Rockville, MD – October 22, 2026 – PRESSADVANTAGE –
A Maryland law effective October 1, 2026, gives counties and municipalities new authority to regulate tree-of-heaven and other listed invasive trees. The change matters in Rockville, where property owners weighing tree removal now have another reason to identify a tree correctly and ask what will happen after it is cut. Yanez Tree Service Experts lists tree removal and stump work among its services there; the law does not itself require the company or any homeowner to launch a removal program.
Chapter 209 of the 2026 Maryland legislative session (Senate Bill 266) expands a local-government law that previously addressed invasive bamboo. A jurisdiction may adopt an ordinance restricting the sale, planting or continued growth of tree-of-heaven and trees on the state’s prohibited invasive plant list. It may also provide for mitigation or a civil fine under such an ordinance. Those are powers granted to local governments, not an automatic statewide removal deadline or a fine that took effect on every private lot this month.
The law offers another option: a county or municipality may create a bounty or native-tree replacement program. A program of that kind would have to require identification consistent with the UMD Extension species page, followed by removal or eradication using professionally accepted methods or the Extension’s methodology. The statute does not create a payment for an owner who cuts a tree. Any incentive would depend on a local program and its actual terms.
Getting the species right is not always straightforward. Tree-of-heaven has long compound leaves that can look like those of native sumacs or black walnut. Extension points to small gland-tipped teeth near the base of its leaflets as one distinguishing feature; female trees also carry clusters of winged seeds. A decision based on a distant view of the canopy could confuse an invasive tree with a desirable neighbor. Identification belongs before a work order, not after the saw arrives.
Once the tree has been identified, the scope may be trunk removal, stump work or control of the living root system. Extension warns that cutting tree-of-heaven alone does not eradicate it. Roots left alive can send up numerous suckers. The agency describes repeated removal of new sprouts as one nonchemical approach and systemic herbicide as another means of killing the roots, with timing and label directions important to the latter. That guidance does not establish that any particular tree company offers herbicide treatment. The owner and contractor should define the follow-up scope rather than assume stump grinding ends the problem.
The species also serves as a preferred host for spotted lanternfly, but local decisions are not uniform. Rockville’s published street-tree information says the city generally leaves its tree-of-heaven trees in place to attract the insect instead of attempting eradication. That is the city’s management description, not a rule telling private owners to leave every tree standing. Nor does the October state law reverse it by ordering the city to remove those trees. A public tree near a curb presents a different responsibility from one rooted on a private lot.
The city states that it manages trees in its parks and the public right-of-way and that residents may not prune or remove those trees themselves. Before scheduling removal near a sidewalk or road, the ownership and any applicable city permission need to be settled. For a private tree, the owner should check the current local rules rather than assume the state’s new grant of authority means it has already enacted a specific tree-of-heaven mandate.
Yanez Tree Service Experts identifies Rockville and Montgomery County as its core area and lists tree removal, pruning, stump grinding and stump removal. The October law gives context for discussing what a proposed tree job actually covers, but those listed services alone do not establish a specialist invasive-tree eradication method. A written scope can separate identification, removal, stump work and any later response to regrowth.
The Maryland law sets out the new local powers. UMD Extension explains identification and control, while the Yanez website describes the company’s tree services. The useful next step is to confirm the tree, its ownership and the proposed work before treating a cut trunk as a lasting solution.
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For more information about Yanez Tree Service Experts, contact the company here:
Yanez Tree Service Experts
Alejandro Yanez
(301) 503-9806
alejandroy24@gmail.com
886 College Pkwy, Rockville, MD 20850
