Tree Board

Clarksville Tree Board August 10, 2022 @ 4:00 PM 4 Floor Staff Conference Room th City Hall Agenda 4:00: Call to order—Karla Gargus Adoption of minutes from previous meeting. Continuing business: City Forester Update – Kathrine • New 2022 TAEP grant was approved by the State. Purchase order in progress. • Riverside trees. • Tree well excavation is still in progress. Gas & Water has been brought in to advise us of where water and gas is located. 42 Trees will be planted at the end of September. • Registered with the Forestry and Tree Board for our annual Tennessee Environmental Council Tree Day 2023 Tree Giveaway for March 18th. We will need to ask Parks if we can use their pavilion at Edith Pettus Park again for handing out the trees. Old business: 1. Big Tree Contest and Landmark Tree Program a. Distribute flyer to social media etc. 2. Tree Board Members for 3 vacancies New business: 1. TUFC Conference Nov 9 and 10 at Montgomery Bell State Park 2. Discuss setting up By-laws for the Board 3. Sustainability Board Event • Can the Tree Board table at the event? • Can the master gardeners Set up a table for fall gardening or how to prepare for spring gardening? • Can we make a table for the children? 4. Tree donation recommended by Jeff Robinson for the downtown area. Other business: Public Comments: Next meeting: September 14 at 4:00 p.m. 4th Floor Mayor’s Conference Room, City Hall c. 5:00: Adjourn Minutes June 8, 2022 In attendance: Wes Powell, Karla Gargus, Katherine Killebrew, Sheila Clark, Brian Beuscher, Alexandra Wills, Karen Reynolds, and Cindy Miller Meeting called to order by Wes. The minutes from last meeting were approved. Katherine reported that the downtown tree replacement is complete and waiting on approval from the state. She will be reaching out to try to expedite their inspection. The TAEP grant proposal for 2022 Has been submitted for approval. Areas for trees are Trahern Mansion/Riverview Cemetery and Swan Lake Golf Course. Forestry and Parks and Recreation with partner with this project. The Tree Board (Alexandra Wills, Wes Powell and Karla Gargus) will serve as an oversight committee for the TAEP grant. The Riverside Dr tree replacement project has had some hiccups. The City will not be able to block lanes of Riverside Dr. due to volume of traffic during working hours. Crews will have to access the sites from business owner’s property. Katherine is in the process of requesting permission from property owners. Many of these people are happy and excited about this project, but a few are upset siting visibility issues with their signs. Samir Hemley, a business owner is requesting that additional trees be removed and not replaced in from of his property. Further discussion will take place at the July meeting. The Tree Board will have a table at the Downtown Market this Saturday from 8:00-12:00 to educate the public on trees and our role in the urban forest. Karla, Wes, Katie and Karen have all said they will help out. Katie will send out the map for our location in the market. Anyone is welcome to stop by the tent. Karen proposed a budget amendment to include the city tree inventory that has been requested and denied for the past few years. The City Council will hear this amendment and vote tomorrow night. Alexandra created a poster for the Big Tree Contest and Landmark Tree Program. This will be used to spread the work and create interest in the event. She mentioned creating a tree board gmail account for sumbissions. The Tennessee Urban Forestry Council annual conference will be held at Montgomery Bell State Park on November 9th and 10th. It would be great of some of our board members could attend this event. The board has $1,000 in the budget for this. Wes opened the floor for discussion on species of trees to add to the arboretum for the art contest winners. We will need 7 trees. Katie will get a current list of certified trees that need to be replaced. New species suggested were: Serviceberry, Saucer Magnolia, Red Buckeye, both species of Smoketrees, Bay Laurel, and Contorted Weeping Willow (Wes is willing to donate this tree). Wes brought up the need to have some tree board by-laws as guiding documents. To get started, the board could look to other city boards and reach out to the city attorney for guidance on this process. Karen and Karla have spoken with two people who have showed interest in serving on the board. After June, we will have 3 vacancies that will need to be filled. Wes and Karla will set up a meeting with Mayor Pitts to discuss potential candidates. Meeting adjourned 5:04 pm