TREE BOARD MEETING

1 City of Lake Forest Park – Tree Board Meeting 2 Meeting Minutes: May 06, 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: Victoria Kutasz, Stacey Spain, Kyle Gati, Mark Phillips, Doug 6 Sprugel, Ross Baarslag-Benson 7 8 Staff and others present: Larry Goldman, LFP City Council; Christi Bishop, Urban Forest Planner; 9 Elizabeth Talavera, Associate Planner; Mark Hofman, Community Development Director (via 10 Zoom) 11 12 Members of the Public present: No members of the public present. 13 14 Tree Board Members absent: Richard Saunders, Minda Martin 15 16 Call to order: 7:02 PM 17 18 Short Reflection: Tree Board member Phillips gave a reflection on a quotation from Pleasures and 19 Regrets by Marcel Proust. 20 21 Introduction: The Tree Board Members and staff introduced themselves. 22 23 Approval of Meeting Agenda: Board Member Phillips motioned to approve the agenda; Board 24 member Gati seconded. The agenda was approved unanimously. 25 26 Approval of Minutes: 27 April 01, 2026, Meeting Minutes 28 Board member Phillips motioned to approve with amendments; Vice Chair Spain seconded. The 29 minutes were approved unanimously. 30 31 Public Comment: No public comments. 32 33 Next meeting: The next meeting occurs on June 03, 2026. 34 35 Reports and Announcements: 36 Councilmember Goldman announced that the city council is working on adopting regulations for 37 the limitations on AI at city hall. City council is also continuing work on the budget. 38 39 Old Business: 40 KCD and SFI Grants Updates 41 Ms. Bishop gave an update on the KCD grant, including that she gave Planit Geo the shape files. 42 The Tree Board members also gave a summary of the grant process to the new Tree Board 43 members so that they were looped in on the process and how the KCD map will benefit the city. 44 Board member Phillips volunteered to reach out to KC to see if it was possible to include streams as 45 a layer on the map. 46 Mr. Hofman discussed the status of the SFI grant. Mr. Hofman gave an overview of the grant and 47 how currently the money was reallocated. The Tree Board members then discussed how to move 48 forward with updating the Urban Forestry Management Plan without the SFI grant. 1  1 Event recap for Arbor Day and Green Fair 2 Vice Chair Spain and Board member Phillips gave an update on the Green Fair. Chair Kutasz 3 mentioned that during the event she received questions on right-of-way trees and trees on utility 4 agency properties. Chair Kutasz also mentioned that attendance for the Arbor Day event was 5 approximately 45 people. Board member Baarslag-Benson mentioned the idea of videotaping the 6 tree walk and putting the video at the Climate Hub for viewing. Board member Baarslag-Benson 7 also mentioned that at the event, the question of permitting for invasives was brought up by 8 members of the public. 9 10 Updates on Articles 11 Vice Chair Spain presented the draft article on ivy. The Tree Board members discussed possibly 12 shortening the article to meet the word count. Board member Baarslag-Benson volunteered to help 13 draft the next article on holly. Board member Sprugel discussed the idea of an article for tree care, 14 including drought tolerant tree care tips. Board member Phillips and board member Baarslag- 15 Benson also volunteered to help draft this article. 16 17 Work Plan Check-In 18 Chair Kutasz discussed checking in with the work plan. Board member Phillips discussed that the 19 tree giveaway during the Fall can meet the goal for the tree planting section of the Work Plan. 20 21 New Business: 22 23 Agenda for Next Meeting: 24 June 3rd agenda items will include KCD map, Tree Giveaway, Outreach Check-In, Updates on 25 Articles. 26 27 Adjournment: Board member Sprugel motioned to end the meeting and board member Baarslag- 28 Benson seconded. 29 30 Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM 31 32 APPROVED: 33 34 ______________________ 35 Victoria Kutasz, Chair 36 2