Regulations21 min read
Felling a tree: permission and rules
Protected woodland, listed sites, dangerous trees, tenants, nesting season: when a prior declaration is required to fell a tree in France, and how to check it at the town hall.
Tree felling and stump removal in Lapalud
A tree that is dead, diseased, dangerous or too close to the house: Josué takes it down under control, including in tight spaces, and clears everything away.
Free quote
Visit and pricing with no obligation
30 km around Lapalud
Vaucluse, Drôme, Gard, Ardèche
Monday to Saturday
8am – 7pm
Green waste removed
The ground is left clean
Not sure? Describe it and Josué will take a look.
Two lines is enough. The visit and the written quote are free, with no obligation.
41 customers left a review. Every one gave five stars.
The rating comes from the company’s Google listing. You can read the reviews one by one, and leave your own after the work is done.
Google review summary
5,0
41 reviews
| 5 | 41 | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0 | |
| 3 | 0 | |
| 2 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 |
- What customers mention
- abattage 4
- haie 4
- prix 4
- sapin 2
Emily Micheli Visited in septembre 2024Équipe dynamique rapidité d’intervention et prix raisonnable. Je vous recommande Monsieur Poulain
Reply from Josué Poulain — Merci beaucoup de votre confiance 😉
gregory fahys Visited in mars 2026entreprise très sérieuse travail soigné je recommande fortement
Reply from Josué Poulain — Merci, cela a été un plaisir de travailler pour vous.
Lilou Martin Visited in juillet 2026Très bon travail, entreprise, réactif, je recommande
Raiso Chauvet Visited in juillet 2026Très bonne entreprise sérieuse
Mandy Poulain Visited in juillet 2026Artisan poulain est intervenu chez moi pour l’abattage d’un sapin un peu complexe. Il a su travailler tout en sécurité, je suis très satisfait du résultat artisan très sympathique et ponctuel je le recommande sérieusement.
Mélissa Hangard Visited in mars 2026Ponctuel, moins de 10 jours entre le premier contact, le devis et le début d’intervention. Artisan sympathique et à l’écoute des envies et des besoins. Il a également su nous conseiller pour notre projet. Je recommande fortement.
Reply from Josué Poulain — Merci beaucoup pour votre retour et votre recommandation ! Nous sommes ravis que notre réactivité et nos conseils vous aient satisfait. Ce fut un plaisir de vous accompagner dans votre projet.
Gouttières alu 84 Visited in mars 2026Nous avons fait intervenir Mr Poulain chez nous pour tailler notre haie et un abattage d’un gros arbre les travaux on étais réalisé dans les temps et en toute sécurité je recommande les yeux fermer ponctuel et professionnel
Mayrone Martin Visited in mars 2026J’ai fait confiance a Mr Poulain pour venir abattre un arbre chez moi j’ai était agréablement surpris du professionnalisme et du prix très correct rien n’a redire je recommande vivement.
Alain Richard Visited in mars 2026Monsieur Poulain est un homme sérieux, ponctuel, motivé et très appliqué (plutôt rare de nos jours !!!). Il se soucie du fait que le résultat final, corresponde bien à vos attentes.
Reply from Josué Poulain — Merci beaucoup pour votre message et votre recommandation. Je suis ravi que le travail réalisé ait été à la hauteur de vos attentes. Je mets un point d’honneur à être à l’écoute de mes clients afin de leur apporter un résultat soigné et conforme à leurs besoins.
Martine Verron Visited in mars 2026Taille des haies de laurier, Olivier parfaite, comme demandé. Je conseille vivement cette entreprise. Avec mes remerciements
Reply from Josué Poulain — Merci pour votre avis et votre confiance. Nous sommes heureux d’avoir pu vous accompagner dans votre projet et que notre réactivité vous ait satisfait. Au plaisir de vous revoir pour de futurs travaux.
What it involves
A tree is rarely felled in one piece on a domestic property. Where there is a house, a fence, a pool or a road nearby, the work is done by dismantling: Josué climbs, cuts the trunk into sections and lowers them on a rope. On open ground, straight felling remains possible, with a directional notch and a safety line.
Before any of that comes the diagnosis. A leaning tree is not necessarily dangerous; a perfectly straight tree with a fungus at its base may be far more so. During the visit Josué looks at the root collar, the deadwood, the cracks, and tells you plainly whether felling is necessary or whether pruning will do. A healthy tree is worth keeping.
Stump removal is treated separately: either by mechanical grinding or by extraction, depending on access and on what you intend to do with the ground afterwards.
Permission: the part not to skip
Not every tree can be felled freely. Depending on the commune, a tree may be protected by the local planning scheme, sit within a classified wooded area, form part of a protected hedge, or require a prior declaration to the town hall. Josué raises the question during the visit as a matter of course and points you to the right procedure. No felling starts until that point is settled.
Josué travels up to 30 km from Lapalud. Check the towns covered around Lapalud — Vaucluse, Drôme, Gard and Ardèche.
What the job includes
- Written quote, free and with no obligation
- Green waste removed, unless the quote says otherwise
- Ground raked clean at the end of the job
- Assessment of the tree during the quotation visit
- Regulatory constraints checked before any work begins
- Sectional dismantling or directional felling, depending on the site
- Trunk cut into transportable sections
- Stump removal on request (grinding or extraction)
- Full clearance, or cut into logs and stacked on site if you are keeping the wood
When to do it
Preferably in winter: the tree is bare, lighter and easier to dismantle, and firm ground copes better with equipment crossing it. Where there is a proven danger — a split tree, one leaning after a storm — the work is done without waiting.
While we are there, this often comes up
- reducing rather than felling — a crown reduction settles many cases where felling looked like the only option.
