(a) A permit must be obtained from the Urban Forester in each respective district for all types of work or treatments to public trees, including branch and root pruning and the removal of public trees.
(b) The scope of work set forth in the application must conform to the guidelines and best management practices adopted by the Tree Board and must be approved by the Urban Foresters.
(c) A major permit is a permit issued for a six-month period to entities or persons who conduct frequent roadside tree work. An application for a major permit must include the specific streets or areas where tree work will be conducted but does not need to identify individual trees.
(d) Permit applications must be submitted to the Urban Forester for approval prior to commencement of work. Permitted work must be performed under the supervision of a Board approved, certified arborist. The arborist’s name, certification number, signature and the certifying agency must appear on all applications. The arborist is responsible for the quality of the work performed on site and for adherence to the scope of work approved under the permit.
(e) It must be clearly stated in the permit application when roadside vegetation maintenance work requires the closure or a lane of the roadway or the redirection of motor vehicle traffic. The best management practices of the Tree Board or ANSI guidelines must be followed when planning lane closure. Roadside vegetation work may not be conducted on both directions of the roadway simultaneously.
(f) Crews of the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works and the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, or their subcontractors, are permitted to prune or remove public trees as needed in order to maintain properly functioning public infrastructure, such as roads, sidewalks, overhead utilities, or buried utilities; but a member of the crew must be a certified arborist or the crew must have a certified arborist who supervises the work, provides the written work plan and visits the worksite daily. An Urban Forester or a third-party arborist may serve as the supervisory arborist.
(g) If a private contractor is engaged to prune or remove a public tree, the arborist who signs the permit application must prepare the work plan and review the work on a daily basis to ensure that the work is being executed according to the plan. The arborist may be the urban forester, an employee of the agency, or a private-sector contractor performing the work.