Trees await planting at the Rolling Hills Tree Farm in south Fort Worth in 2021. City Council adopted Fort Worth’s first urban forestry master plan during its June 25, 2024, meeting. Photo by Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report.
BY DREW SHAW, FORT WORTH REPORT
May 2, 2025
Departing council member Gyna Bivens wouldn’t mind if Fort Worth had the strongest tree protections in the state.
She’s spent seven years advocating for tighter forestry preservation rules — work she saw come to fruition at City Council’s April 22 meeting.
The council approved new restrictions for developers to navigate as they clear forestry and higher penalties if they fail to comply.
The updated ordinance nearly doubled the size of the city’s protected tree list, adding 21 trees to the list that formerly included 26. The amendments spelled out additional special protections for native post oak and blackjack oak trees, which are “extremely hard” to breed and a prominent native species across Fort Worth, according to officials.
Developers must protect 50 percent of post oak and blackjack oak tree canopies on properties, a step above the 25 percent goal for all other protected species.
For every tree removed illegally, developers could face a criminal fine of $2,000 — up from $500 — the state maximum for a zoning ordinance violation.
They’ll also face civil penalties of up to $1,200 per diameter inch of canopy removed, up from $300, if they remove a protected tree. For unauthorized removal of trees not on the list and not designated as “unprotected,” developers will face fees of $600 per inch.
For unauthorized removals of post oak or blackjack oak trees, offenders will face a $720 fine per diameter inch or $18 per canopy square foot, replacing the previous $600 per inch or $15 per square foot fine.
Revenue from fees will go to the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department tree fund.
“It’s important that people know, when they move to Fort Worth, you just can’t come and clear-cut our trees and not be held responsible for it,” said Bivens, who has earned the nickname of “the Lorax” from her fellow council members for her advocacy for trees.
What are the benefits of urban trees?
A healthy tree canopy in an urban environment reportedly helps cool heavily concreted areas, and shade from trees can reduce surface temperatures from 20 degrees to 45 degrees, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trees also act as natural reservoirs by intercepting and storing rainfall, reducing water runoff, and they directly remove pollutants from air, making urban air cleaner. Additionally, spending time around trees reduces stress and anxiety and improves mood, according to a report from the American Psychiatric Association.
Developers included in conversations
To provide some relief to developers, the council increased the allowed building height by 14 feet in the following zoning districts:
- CR – Low density multifamily
- C – Medium density multifamily
- CF– Community facilities
- ER – Restricted neighborhood commercial
- E – Neighborhood commercial
This measure aims to protect tree canopy while also preventing infrastructure from crossing zoning lines or property boundaries.
The ordinance includes a list of 17 unprotected, invasive trees that developers won’t face fines for clearing so long as they verify the area’s conditions — a caveat Bivens wanted to ensure so the city was not fining people for cutting down, what she views as, “trash trees.” Her priority was protecting old-growth, native trees.
As Bivens worked with staff for years on the tighter rules, she was repeatedly told that she’d need to fight against developers.
Eventually, she met with the city’s Developers Advisory Committee face-to-face to convince them they were on the same team to make Fort Worth a “more attractive place to be.”
“I told them: ‘You all are the good guys. I’m trying to stop the bad guys,’” she said. “Because you guys already follow the policies and procedures, you have no harm coming from this ordinance.”
The amendment for development also instructs the Fort Worth Zoning Commission to decrease zoning setbacks — the required minimum distance a building must be from property lines — by 50 percent for any zoning district with the exception of residential areas.
At the April 22 meeting, Mayor Mattie Parker thanked the Developers Advisory Committee for cooperating with the amendments.
“I think (developers) recognize the importance of our tree canopy in the city, and that leadership of the city was making this a priority,” Parker said.
Advancing a long-term mission
The higher fees directly respond to previous concerns from council members that the existing penalties for harm to protected trees were too light on developers who get in the way of the city’s inaugural urban forest master plan.
The master plan was adopted in June 2024 to lay a roadmap for Fort Worth’s goal of increasing the city’s overall tree canopy to 30 percent of the city by 2050, up from its current 19 percent coverage.
It was created in partnership with the Texas Trees Foundation. The initiative aimed to find solutions to issues like air quality, urban heat, stormwater management and tree protection in areas like the eastern Cross Timbers, which covers a large portion of Bivens’ district in east Fort Worth.
While the master plan had been floated by nature advocacy groups since 2004, Bivens traces today’s initiatives to summer 2018.
Developer D.R. Horton Homes had unlawfully cleared more than 70 percent of the trees — many of which were over a century old — on a 51.5-acre site to make room for homes. The company faced as much as $1.5 million in penalties for violating the city’s tree ordinance, which required retaining 25 percent tree coverage. After admitting fault and agreeing to plant five times as many trees as it destroyed, D.R. Horton avoided paying a fine.
The instance wasn’t the first controversial clear-cut in Fort Worth, but it generated an outcry by residents, media headlines and political conversations for creating water runoff that damaged existing houses.
Bivens, who represents the area, met with residents and made it a mission to stop uncontrolled clearing from happening again, as well as limit the administrative authority that city staff had over waiving tree fines.
“I told staff that I know they thought I’d be gone before this got done — I’m serious, I know that’s what they had hoped for,” said Bivens, who retires in May.
She said there will be more urban forestry conversations and amendments to come as Fort Worth grows, and she specifically wants to see a proper Fort Worth heat map study to show the cooling effects of trees over concrete-heavy areas.
For now, Bivens is just happy the seeds were sown, and that she was able to see them take root before leaving City Hall.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected] or @shawlings601.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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