- putting the ground back in order after felling — once the tree is gone, regrowth and scrub take the space back quickly.
- taking the garden back in hand once the space is clear — one tree fewer means more light — and a bed to rethink.
The tree is yours, the decision is not always
Six situations where the answer does not rest with you. None of them forbids felling — all of them require asking first, and it is the mairie that decides.
The tree is in a classified woodland area
Any cutting or felling requires prior notification. The classification is shown on the PLU zoning plan, and your mairie’s planning desk will tell you in two minutes whether your plot is in it.
The tree is listed in the PLU as a landscape feature to protect
A commune can protect an avenue or a single tree independently of any woodland classification. It is written into the graphic regulations, and only the mairie can confirm it.
The tree is within a listed-monument perimeter or a protected site
The mairie refers the case to the Architecte des Bâtiments de France, and the process lengthens accordingly. In this area that mainly concerns Orange and the old town centres.
It is a plane tree, and it worries you
Canker stain is subject to control measures set by prefectural order. Faced with a suspect plane, you report it, you touch nothing, and you wait for the mairie: cutting at the wrong moment spreads the disease.
The tree is too close to the boundary
Here it is not the mairie but private law. Articles 671 and 672 of the Civil Code set the distances, and a neighbour can require the removal of a tree planted too close. A written agreement between neighbours settles most cases.
Your estate has its own rules
An estate covenant or residents’ association charter can impose species, heights, or the managing agent’s consent before any felling. It applies in addition to the PLU, not instead of it.
None of these checks costs money or takes a week. One call to the planning desk is enough, and it is that desk which is authoritative — not this page, and not the company that comes to cut.
Tree felling: the mistakes we see most
Three situations that come back job after job. None is beyond repair, but all cost more to fix than to avoid.
Felling before checking with the town hall
A tree can be protected by the local planning scheme, sit in classified woodland, or fall inside the perimeter of a historic monument — common in Orange. Felling without consent is an offence, and replanting can be imposed. The check is free and takes one phone call: Josué never starts before it is done.
Assuming a leaning tree is bound to fall
Plenty of trees have grown leaning all their lives and are perfectly stable: the wood has thickened on the loaded side. What really warrants concern is a RECENT lean, a ridge of lifted soil at the base, a crack in the trunk, or deadwood up in the crown. A healthy tree that has leaned for twenty years is not felled — it is watched.
Leaving the stump “for later”
Sometimes that is the right call, but it should be a decision, not a default. A broadleaf stump throws up suckers for years and has to be revisited; a conifer stump does not, but it draws wood-boring insects. And grinding it later costs more: the machine comes out for that alone, when it was already on site the day of the felling.
What it costs
Trunk diameter, height, species, access for removing the wood, whether dismantling is required rather than straight felling, and any stump removal.
How it is priced
Per tree, with stump removal priced separately — you are never obliged to take it. Plenty of owners leave the stump for a year while they decide what to do with the space.
What the market charges
The example quotes published by comparison sites for a large tree in a tight spot, with removal and stump grinding, run into thousands of euros; a small accessible tree in the open stays in the hundreds. What widens the gap is almost never the height of the tree: it is what surrounds it.
These figures are taken from national comparison sites. They are not PJ Espaces Verts’ rates: Josué prices after seeing the job, and his quote may fall outside these ranges either way. They are here so you are not calling in the dark.
What a quote is made of
- Labour
- The main item. Directional felling in an open field is counted in hours; sectional dismantling above a roof, in days.
- Equipment
- Ropes, winch, climbing kit, chainsaws. On a constrained tree, hiring a platform may be added — and it appears on the quote, never afterwards.
- Removal
- A felled tree is a volume owners almost always underestimate. The quote separates cutting up, loading and disposal.
- Stump removal
- Machine grinding, excavation, or nothing at all. The diameter of the stump and how close it sits to a wall or a service decide the method.
- Travel
- Counted once, not per visit. On a two-day job it barely registers; on a small job thirty kilometres out, it shows.
Felling cannot be quoted over the phone: what surrounds the tree decides the method, and therefore the time. Josué comes out, tells you plainly whether it has to come down branch by branch or can be felled in one piece, and leaves you a written, free quote.
The 50% tax credit: what to know
Small gardening jobs at a private home fall under France’s personal services scheme: half the cost comes back to the householder as a tax credit, up to an annual ceiling per household, and an immediate-advance option means paying only half the invoice at the time. The catch is that the work has to fall inside that category — and many websites claim it for work that does not.
This service does NOT qualify. Felling and stump removal are forestry work, not small gardening: no tax credit applies, whatever the sites that print “50%” across every page may say. Better to know before setting a budget.
The tax credit requires a business registered under the personal services scheme. Ask Josué where that registration stands when he quotes: it changes what the work finally costs you, and he will tell you straight.
Tree felling: your questions
Can I keep the firewood?
Yes, and it is common. Mention it when the quote is drawn up: Josué cuts it into logs and stacks them wherever you say. It also reduces the clearance cost.
Is the stump included?
No, stump removal is a separate item, quoted separately. It is not always necessary.
My neighbour wants me to fell a tree whose branches overhang their garden.
A neighbour can require the overhanging branches to be cut back, not the tree to be felled. In most cases a well-judged reduction solves the problem without losing the tree.
Where Josué travels
The journey, the ground and the regulations change from one town to the next. Six of them have a page of their own.
Other services
Garden maintenance
Regular visits so your grounds stay tidy all year.
Lawn mowing
Mowing, edge finishing, clippings collected. One-off or all season.
Brush clearing
Overgrown ground, or a legal clearance obligation: back to a clean slate.
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The visit, the on-site assessment and the written quote are free and commit you to nothing.