Guide
How to make a tree protection plan: the fast workflow
A tree protection plan turns a site survey into a code-correct drawing and report your reviewer will approve. Here is the whole workflow, and how to do it in a fraction of the usual time.
Before you can grade a site with regulated trees on it, the city wants a tree protection plan. It is the drawing and report that spells out which trees you are keeping, which are coming down, how you will keep the keepers alive through construction, and what you will plant to make up for the losses. Depending on where you are, the same document might be called a tree mitigation plan, a tree preservation plan, a tree protection and removal plan, or a tree disposition plan. Same job, different letterhead.
Whatever it is called, the reviewer wants the same four things: an accurate inventory, each tree's Critical Root Zone drawn to scale, an honest read of what the grading will hit, and the replacement math the ordinance demands. Here is how to get there.
The workflow
Six steps, start to submittal
- 1
Inventory the trees on site
Walk the site and get every regulated tree on record: species, trunk diameter (DBH), condition, and where it actually stands. Snap a photo of each one so the record holds up when someone questions it later. This survey is the ground truth for everything that follows, so it is worth doing carefully.
- 2
Map each tree's protection zone
For every tree you plan to keep, draw its Critical Root Zone. Your ordinance sets how it is sized, usually off the trunk diameter. Think of the CRZ as the fence line: the ground that has to stay untouched if the tree is going to survive the excavator.
- 3
Overlay the limits of disturbance
Drop in the proposed grading, utilities, and building footprint, then look at where they bite into a protection zone. That overlap is the whole ballgame. It is what separates a tree you can save from one you cannot.
- 4
Decide what stays, what goes, and what you owe
Mark each tree as saved, removed, or needing a prescription, and flag any specimen, heritage, or landmark trees the code guards more tightly. Then total the removals and run the mitigation the ordinance requires: replacement caliper inches, a fee in lieu, or some of both.
- 5
Draft the plan sheet
Now build the drawing the reviewer expects to see: trees and root zones to scale, protection fencing and details, a tree table (ID, species, size, condition, disposition), a legend, and a titleblock on a large-format sheet. This drawing is the tree protection and removal plan itself.
- 6
Write the report and submit
Wrap it in a signed arborist report: site map, methods, findings, and the mitigation summary. Then send the set to plan review and expect one round of comments. Keep the inventory linked to the plan so those comments are a quick edit, not a rebuild.
The bottleneck
Where the time actually goes
The survey and the judgment calls, which trees are worth saving and how to protect them, are the parts that need a professional. The drafting is not. Yet the drafting is where the hours vanish: hand-placing every tree at the right coordinate, drawing a sized root-zone circle on each one, re-keying spreadsheet rows into a table, checking the impact by eye, then doing it all again when the grading moves. On a mid-size site that is a full day, and it comes back every revision.
The fast way
Let the drafting run itself
Two LandCode tools take the slow steps off your plate so you keep the survey and the judgment, and hand off the rest.
ArborCode
Collect the inventory in the field on your phone, even offline, then export a CAD-ready DWG and DXF, a large-format plan sheet, and a professional PDF report. Best when the survey and the deliverable are the whole job.
See ArborCode →CanopyCode
Already drafting in AutoCAD or Civil 3D? CanopyCode automates the plan itself: per-tree CRZ and SRP, impact analysis against the disturbance limits, labels, tables, and the legend. Best when you live in CAD.
See CanopyCode →Questions
Tree protection plan FAQ
Is a tree protection plan the same as a tree mitigation or preservation plan?
Close enough that people swap the terms constantly, but they lean different ways. A protection plan is about keeping the trees you save alive through construction: fencing, root zones, details. A mitigation plan is about what you owe for the ones you remove, in replacement trees or fees. A preservation plan is the umbrella that holds both, plus the inventory. We break it down in tree mitigation vs protection plan.
Do I need a certified arborist to make one?
Usually, yes, at least for the inventory and the condition call. Many jurisdictions require an ISA Certified Arborist or a Board Certified Master Arborist to do or sign it, and some want the report stamped. Who exactly can sign varies city to city, so check your local ordinance before you assume.
What software do I need?
The plan sheet is a CAD drawing, so it lands in AutoCAD or Civil 3D one way or another. The inventory can start in a spreadsheet or a field app. The part that eats time is turning that field data into a scaled, code-correct drawing by hand, which is exactly what ArborCode (survey to a CAD-ready file and report) and CanopyCode (plan automation inside AutoCAD and Civil 3D) are built to skip.
How long does a tree protection plan take?
By hand, budget a full day or more of drafting and reporting on top of the survey: placing trees, drawing root zones, running the impact analysis, building the tables. That is where an automated workflow earns its keep, dropping the drafting from hours to minutes so your time goes back to the field and the judgment calls.
What is actually in the finished plan?
A typical submittal: a tree inventory table (ID, species, DBH, condition, disposition), a scaled plan sheet showing each tree and its root zone, protection fencing and details, a legend, a titleblock, and a signed arborist report with a site map and the mitigation summary.