HomeMy WebLinkAboutBornsworth Letter
Peninsula Urban Forestry LLC
bğƷǒƩğƌ wĻƭƚǒƩĭĻ /ƚƓƭǒƌƷğƓƷƭ
Subject: Management of Lions Park Sequoia Tree
Date: Tuesday, December 4, 2018
To: Port Angeles City Council
John Bornsworth
Prepared by:
Environmental Planner
Port Angeles City Council,
Board-
Certified Master Arborist, one of roughly 20 in the state, a Municipal Arborist, and I sit on the
-known urban forester and the resident expert
on trees and urban forest management outside of Seattle. I speak to you as an expert in the
field of tree and natural resource management who has both condemned and preserved
numerous thousands of trees.
It is apparent your constituents and the community-at-large care deeply about the Lions
Park sequoia tree, yet the Parks Director is willing to budget $12,000 to demolish it without
th
due planning. Will this tree end up like the row of tree stumps along Peabody between 4 and
th
5? Trees which were prematurely removed with no plan past the initial chainsaw, and that are
now an eye sore within the community?
th
Why not spend 1/10 of that removal cost on an expert consultant to identify all
avenues for managing the tree? The results of these options and mitigation opportunities can
be utilized to address the lost ecosystem services and community-wide tree benefits. I
recommended the arborist out of Olympia who the Parks Director eventually sought out to
limited in scope and sought only to reaffirm the Park D
rather than seek amiable solutions for all parties involved.
a Lions Park Sequoia Tree Management Plan. My firm writes similar tree and natural resource
management plans across western and central Washington for institutions, cities, counties and
Management Plans are business as usual for many jurisdictions who care, as Port Angeles does,
about their shared community forests. There are a number of firms across western Washington
who could fulfill this service to the city.
Peninsula Urban Forestry LLC Office: (360) 504-3825
104 North Laurel Street, Suite 110 Web: www.peninsulauf.com
Port Angeles, WA 98362
$¤¢¤¬¡¤± Ǿ ͷ͵Ͷͽ - ¦¤¬¤³ ®¥ ,¨®² 0 ±ª 3¤°´®¨ 4±¤¤
With a correctly written assignment and scope, this report will conclude on all
reasonable and actionable options to manage the tree. Options presented should include no
action, full removal, replacement of chip seal driveway, root severance, tree pruning, habitat
tree conversion, etc. What this report will not do, and what no arboricultural consultant should
do, is tell the city what to do with the tree. The role of the consultant is to offer you, the
council, multiple action options to be shared with the community
the actions, listen to and consider input from the community and Tree Advisory Council, and
decide the best course of action.
It seems to me, if the tree must be removed, the parks department ends up with a
budgetary windfall. The Parks Director budgeted around $12,000 in the bid request to remove
the tree. It turns out the project only costs a few thousand. This is an excellent opportunity to
invest in the future of our city, our children and our urban forest. By using that excess budget
to plant 15 site appropriate evergreen trees in the
increase urban forest equity and ecosystem functionality within the city.
Using $5,000 parks had set aside to pay for the tree removal, the City could purchase
the sequoia trees and install them using a volunteer event. Irrigation could be implemented
during the dry season for five years to ensure establishment. This could be accomplished using
the parks department truck currently used to irrigate disposable annual flowers. The trees
could be pruned in their juvenile state to correct codominant stems similar to the current
sequoia.
Urban forests are not accidents; they are intentional, well planned landscapes planted
by our forebearers for our benefit, a benefit of which they do not share. We must remember
this in our decision making and planning.
John Bornsworth
Environmental Planner
Urban & Community Forester
Washington Community Forestry Commission
ISA Board Certified Master Arborist® #PN-7955BM
ISA Municipal Arborist®
Tree Risk Assessment Qualified
Cell: (360) 819-3081
john@peninsulauf.com
tğŭĻ Ћ ƚŅ Ћ Peninsula Urban Forestry LLC | www.peninsulauf.com | (360) 504-3825