Tree removal in Spokane, Washington

Permit rules for removing a tree in Spokane

For a tree that stands wholly on your lot, there is no city permit to pull and no diameter threshold to measure against. The Urban Forestry page states that residents do not need a permit for trees on private property, and no fee is published for private work. That holds for large conifers as well as small ornamentals.

The line is the planting strip. A tree between the sidewalk and the curb, or anywhere in the right-of-way, is a public tree, and removing it needs a permit under SMC 12.02.960 from Parks & Recreation – Urban Forestry (509-363-5495). Public-tree work also has to be done by an ISA Certified Arborist holding a current Commercial Tree License, so ask the crew for both before they quote a street tree.

Heritage designation under SMC 12.02.975 is voluntary and, per the city, does not bar removal. If you are unsure which side of the property line a trunk sits on, settle that first; a shared tree is a neighbor question, covered in Washington neighbor tree law.

What tree removal costs in Spokane

The modeled range below is built from crew-hours times a Washington crew-hour rate, and tree height sets most of those hours. Spokane’s big yard trees tend to be ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, which land in the taller rows of the table more often than a lot full of ornamental maples would.

BLS puts the Spokane-Spokane Valley mean wage for tree trimmers and pruners at $25.94 an hour, with a median of $23.98, on an employment base of 90. That is a labor index, not a price, and it sits well under the Seattle-area figure, which is part of why east-side rows read lower. Access, a trunk close to the house and a crane day are the multipliers that move a bid more than the base row (method).

Modeled estimate, not quotes (method): crew-hours × $210 per crew-hour; ×1.25 within 10 ft of a structure, ×1.3 with no truck access; a crane day adds $1,500–$3,500; stump grinding is separate.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 37-3013. Checked 2026-10-02.

Storm records for Spokane County

No Washington county comes close. NOAA logged 707 storm reports for Spokane County since 2016, ranking it 1st of 39 counties, and 469 of them are heavy snow. Thunderstorm wind is a distant second at 46, with wildfire and winter weather tied at 43 each and high wind at 40.

January, December and February are the peak months, and 69% of reports fall between November and February. The Spokane airport station averages 45.4 inches of snow a year on just 16.45 inches of total precipitation, so the threat to trees is weight, not saturated soil. The most recent three years logged 104 reports against 201 in the three before, a drop of roughly half, but even the lower count would keep the county near the top of the state.

NWS forecast zones covering the county: Northeast Mountains; Spokane Area; Washington Palouse.

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).

How removals are done here

Removals here usually start from damage rather than a plan. Snow and ice loads split tops and tear limbs out of pines, and a tree with a broken leader over a roof gets rigged down in sections by a climber, with the trunk bucked into rounds. Where a drop zone is too tight for that, the job becomes a crane removal, priced separately.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates ice storm Very High for Spokane County, with a score of 97.0, and wind Relatively High at 91.2. Wildfire is rated Relatively Moderate, but its score of 96.6 is high, so dead or dying conifers near the house are worth taking out on your schedule; see dead tree removal and defensible space.

• Crane removal
• Dead tree removal
• Large tree removal
• Near power lines

What to do next

Start with the property line. A private tree needs no city permit; a planting-strip or right-of-way tree needs an SMC 12.02.960 permit and a certified arborist with a Commercial Tree License. If a snow-loaded tree is leaning or cracked at a union, get a tree risk assessment before deciding between removal and pruning.

Before you hire, check the contractor through the Washington tree service license lookup, and ask whether the stump is included, since the modeled range excludes it; see stump grinding. The county-wide storm and hazard picture is on the Spokane County page.

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