Fishers had 344 residents in 1960 and 2,008 in 1980; it grew 404% in the 1990s alone, from 7,508 to 37,835, and reached 98,977 by 2020. Outside the original Fisher's Switch village platted in 1872 there is essentially no pre-1980 housing stock, so the canopy is a single planted cohort roughly 20 to 35 years old — first-generation subdivision trees all hitting the wires, the roofline and the sidewalk at once. That's the thing that decides what a sassafras here is likely to be — a mature specimen over a roofline, or nursery stock still establishing. Removing a sassafras around Fishers runs roughly $250–$1,400, and in Sunblest Farms, Avalon and Brooks Chase access is usually what decides where in that range you land.
What's actually growing in Fishers
Fishers was not one of the 23 communities in Indiana DNR's street-tree sample inventory, so no verified species breakdown exists for the city. What is documented is that the Tree Board maintains a list of desirable and undesirable species and no species off that list may be planted as a street tree without special permission — the practical picture being a 1990s-2000s nursery palette in tight uniform age classes, with ash gone since EAB was confirmed in Indiana in 2004.
Fishers's housing stock, and what it means for tree size
Fishers had 344 residents in 1960 and 2,008 in 1980; it grew 404% in the 1990s alone, from 7,508 to 37,835, and reached 98,977 by 2020. Outside the original Fisher's Switch village platted in 1872 there is essentially no pre-1980 housing stock, so the canopy is a single planted cohort roughly 20 to 35 years old — first-generation subdivision trees all hitting the wires, the roofline and the sidewalk at once.
What's specific to sassafras
Seed-grown sassafras drives a substantial taproot, which is why it transplants so badly that nurseries barely carry it and why the stump is stubborn. Lateral roots sucker aggressively and far from the trunk, so a stem removed without stump treatment does not end the tree — it converts one trunk into a colony of sprouts across that section of lawn.
Hamilton County rules
Fishers regulates street trees, not yard trees. Under section 95.33 you need a Tree Board permit to plant, treat, spray or prune a street tree, and a separate permit to remove one, with no permit required in a genuine emergency; permits are reported to run up to 60 days with a 30-day extension on written request. Section 95.34 bars planting in any public right-of-way, required landscape easement or municipal property without a permit, and bars planting within 15 horizontal feet of an overhead utility line or five feet of an underground one. The trap is the definition: STREET TREES covers trees on real estate owned or controlled by the city AND trees within a dedicated landscape easement, which sweeps in subdivision frontage that looks like private yard. Removing a tree standing entirely in a private yard needs no permit. Section numbers, permit durations and setbacks here should be confirmed against the current Fishers code before they are relied on.