How to Get an Alabama Tree Surgery License

Last updated: August 25, 2026

Alabama licenses tree work directly — it just does not call it arboriculture. The Department of Agriculture and Industries issues a Horticulture Professional Services License to businesses that engage in and solicit for four named categories, and one of them is Tree Surgery (TS). The license rests on a certified operator who has passed the commercial applicator process for the relevant categories, and it costs $175 a year for a main office plus a fee for each category you work in.

What Alabama Actually Requires

• ★ A Horticulture Professional Services License for businesses that engage in and solicit for — advertising counts — any of these categories.
• The four categories: Landscape Design (LD), Tree Surgery (TS), Setting of Landscape Plants (SLP), and Ornamental & Turf Pest Control (OTPS).
• ★ A certified operator who has taken, passed and submitted their Commercial Applicators License Application with the appropriate fees for the corresponding categories.
• $175 a year for a main office, with the Department’s application also setting $75 for a branch office and $50 for a sub office.
• Plus $100 for each category of work you are certified to perform.
• No insurance or bond stated for the Horticulture license — those requirements attach to the Structural Professional Services licenses rather than horticultural ones.
• Separate categories mean separate certification — Tree Surgery and Ornamental & Turf Pest Control are not the same credential.

What It Costs

Item	Cost	Notes
Horticulture Professional Services License	$175 / year	Main office
Branch office	$75 / year	Per the Department’s license application
Sub office	$50 / year	Per the Department’s license application
Each category	$100	For every category you are certified to perform — Tree Surgery is one of four
Certified operator	Commercial applicator fees	Must have passed and submitted the application for the corresponding categories
Insurance / bond	Not stated for Horticulture	Those requirements attach to Structural Professional Services licenses
Alabama LLC	$200	Certificate of formation processing fee

Alabama Licenses “Tree Surgery” By Name

Search for an Alabama arborist license and you will find nothing, which is why most guides say Alabama does not regulate tree work. That is wrong. Alabama regulates it under a different word.

The Department of Agriculture and Industries issues a Horticulture Professional Services License to businesses that engage in and solicit for four named categories: Landscape Design (LD), Tree Surgery (TS), Setting of Landscape Plants (SLP), and Ornamental & Turf Pest Control (OTPS). Tree Surgery is a license category in its own right, sitting beside pest control rather than inside it. So a company that only prunes and removes — never touching a chemical — is still inside the scheme, which is unusual. In most states the pesticide license is the only hook, and pure cutting falls outside everything.

Note the trigger: “engage in and solicit for.” Alabama joins Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Kansas and Connecticut in reaching the advertisement as well as the work. Putting tree surgery on your website is part of what the license is for.

The license rests on a person, not just a payment. You need a certified operator who has taken, passed and submitted their Commercial Applicators License Application with the appropriate fees for the corresponding categories. Read the last four words carefully — the certification has to match the categories the business is licensed in. A certified operator qualified in Ornamental & Turf does not automatically carry the business for Tree Surgery.

The pricing is unusual too, because it stacks two ways at once. There is an office fee — $175 a year for a main office, $75 for a branch, $50 for a sub office — and a category fee of $100 for each type of work you are certified to perform. A single-office business licensed for Tree Surgery alone pays differently from one licensed for Tree Surgery plus Ornamental & Turf across two locations. Work out your categories and your offices before you budget, because both axes move the number.

One thing Alabama does not do here is require insurance. The Horticulture Professional Services license carries no stated insurance or bond requirement — those attach to the Structural Professional Services licenses, which cover a different kind of pest work. So Alabama will license your tree surgery business without ever asking whether you are covered, which puts it with Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia rather than with Mississippi next door, where a $100,000 certificate is a condition of issue.

How to Get Licensed, In Order

1. Recognize that Tree Surgery is the category — searching for an arborist license will not find it.
2. Decide which categories you will engage in or advertise: Tree Surgery, Ornamental & Turf Pest Control, Landscape Design, Setting of Landscape Plants.
3. Get your certified operator qualified in those exact categories via the Commercial Applicators License Application.
4. Count your offices — main, branch and sub each carry their own annual fee.
5. Budget $100 per category on top of the office fee.
6. Apply for the Horticulture Professional Services License with the operator’s certification submitted.
7. Arrange liability cover on your own initiative, since the horticulture license does not require it.
8. Register the business entity — $200 for the certificate of formation.

Staying Licensed

The Horticulture Professional Services License is annual, so the office fees and the $100 per category recur every year. Two things change your license rather than just your costs. Adding a category means your certified operator must be certified in it — the license only reaches as far as their certification does. And opening a branch or sub office adds its own fee rather than extending the main one. Because the license depends on a certified operator, that person leaving is a licensing event: the business no longer meets the condition it was issued on. No insurance requirement attaches to renewal, so your cover review is a date you set yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Alabama require an arborist license?

Not under that name — but yes in substance. Alabama licenses Tree Surgery as a named category of the Horticulture Professional Services License, issued by the Department of Agriculture and Industries. So while nobody in Alabama holds an arborist license, a business doing tree work does hold a license that covers it.

Who needs an Alabama Horticulture Professional Services License?

Businesses that engage in and solicit for Landscape Design (LD), Tree Surgery (TS), Setting of Landscape Plants (SLP) and Ornamental and Turf Pest Control (OTPS). Note the phrase engage in and solicit for — advertising the service is part of the trigger, not just performing it.

What does the Alabama license cost?

$175 a year for a main office. The Department’s application also sets $75 for a branch office and $50 for a sub office, plus $100 for each category of work you are certified to perform. So a business licensed in both Tree Surgery and Ornamental and Turf Pest Control pays for each category on top of the office fee.

Do I need a certified operator in Alabama?

Yes. The license requires a certified operator who has taken, passed and submitted their Commercial Applicators License Application with the appropriate fees for the corresponding categories. The business license rests on that person, so their departure is a licensing problem rather than only a staffing one.

Tree work sits alongside our full guide to starting a landscaping business in Alabama, and the wider guide to starting a business in Alabama. Or see how every state handles tree work in our arborist license requirements by state guide.

Sources

Source	What It Covers
Alabama Agriculture & Industries — Professional Services	That the Horticulture Professional Services License covers businesses that engage in and solicit for Landscape Design, Tree Surgery, Setting of Landscape Plants and Ornamental & Turf Pest Control, the certified operator requirement, and the $175 annual fee
Alabama Agriculture & Industries — horticultural license application	The main, branch and sub office fees and the per-category charge
Alabama Secretary of State — LLCs	The $200 certificate of formation processing fee