TREE BOARD MEETING

1 City of Lake Forest Park – Tree Board Meeting 2 Meeting Minutes: February 4th, 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, Ross 6 Barslag-Benson, Mark Phillips, Stacey Spain (via Zoom), and Minda Martin (via Zoom) 7 8 Staff and others present: Larry Goldman, LFP City Council; Sam Kull, Urban Forest Planner 9 10 Members of the Public present: None 11 12 Tree Board Members absent: Doug Sprugel and Kyle Gati 13 14 Call to order: 7:00 PM 15 16 Short Reflection: 17 18 Introduction: The new Tree Board Members were welcomed. All members will participate as full 19 members. 20 21 Approval of Meeting Agenda: Board Member Olmstead motioned to approve the agenda; Vice 22 Chair Kutasz seconded. The agenda was approved unanimously. 23 24 Approval of Minutes: 25 December 3rd, 2025 Minutes 26 Board Member Saunders motioned to approve with amendments; Board Member Olmstead 27 seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously. 28 29 January 7th, 2026 Minutes 30 Corrections were made to the meeting date and spelling of a member name. Board Member 31 Saunders motioned to approve the amended minutes; Board Member Ross seconded. The minutes 32 were approved unanimously. 33 34 Public Comment: No public comments. 35 36 Next meeting: The next meeting occurs on March 4th, 2026. 37 38 Reports and Announcements: 39 Councilmember Goldman noted that three new Tree Board members had been approved and 40 welcomed. Mr. Goldman will continue serving as Council liaison and has coordinated recent Council 41 meeting participation. Staff also noted outreach to the Public Works Director and distribution of 42 meeting materials. 43 44 Old Business: 45 Approval of 2025 Annual Report and 2026 Work Plan 46 The Board discussed formation of subcommittee-style task assignments similar to the Planning 47 Commission structure. Board Member Minda brought forward an idea for a plant exchange. A 1  1 motion was made to approve the 2025 Annual Report and 2026 Work Plan. The motion was 2 approved unanimously. The Board agreed to revisit public outreach efforts at the March meeting. 3 4 Arbor Day Green Fair Planning 5 The Board discussed coordination of Arbor Day and Green Fair activities, including securing a 6 booth and materials that would better engage the public. The Green Fair is scheduled for April 4th. 7 The proposed tree walk is planned for April 25th at approximately 10:30 AM. The initial tree walk 8 route has been completed by Board Member Olmstead. The Board discussed coordinating with the 9 Parks Board and the Stewardship Foundation and exploring outreach through Shoreline Area News 10 and the City newsletter. 11 12 Horizon View Park Planting Opportunity 13 Councilmember Goldman described the reasoning behind selecting Horizon View Park as a planting 14 location and Mr. Kull shared the site plan. The Board discussed remaining viable planting locations 15 and coordination with Parks staff. Discussion included potential outreach strategies to promote 16 planting in priority areas, including targeted mailings. The Board also discussed reviewing how 17 neighboring jurisdictions manage monitoring of tree giveaway programs. 18 19 KCD and SFI Grant Updates 20 The SFI update will be presented to Council on February 26th. The Board will follow up with King 21 Conservation District regarding additional information. 22 23 Tree Code “Housekeeping” Amendments 24 Staff indicated the code amendments are anticipated to be brought before Council in March. The 25 Tree Board will finalize review at the next meeting. 26 27 New Business: 28 29 Voting for Chair and Vice Chair 30 Ross nominated Victoria Kutasz for Chair. The nomination was approved by unanimous consent. 31 Victoria nominated Stacey Spain for Vice Chair. The nomination was approved by unanimous 32 consent. 33 34 Agenda for Next Meeting: 35 March 4th Agenda items will include Public outreach assignments, Green Fair preparations, KCD 36 updates, final approval of tree code housekeeping amendments and Arbor Day planning. 37 38 Adjournment: Board member Olmstead motioned to end the meeting and board member Kutasz 39 seconded. 40 41 Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM 42 43 APPROVED: 44 45 ______________________ 2 1 Mark Phillips, Chair 2 3