Hazardous tree risk assessment in Brevard County

Signs a tree may be failing

None of these means a tree is about to fall. Each one is a reason to get it looked at, and two or three together are a reason to do it soon.

• A cavity, or soft and crumbly wood, in the trunk or a major limb
• Mushrooms or shelf-like fungus at the base or on the roots
• A crack running down the trunk, or a seam opening where two trunks meet in a tight V
• Large dead limbs, or a dead top
• A new lean, with soil heaving or cracking on the opposite side
• Roots cut by a trench, a new driveway or pool work in the last few years
• Broken limbs hung up in the canopy after a storm

Species matters

UF/IFAS notes that laurel oak is prone to breakage and that its trunk and large limbs often hollow from decay (UF/IFAS ST549). In its ratings of trees after hurricanes, laurel oak and sand pine came out lowest on the Southeastern Coastal Plain, while live oak, sand live oak and sabal palm came out highest (UF/IFAS FR173). A cavity in a live oak and a cavity in a laurel oak aren't the same conversation.

Florida's dangerous-tree law, in plain terms

Section 163.045 of the Florida Statutes says a city or county can't require a notice, application, approval, permit, fee or mitigation to prune, trim or remove a tree on residential property when the owner has documentation that the tree poses an unacceptable risk to people or property. The local government can't require replanting either (F.S. 163.045).

The definitions are narrow, and they're where people get caught out:

• "Documentation" means an onsite assessment done under the ISA Best Management Practices for tree risk assessment (2nd edition, 2017), signed by the assessor.
• "Unacceptable risk" means removal is the only practical way to bring the risk below moderate.
• "Residential property" means a single-family detached home on a lot actively used as one. Vacant lots, multifamily buildings and commercial sites aren't covered.
• Mangroves are excluded.

How Brevard cities read it

Local codes read it the same narrow way. Cocoa's code says residential property under the exemption doesn't include multifamily property, HOA or condo common areas, vacant residential land, rights-of-way, or land under a development agreement or a landscape or conservation easement (Cocoa Code, Appendix A, Art. XIII, s. 22). Palm Bay exempts developed single- and two-family lots that meet 163.045, provided the owner gives the city the documentation (Palm Bay Code s. 175.014).

Who can sign the documentation

The statute names two kinds of professionals: an ISA Certified Arborist or a Florida licensed landscape architect (F.S. 163.045). ISA certification is a private credential, not a state license. It lasts three years, it's renewed with continuing education credits or by retaking the exam, and ISA will verify a person's credential status for the public (ISA Certified Arborist application).

When you call, say that you need signed documentation and not only a removal price. Ask the crew you're matched with whether an ISA Certified Arborist or a licensed landscape architect will do the onsite assessment and sign it. If the answer is no, you can hire one directly and bring the crew in afterward for the work.

What an assessment settles, and what it doesn't

A risk assessment weighs how likely a tree is to fail, what it would hit, and how bad that would be. It may conclude that pruning, cabling or keeping an eye on the tree is enough. The statute is about local government permits. HOA rules and disputes with a neighbor are separate questions.

It also doesn't cover every property. A common-area oak in a condo complex or a pine on a vacant lot falls outside 163.045, so the normal permit rules apply. In unincorporated Brevard, a dead or seriously damaged tree that poses an immediate threat has its own emergency exemption, with photos and measurements taken first (Brevard County Code s. 62-4334).

Hazardous tree removal

If the answer is removal, the method follows the setting: dropped whole on open ground, taken down in pieces over a roof, or lifted out by crane. The tree removal and crane removal pages explain how those go.