TREE BOARD MEETING

1 City of Lake Forest Park – Tree Board Meeting 2 Meeting Minutes: August 6, 2025; 7:00-9:00pm 3 Hybrid Meeting Held in the Forest Room at City Hall and Virtually via Zoom 4 5 Tree Board Members present: Victoria Kutasz, Richard Saunders (via Zoom), Stacey Spain, Doug 6 Sprugel 7 8 Staff and others present: Elizabeth Talavera, Assistant Planner; Linda Holman, Parks Board 9 10 Members of the Public present: Drue Epping 11 12 Tree Board Members absent: Richard Olmstead and Mark Phillips 13 14 Call to order: Vice Chair Kutasz called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 15 16 Short Reflection: Board member Spain gave a short reflection on hiking the Wonderland trail on 17 Mount Rainer. 18 19 Introductions: All members of the Tree Board and public introduced themselves 20 21 Approval of Meeting Agenda: Vice Chair Kutasz proposed editing the agenda to include a 22 presentation by Ms. Holman and to switch the order of old and new business. Board member 23 Sprugel motioned to approve the agenda; Board member Spain seconded. The agenda was approved 24 unanimously with the amended changes. 25 26 Approval of Minutes: Board member Spain motioned to approve the May 2025 minutes; Board 27 member Sprugel seconded. The May 2025 minutes were approved unanimously. 28 29 Board member Spain motioned to approve the July 2025 minutes; Board member Sprugel seconded. 30 The July 2025 minutes were approved unanimously. 31 32 Public Comment: No public comments. 33 34 Next meeting: The next meeting occurs on Wednesday, September 03, 2025. 35 36 Reports and Announcements: 37 City Staff Update 38 Ms. Talavera gave an update on the hiring process for the urban forest planner, noting that the 39 process is moving quickly. Ms. Talavera also mentioned that the city is currently in the process of 40 transitioning to a new permitting software system. Ms. Talavera also mentioned that council member 41 Goldman had sent an email for his announcement about the city’s new levy tax. 42 43 New Business: 44 Blue Heron Park 45 Ms. Holman presented a map of Blue Heron Park to highlight the proposed project of cleaning up 46 the park and removing invasive trees with the help of city staff and volunteers. Board member Spain 47 volunteered to assist with the project. Vice Chair Kutasz volunteered to create flyers to handout 48 during upcoming events. 1  1 Old Business: 2 SFI grant - status, follow-up 3 Chair Phillips, Vice Chair Kutasz, and Mike from SFI will be meeting to discuss next steps, 4 including what the Tree Board wants to prioritize for the remainder of the money. 5 6 King Conservation 21District canopy assessment - status, follow-up 7 The Tree Board members discussed the different options of layers and maps for the canopy 8 assessment. Ms. Epping showed the Tree Board members different examples of other cities 9 including Burien and Bothell. 10 11 Tree Ordinance follow-up 12 Tabled for next meeting. 13 14 Outeach Opportunities 15 Picnic in the Park, Sept. 6, 11 am - 3pm 16 Farmers Market Table (shared with the Climate Action Committee), Oct. 5, 10 am - 2 pm 17 The Tree Board members discussed the times for members to be stationing the booths. 18 19 Agenda for Next Meeting: The Board will be discussing SFI grant - follow-up, King Conservation 20 District canopy assessment - follow-up, and the Tree Ordinance follow-up. 21 22 Adjournment: Board member Saunders motioned to end the meeting and board member Spain 23 seconded. 24 25 Meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM 26 27 APPROVED: 28 29 ______________________ 30 Mark Phillips, Chair 31 32 2