Forest Conservation Easements: The Part of Your Yard You Can’t Cut

Ellicott City Tree Care · Updated August 2026 · 8 min read

This is the single most expensive mistake a Howard County homeowner can make with a chainsaw, and the people who make it almost never know the restriction exists. They bought a house with woods out back, cleared a bit for a shed or a play area or just to open up the view — and got a stop-work order.

Where this comes from

Maryland's Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1991, with local programs implemented beginning July 1993. It applies to subdivision plans and grading or sediment control permits on areas of 40,000 square feet or more. Developers meeting its requirements must retain, afforest, or reforest a portion of the tract — and lock that in.

Howard County's ordinance requires an approved plan to include “a deed of forest conservation easement… that provides protection, in perpetuity, for areas of forest retention, reforestation and afforestation.” In perpetuity. It doesn't expire when the developer leaves, and it doesn't reset when the house sells.

The practical consequence: essentially any Howard County subdivision platted from roughly 1993 forward may carry one, and there are hundreds of these easements across the county — on public land, on community open space, and on private residential lots.

How it hides

Three documents create it: a Plat of Forest Conservation Easement showing location, a Forest Conservation Plan covering species and protections, and a recorded Deed of Forest Conservation Easement containing the perpetual restrictions.

The plat carries a required note. Verbatim, from Howard County's own plat form:

“No clearing, grading or construction is permitted within the Forest Conservation Easement, however, Forest Management practices as defined in the Deed of Forest Conservation Easement are allowed.”

Notice the structure. A flat prohibition, plus an exception defined somewhere else — in a deed recorded separately, often later. A buyer who reads the plat sees the ban and not the exception; a buyer who reads neither sees nothing at all. That's how people end up owning restricted land without knowing it.

What’s actually prohibited

Howard County publishes a homeowner guide for forest conservation areas. Its prohibited list is broader than most people expect:

Not allowed: clearing, composting, dumping of soil, lawn clippings, trash, waste, abandoned vehicles and appliances, mowing, building structures such as sheds, pools and fences, formal landscapes, and all-terrain vehicle use.

Allowed: walking, hiking, and bird watching.

Read that twice. Mowing is prohibited. Dumping your leaves and sticks there is prohibited. Those two catch more homeowners than tree cutting does, because they don't feel like violations — they feel like yard work. The county's guidance on adjoining open space is blunt about the mindset: these areas are “not intended for the personal use of adjoining property owners nor to serve as lawns, storage areas, gardens or playgrounds.”

The dead tree question

Here we're going to give you a careful answer instead of a confident one, because a confident wrong answer here is expensive.

The plat note allows “forest management practices as defined in the Deed of Forest Conservation Easement.” So whether you may remove a dead or hazardous tree depends on the language of your specific recorded deed. Howard County's homeowner brochure on forest conservation areas doesn't address dead or hazardous trees at all, and the county's enacted forest conservation subtitle contains no general homeowner carve-out for them. Other Maryland jurisdictions do publish explicit hazardous-tree provisions — but those are their rules, not Howard County's.

So: read your deed, then call before you cut. Post-development inspection and enforcement of forest conservation easements in Howard County is handled by the Natural Resources Division of the Department of Recreation & Parks, not by Planning and Zoning. (Two county sources list slightly different numbers for that division, so confirm when you call; the county's main planning line is 410-313-2350 and can route you.)

If the tree genuinely threatens your house, document it — dated photos, and ideally a written assessment of the defect — before you contact anyone. That record is what turns “I wanted more light” into “there was a demonstrable hazard,” and it's the same documentation that matters in a hazard-tree liability situation.

How to check, in about twenty minutes

1. SDAT Real Property Search — sdat.dat.maryland.gov. Search your address to get the account number and legal description.
2. PLATS.NET — plats.msa.maryland.gov. Pull your recorded subdivision plat and look for the forest conservation easement note and its hatched area.
3. MDLANDREC — mdlandrec.net, free with a free account. Find the recorded Deed of Forest Conservation Easement. This is the document that actually governs what you may do.
4. Howard County GIS — data.howardcountymd.gov for parcel context and past development plans near your address.
5. If you have a title policy from your purchase, the easement should appear as a recorded exception. Worth a look before you spend an evening in land records.

What it costs to get this wrong

Maryland law allows a civil penalty not exceeding $1,000 per violation, with each day a violation continues counted as a separate violation, and authorizes courts to require the violator to restore or reforest the area. Howard County adds stop-work orders and a penalty assessed per square foot of forest cut, cleared or graded, at a rate set by County Council resolution.

We're not going to quote you a per-square-foot figure, because we couldn't verify the current one and a wrong number here helps nobody. The point stands without it: the restoration obligation typically dwarfs the fine. Clearing costs a few thousand dollars; replanting and establishing forest on the same ground, under supervision, costs considerably more.

One piece of good news for Howard County specifically — unlike sixteen Maryland counties and Baltimore City, Howard has no Chesapeake Bay Critical Area. That removes the other big state overlay on tree cutting here, which means the forest conservation easement is usually the only thing standing between you and a routine removal.

How this fits with normal tree removal

For most Howard County homeowners, no county permit is required to remove a tree on your own residential lot. The Forest Conservation Act itself exempts activity on a single lot disturbing less than 20,000 square feet of forest.

The easement is the exception that overrides both. That plat note has no size floor — “no clearing” means no clearing, whether it's an acre or one tree. And if the tree is out front rather than out back, you may be dealing with a right-of-way tree and a state permit instead. Three different rule sets, one property.

Not sure which set applies to your tree? We'll look at the situation, tell you honestly if you need to clear something with the county first, and quote the work only when it's actually permitted — free written estimates throughout Howard County: 410-826-9006.