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2017-05-04 Tree Board MinutesEDMONDS CITIZENS' TREE BOARD Meeting Notes May 4, 2017 The Edmonds Citizens' Tree Board Meeting was called to order at 6:03 p.m. by Co -Chair Steve Hatzenbeler in the Council Chambers, Edmonds, WA. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT STAFF PRESENT All 8 Members present Kernen Lien Guests or Audience ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT Ian Scott - Davey Resource Diane Buckshnis -City Councilmember Keeley O'Connell - Consultant for Davey Group 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Hatzenbeler called the meeting to order. 2. ROLL CALL/INTRODUCTIONS 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA The following items were added to the agenda under New Business: • Taming Bigfoot 4. AUDIENCE COMMENTS No audience 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES So approved with minor corrections from Steve. 6. Presentation from Davey Resource Group (Group) Ian Scott reintroduced himself and Edmonds based consultant Keeley O'Connell who would be the community organizer for the open houses. At a minimum these items were discussed in detail: • Scope of work would be a strategic plan over a 25-30 year period using Adaptive Theory management • Group just got started looking at the Tree Board Minutes, Ordinance, Ordinances with revisions and talking to stakeholders (Tree Board one of them) o Discussion occurred regarding the Tree Ordinance that was neither revised or passed and if review of that was to take place along with citizens comments. Keeley indicated yes. o Discussion occurred about the current tree codes being weak and was not sufficient to deal with the fact that city staff and property owners could cut down trees with no ramification or review or replacing trees to make up for Edmonds Citizens' Tree Board Meeting Notes Page 1 the ones cut. • Discussion regarding the Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) Assessment and how the imagery was taken and it would be probably as of 2016 • Discussion regarding UTC and the need for a historic comparison and that it would probably be in the past about 15 years for comparison • Attempting to take a Pro -Active stance rather than a Reactive stance which is what the City has taken in the past. • Code will eventually come from the UFMP; likely not until at least 2019 • Discussion occurred regarding the scope of work in that it was to be the canopy in parks, rights -of -way and critical areas. CM Buckshnis indicated that this was not sufficient and that in the agenda item, it did in fact discuss the need to review private land areas. o Long discussion occurred regarding view and non -view properties (same story different venue) and property values and view corridors, etc. o Discussion occurred regarding developers and the current "no" language of the code which allows them to clear cut properties. o Ian Scott indicated that most UTC's do in fact cover private land and so that would be part of the UFMP but perhaps not an area to concentrate upon? • Once the UTC completed, and a UFMP drafted, the public outreach would occur and this is where Keeley comes in as community organizer. o On -Line survey would occur and public meetings which Tree Board Members were encouraged to be present and be utilized for outreach. o Committee members suggested: ■ Outreach needed to go outside of the bowl. ■ Process be used as educational outreach ■ Provide a readable introduction to Trees and their importance ■ Ensuring that there is consistency in city government ■ Adding a City Arborist for continuity and allowing public to know there is a person to contact ■ Districting of tree canopy goals — view areas have different canopy coverage and goals rather than outside view parcels ■ Edmonds is one city — but tree canopy is so varied and geographical area need to be looked at so as to save and manage trees ■ Tree banking was discussed ■ Get the message out and how to message it • Final work then takes place after all the public input has been received on the creation of the Edmonds UFMP • CM Buckshnis did indicate that at a Council Meeting she did indicate rather than rushing this process to be completed by the end of the year, that we need to take our time to get it completed properly and Ms. Hope agreed. • Discussion and further clarification of questions occurred and the questionnaire was once again resent to Tree Board Members to complete. 7. Old/Business DISCUSSION a. Recap of Earth Day Ivy Pull and clean-up of Hutt Park. Great event — wonderful turnout — it was reported to be the largest that the city ever had as a volunteer group. Good work done and Tree Board thanked by City for the sponsorship. Diane reported that some of the Hutt Park neighbors were going to go on and help with the restoration since the Seaview Group was so strong. She said it was Edmonds Citizens' Tree Board Meeting Notes Page 2 great that all the Tree Board Members were presented. Jed did a great job explaining about the wonder of trees. b. Edmonds in Bloom Update. Gail asked for folks to help her identify the trees at the end of the meeting. She did enter the paragraph for the Edmonds in Bloom literature and thanked those that helped. She had 16-17 trees but wanted to get it down to 10 or 11. Doug volunteered to be the Tree Board Member that went around the day before for the Pre -Tour. Diane contacted Joyce Johnson via email and copied Doug and Gail on it. Everything on schedule. c. Tree Identifier Tags. Jed finished all the tree tags and he and Bill put the tags out on trees on Main and 5t" Ave. South. Bill had pictures. This was great for an Arbor Day event. Diane suggested getting the news out to the media and so Jed was going to send it to Diane and she would distribute to the media. Good Job Jed! 8. NEW BUSINESS a. Farmers Market: Doug wanted to know who to contact and Barbara gave a name. Bill suggested that we give out trees saplings. Vivian suggested that we figure out where they live and give the right tree so as it is the right tree in the right place. Also discussed should be a table towards end of market (last day is first weekend of October). b. Taming Bigfoot: Diane summarized that members of the Mayor's Climate Protection Committee along with the Interfaith Climate Protection Group are moving along and are still forming the steering committee. She indicated that we did save money on our budget from the Hutt Park Ivy Pull and it would be really nice for the Tree Board to be the first in on being a sponsor/endorser. It was moved my Frank and seconded by Doug to spend $200 for the initial brochures and literature. It was amended by Vivian and seconded by Doug to use the language UP to $200. Motions passed unanimously. Steve wanted to ensure that we are not on the "headliner as a main sponsor" and Diane indicated that it was wonderful to see the two commissions working together as the Climate Protection Committee doesn't have a budget and so this will be very helpful. Rollout will be in January so lots of work still is in the works. c. UFMP and Tree Ordinances of other nearby cities. Bill indicated that he has been spending tremendous work looking at neighboring cities and their UFMP or Tree Ordinances and that Shoreline had a good one. It was suggested that he put together some sort of table or summary for other members as it looked like he had done a tremendous amount of work and it would be difficult to transcribe it all for other members. Steve suggested this would be good since we were embarking on ours and individual Tree Board members could then go to the websites and look at the ones of interest from Bill's summary. 9. TREE BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS Events this weekend was the Floretum Garden Sale. Edmonds Citizens' Tree Board Meeting Notes Page 3 10. ADJOURNMENT With no further business, the Edmonds Citizens' Tree Board adjourned at 8:06 p.m. Some members stayed behind to help Gail with identifying the Trees. Next Meeting: Thursday, June 1, 2017 6:00 p.m., Council Chambers Edmonds Citizens' Tree Board Meeting Notes Page 4