead. Cutting a protected tree without a permit costs at least $250 per tree under TMC 1.16.640, and the city’s own example puts a 12-inch tree at about $4,400. Heritage trees have their own list, and the Oregon permit guide shows how neighboring cities compare.

Every city compared: tree removal permits in Oregon.

Source: Community Development, Permit Center (503-718-2421); City Manager or designee decides (TMC 8.04), Tigard Municipal Code Title 8 Urban Forestry (8.02-8.16); penalties TMC 1.16.640; Community Development Code 18.420. Checked 2026-10-02.

Storm records for Washington County (covers Tigard)

Washington County’s largest recent episode came on February 13, 2025, when abnormally cold air was already in place as a warm front pushed rain north across the region; the overrunning turned it to snow, sleet and freezing rain through the next day, and NOAA logged 4 reports, 2 for heavy snow and 2 for winter storm, across the Tualatin Valley, the West Hills and Chehalem Mountains and the North Coast Range zones. In the lowlands the damage from an event like that is ice loading on broadleaf limbs rather than snow depth.

The county’s record since 2016 holds 104 reports, 23rd of Oregon’s 36, and wind leads it: 30 high-wind and 21 strong-wind reports against 24 for heavy snow and 12 for winter storms. Peak months are January, February and December, with 69 percent of reports falling November through February. FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates ice storm Relatively High at 91.4 and strong wind Relatively Moderate at 80.1.

NWS forecast zones covering the county: North Oregon Coast Range; North Oregon Coast Range Lowlands; Tualatin Valley; West Hills and Chehalem Mountains.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 2016 to June 2026 · NWS zone-county correlation files (2019 to 2026 versions). Checked 2026-10-02. NOAA Storm Events 2016-2026; zone-based events assigned to every county the NWS zone covers using the zone-county correlation file in force on the event date (2019-04-02 file used for 2016-2018).

Power lines and utilities in Tigard

Portland General Electric is the utility for Tigard. PGE trims around its transmission lines and its primary and secondary distribution lines, and it asks customers to keep at least 10 feet of clearance around primary lines; the exact distance varies with voltage under Oregon PUC rule OAR 860-024-0016. The service wire to your house is trimmed only when branches strain or rub it, so routine clearance there is yours, and PGE asks that nothing be planted under or around its wires. Outages go to 503-464-7777 or 800-544-1795, answered 24 hours.

If your bill comes from another provider, use the number on the bill and look the company up in the utility directory. Whoever owns the line, a tree in contact with it is the utility’s call first; the sequence is on tree removal near power lines.

Source: utility vegetation-management pages linked above; OAR 437-002-0306 (OR-OSHA). Checked 2026-10-02.

Pests and quarantines

Emerald ash borer (EAB) · quarantineMediterranean oak borer (MOB)

Two wood-boring insects are confirmed in Washington County. Emerald ash borer is here and under quarantine: raw ash wood stays inside the quarantine area and can leave only as chips an inch or smaller or as kiln-dried, debarked lumber, or after heating to a 160 F core for 60 minutes with ODA permission; loads must be covered during the April 1 to September 30 flight period, and sightings go to the Oregon Invasive Species Online Hotline. Any ash removal in Tigard therefore ends with chipping on site or disposal inside the zone, never a load of rounds driven out of the county.

Mediterranean oak borer is confirmed too, without a quarantine. Keep cut oak firewood within 10 miles of where it was cut, and if a tree is infested, cut it and then burn or chip it to an inch, stump included, on site, reporting it with photos and a location to the Oregon Invasives Hotline. See emerald ash borer in Oregon for the full rules.

• Emerald ash borer (EAB): OR (ODF/ODA): keep raw ash wood inside the quarantine; move only as <=1-in chips or kiln-dried debarked lumber, or heat 160F core for 60 min with ODA permission; cover loads during flight period Apr 1
• Mediterranean oak borer (MOB): Don't move cut oak firewood >10 miles from source; cut then burn or chip (<=1 in) infested trees including the stump on site; report with photos/location to Oregon Invasives Hotline

Source: Emerald ash borer (EAB) · Mediterranean oak borer (MOB). Checked 2026-10-02.

Growing conditions in Tigard

Tigard’s ZIP codes map to USDA hardiness zone 9a, the mild end of the Willamette Valley, which widens the replanting list but does not change what the ice storm rating means: FEMA scores it 91.4 here, and glaze breaks the wide, horizontal branches of maples and oaks regardless of how mild the winters average. With ash a poor bet while emerald ash borer is active, replant with species that hold a strong central leader, and keep new trees out from under PGE’s wires, as the utility asks, and well outside the 10 feet it wants around primary lines.

USDA hardiness zone 9a (2023 map, by ZIP code).

Source: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (OSU PRISM ZIP data). Checked 2026-10-02.

Labor index for Tigard

Tigard is priced off the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro labor market, where BLS reports a $35.04 mean and $36.33 median hourly wage for tree trimmers and pruners (May 2025), from about 1,160 workers. A wage is not a price, and the modeled ranges on the service pages are built from crew-hours that also carry equipment, insurance and disposal; what a large workforce means in practice is more companies to compare.

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA: $35.04 per hour mean wage for tree trimmers and pruners (BLS, May 2025). This is a labor index, not a price; the modeled crew-hour cost used on this site is $225 (method).

276 landscaping-services establishments were counted in Washington County in 2023 (Census County Business Patterns, NAICS 561730).

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 37-3013 · U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 561730. Checked 2026-10-02.

ZIP codes and nearby cities

Tigard’s land is mostly in ZIP codes 97223, 97224, 97007 and 97140. Tualatin is 3 miles away, Beaverton and Lake Oswego 4, Sherwood 5, and Wilsonville and Milwaukie 8, and the permit rule can flip at each city line, so confirm which city a tree near a boundary is in before anyone decides it needs no permit. Countywide storm, hazard and utility data is on the Washington County page.

ZIP codes with the most land inside Tigard: 97223972249700797140

• Tualatin3 miles
• Beaverton4 miles
• Lake Oswego4 miles
• Sherwood5 miles
• Wilsonville8 miles
• Milwaukie8 miles

County page: Washington County.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 ZCTA to place and county relationship files. Checked 2026-10-02.

Tree services in Tigard

The pages below carry Tigard’s no-permit rule, its exceptions and the Oregon modeled ranges. Removal is where the street-tree permit, the replacement requirement and the 50 percent definition apply; trimming that takes more than half the crown is a removal under 8.02.050, so the trimming page covers how to stay under it; stump grinding needs the 811 locate and, for ash, the quarantine rules; and the emergency page sets out the calls after an ice night.

• Tree removal (statewide guide)
• Tree trimming in Tigard
• Stump grinding in Tigard
• Emergency tree service (statewide guide)
• Arborists and tree health
• Check a license in Oregon

What to do next

Work out which list the tree is on: yard tree with no strings, street or heritage tree, or development tree. The first needs no permit, so you can hire a crew directly; the others go through the Permit Center at 503-718-2421, usually inside 10 days. If it is an ash, plan the wood’s disposal inside the quarantine before the crew arrives, and confirm the company’s standing in the Oregon license lookup.