4.9 · 462 Google reviews · Licensed & Insured
Tree Service in Palm Harbor, FL
Palm Harbor is unincorporated, so county tree rules apply - not a city's. Removal, pruning and stumps, county paperwork filed. (727) 365-1803.
“This was the second time I'd hired Happy's to take down some dead trees and I couldn't be happier with the job they did. First off they gave me a great price for the amount of work I needed done.”
- 462 Google reviews
- Licensed & Insured
- ISA Certified Arborist on staff
- Pinellas since 1989
Palm Harbor is not a city. There is no City of Palm Harbor, no Palm Harbor tree ordinance, and no Palm Harbor building department. It is an unincorporated community governed directly by Pinellas County, and that single fact answers the question most callers open with.
It also means Palm Harbor is one of the large unincorporated communities where the county’s own residential threshold applies in full.
The county rules, and the number that only exists here
Pinellas County replaced its entire tree code effective 23 January 2026 (Chapter 58, Article XIX, Ordinance No. 26-3). Under § 58-813(a), a protected tree is any tree 4 inches DBH or larger, and all palms six feet or taller.
But on residential property that carries a Pinellas County homestead exemption, has an existing single-family detached residence, and is actively used as one, the county adds "not vacant, rented, or being demolished for redevelopment", only trees greater than 24 inches DBH are protected.
That 24-inch threshold is a county rule for unincorporated property. It does not apply in Clearwater, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs or anywhere else with its own ordinance, and quoting it at a city address is how homeowners get into trouble. Here in Palm Harbor, it is genuinely yours.
What it does not get you: there is no dangerous-tree, dead-tree or storm exemption anywhere in the county article. A dead tree is a Grade 0 tree that may be removed with an approved permit and without replanting. Removing a protected tree without authorization is $150 per DBH inch, and liability is joint and several between the property owner and the contractor. The whole picture, with citations, is on the Pinellas County tree permit page, which doubles as the unincorporated-county page.
The second rulebook nobody mentions: your HOA
Palm Harbor is heavily deed-restricted, and association rules routinely sit on top of the county’s, sometimes stricter, sometimes specifying species, sometimes requiring board approval before any work at all. A county permit does not satisfy an architectural review committee, and an ARC approval does not satisfy the county. Both, in the right order, or neither is worth much.
We ask which community you are in at the estimate, because it changes the sequence.
What the trees are doing here
Palm Harbor’s canopy runs from genuinely old inland hammock, live oak, laurel oak, cabbage palm, hickory, through the newer subdivision plantings that went in with the 1980s and 1990s builds. The recurring problems split accordingly: end-weight and decay in the old trees, and structural defects in the young ones that were never corrected when correcting them was cheap.
Around the golf corridors and along the Lake Tarpon shoreline the trees have grown with one open side, so they carry their weight asymmetrically and lean into the light. That is a normal habit, not a fault, but it changes how a tree comes down and where a crane has to sit.
Start here
Send us a photo of the tree.
You do not have to know whether it needs to come down. That is the part we are for.
- One photo, whole tree in frameTrunk base to top. A close-up of anything that looks wrong helps.
- Text us the photoThe text button below opens the right thread. Add your street and city.
- We come out and lookEvery estimate is in person, free, sometimes the answer is that it needs nothing.
What we run here
We bring the machine the tree needs: a spider lift where a side yard is tight, bucket trucks and grapple trucks for the wood and the brush, and a crane on the picks that call for one. On the large-lot Palm Harbor properties the constraint is usually reach across a pool deck or a screen enclosure rather than street access, which is exactly the crane’s job.
Removals, structural and clearance pruning, palm work, stump grinding, cabling and bracing, storm response and haul-away, with an ISA Certified Arborist looking at the tree before we quote it.
Where to go next
- Tree removal in Palm Harbor, county rules applied straight
- Tree trimming in Palm Harbor, golf-corridor and lakeshore trees
- Pinellas County tree permits, the code that governs this community
- Nearby: Dunedin · Tarpon Springs · Oldsmar · all of Pinellas County
Frequently asked questions
Who issues my tree permit in Palm Harbor? Pinellas County, through the county’s Access Portal, not a city. Phone 727-464-3888 or 727-464-3480, or let us file it.
Is the 24-inch rule real? Yes, and it is genuinely yours if your parcel is homesteaded, has an occupied single-family detached house on it, and is actively lived in. It is not real for your friend in Clearwater or Dunedin.
My tree is dead. Do I still need a permit? Yes. The county’s new article contains no dead-tree exemption. A dead tree grades 0, which means no replanting is owed, but the permit is still required.
Does my homeowners association need to approve it too? Very likely. Palm Harbor is heavily deed-restricted and association approval is a separate track from the county permit. We will tell you what order to do them in.
Call (727) 365-1803 for a free estimate anywhere in Palm Harbor.
Google reviews
Rated 4.9 by 462 of your neighbors.
Reviews · Tree Service in Palm Harbor, FL
4.9
462 reviews on Google, the count on our public Google listing
“Steven was great, him and his crew got out early and was here all day taking out my four laurel oaks for me. Start to finish it was a pleasure working with happy tree service. The speed and efficiency of the work was fantastic.”
“This was the second time I'd hired Happy's to take down some dead trees and I couldn't be happier with the job they did. First off they gave me a great price for the amount of work I needed done.”
Every one of these lives on our public Google listing, where we cannot edit or delete a word. Read them all on Google →
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- Live Oak Care, Pruning & Removal in Pinellas County