TREE BOARD MEETING

1 City of Lake Forest Park – Tree Board Meeting 2 Meeting Minutes: November 5th, 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: Richard Olmstead, Richard Saunders, Victoria Kutasz, Stacey 6 Spain, Doug Sprugel, and Mark Phillips 7 8 Staff and others present: Larry Goldman, LFP City Council; Elizabeth Talavera, Assistant Planner; 9 Sam Kull, Urban Forest Planner; 10 11 Members of the Public present: William Ackerman 12 13 Tree Board Members absent: No members were absent. 14 15 Call to order: 7:00 PM 16 17 Short Reflection: Holly Article from University of Washington, Management Options 18 19 Introductions: The Tree Board members introduced themselves. 20 21 Approval of Meeting Agenda: Board member Olmstead motioned to approve the agenda; Board 22 Member Saunders second the motion. The agenda was approved unanimously. 23 24 Approval of Minutes: Board member Saunders motioned to approve the minutes; and Vice Chair 25 Kutasz seconded. The October 2025 minutes were approved unanimously. 26 27 Public Comment: Mr. Ackerman had concerns on new developments and how the city is tracking 28 canopy coverage density. 29 30 Next meeting: The next meeting occurs on December 3rd, 2025. 31 32 Reports and Announcements: 33 Councilmember Goldman Update 34 Perspective applicants for vacant tree board position. 35 36 City Staff Update 37 Ms. Talavera stated she will be handing off responsibilities for the meeting to Sam Kull, Urban 38 Forest Planner. Mr. Kull announced the city also received the Evergreen Community Award. 39 40 Old Business: 41 2025 Work Plan 42 The tree board discussed edits to the 2026 work plan, including: Removing the CPAT item and 43 adding Evergreen Community Day 44 45 Recruiting Ideas 46 Vice Chair Kutasz stated they would be creating a sign-in sheet for future events. One new applicant 47 applied for the vacant seat on the tree board. Council member Goldman stated they would follow 1  1 up with city clerk on status of applicant and possibility of sharing application details with redacted 2 personal information. 3 4 KCD and SFI grants Update 5 Mr. Kull stated a rough draft for SFI is in progress and will be presented at the December 11th 6 Council meeting. KCD shapefiles will be acquired by the city staff and shared with the appropriate 7 parties. 8 9 New Business: 10 Arbor Day 11 Vice Chair Kutasz stated they reached out to the DNR for seedling availability. William Ackermann 12 stated there may be opportunities for events with different schools in the city. 13 14 Water District Event Recap 15 Vice Chair Kutasz recapped the tour of the water district 16 17 Holly Article 18 Tree Board Member Olmstead wrote an article on Holly’s within the Pacific Northwest highlighting 19 exemptional growth if left ignored. Tree board member Saunders moved that the Tree Board 20 approve the article for publication on behalf of the Tree Board; Vice Chair Kutasz second the 21 motion. The motion was approved unanimously. 22 23 Agenda for Next Meeting: The Board will be discussing Arbor Day, SFI grant - follow-up, King 24 Conservation District canopy assessment - follow-up, recruiting ideas, and draft edits for the 2026 25 Work Plan. 26 27 Adjournment: Board member Olmstead motioned to end the meeting and board member Sprugel 28 seconded. 29 30 Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM 31 32 APPROVED: 33 34 ______________________ 35 Mark Phillips, Chair 36 37 2