TREE BOARD MEETING

1 City of Lake Forest Park – Tree Board Meeting 2 Meeting Minutes: January 7th, 2026; 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, Doug 6 Sprugel, Mark Phillips and Stacey Spain 7 8 Staff and others present: Larry Goldman, LFP City Council; Sam Kull virtually, Urban Forest 9 Planner, Mark Hofman virtually, Community Development Director and Elizabeth Talavera, 10 Associate Planner 11 12 Members of the Public present: Kyle Gati 13 14 Tree Board Members absent: No members were absent. 15 16 Call to order: 7:00 PM 17 18 Short Reflection: Mark Phillips shared a reflection on Monkey Puzzles trees and their origin from 19 the world’s fair. 20 21 Introduction: The Tree Board members introduced themselves. Mr. Gati introduced himself as a 22 guest who will be accepted into the tree board shortly. 23 24 Approval of Meeting Agenda: 25 26 Approval of Minutes: Mr. Kull stated the minutes from the last board meeting on Dec.3rd were not 27 completed due to the holidays and sickness. 28 29 Public Comment: No public comments from Mr. Gati. 30 31 Next meeting: The next meeting occurs on February 4th, 2026. 32 33 Reports and Announcements: 34 Councilmember Goldman Update 35 Councilmember Goldman stated they would investigate the status of Tree Board applicants who 36 have not received follow-up after submitting applications, including coordination with the City 37 Clerk’s office. 38 39 City Staff Update 40 Mr. Hofman informed us of the climate conversation flyer. Councilman Goldman informed the 41 board of the two new councilmembers and the new tree board members. 42 43 Old Business: 44 Finalize 2026 Work Plan 45 The tree board discussed and edited the 2026 work plan. Identifying leads for the remaining tasks 46 and new tree board members. 47 48 Review Draft 2025 Annual Report 1  1 The tree board reviewed the annual report and identified a few grammatical errors to fix on the 2 report. 3 4 Arbor Day and Green Fair Planning 5 The Tree Board discussed Arbor Day planning in coordination with the Green Fair, including a 6 proposed tree walk on April 25th or April 27th. Potential locations include Blue Heron Park or 7 Lyons Creek Park. The Board discussed offering free seedlings, coordinating tree plantings, and 8 partnering with the Parks Board to support event planning and implementation. 9 10 New Member Update 11 Mr. Hofman reviewed the process for incoming Tree Board members. Incoming members will be 12 appointed as full members rather than alternates. 13 14 New Business: 15 16 Agenda for Next Meeting: The Board will vote on the Chair and Vice Chair. They will discuss tree 17 walk locations and new board members will go over the 2026 work plan. 18 19 Adjournment: Board member Olmstead motioned to end the meeting and board member Sprugel 20 seconded. 21 22 Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM 23 24 APPROVED: 25 26 ______________________ 27 Mark Phillips, Chair 28 29 2