Apex weighs new tree protections after heavy canopy loss
Apex lost a landmark oak and is now weighing tougher tree rules after a county study showed 11,122 acres of Wake canopy disappeared in a decade.
The removal of Oakey, a 140-year-old oak that many Apex residents saw as part of the town’s identity, has sharpened the debate over how much tree cover should give way to growth. Town leaders and the Apex Environmental Advisory Board are now talking about stronger protections, including tighter root-zone rules, a heritage-tree program, a tree-mitigation fund and hiring an urban forester.
The push comes as Wake County’s 2023 Land Cover Analysis and Tree Canopy Assessment put a hard number on the pace of change: Wake lost 11,122 acres of tree canopy from 2010 to 2020, a 3.6% decrease in total countywide canopy and a 2% decline in canopy cover relative to overall land cover. The study covered the county’s 857 square miles and included all 12 municipalities, giving Apex a countywide benchmark as it decides whether existing rules are strong enough to protect mature trees before bulldozers arrive.
County officials said the assessment was designed to help communities respond to rapid population and job growth. Wake County valued its tree canopy at more than $3.2 billion and said the trees absorb more than 414,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year while removing more than 11,000 tons of pollutants and intercepting billions of gallons of stormwater. The county also identified more than 80,000 acres available for planting, including more than 10,000 acres that were classified as very high planting priority.
Apex has already spent years studying the link between trees and development. The town was one of two North Carolina test cases in a 2018 USDA Forest Service-funded Trees & Stormwater study, which found trees could help manage stormwater and recommended better forest management as Apex develops. That project also included a codes-and-ordinances audit that examined tree protection, tree inventory, collaboration with developers and special trees such as champion, heritage and witness trees.
The town’s current development rules date to the Unified Development Ordinance adopted on Aug. 1, 2000, and local officials are now asking whether those standards still match the scale of building pressure around Apex. Plant the Peak, the town’s tree-planting program, has bought and installed more than 500 trees since 2021 and offered 234 trees in 2025, but officials are still debating whether planting alone can keep pace with canopy loss.
Mayor Jacques K. Gilbert, elected in 2023 for a term through 2027, has said he wants residents to help shape Apex’s future through his 2025 neighborhood town-hall series. In a town where mature trees shape streets, shade homes and soften new construction, the question now is whether Apex will treat canopy as a luxury or as infrastructure worth defending.
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