Tree Board

Tree Board Regular Meeting Minutes 3 March 2016 5:30-6:30 Thursday City Hall Memorial Room Attending: Tree Board Members: John Akielaszek, Steve Bailey, Heather Calderwood, Abby Colihan, Sarah Hoffmeier, Jeff Schumann, Lynn Wild, Tree Warden Geoff Beyer Volunteers: Ellen Doyle Park’s Department: Zack Simpson (AmeriCorps), Alec Ellsworth Agenda:  The agenda was approved with on addition  Minutes from the February 2016 meeting were approved without changes  Comments from the public There were no public comments New Business:  Tree Board t-shirts were presented to the two new board members who were present. The new board members were also asked what they would like to have the Tree Board work on in the coming year. More tree plantings and removal of hazarded trees were offered. Old Business:  Update on Town Forest Jeff had spoken with Jeff Langmaid of Fountains Forestry. Jeff L. has agreed to give a presentation and provide a walk-through of the Northfield section of the town forest. He suggested that this could be done sooner rather than later to give us a better overview of the timber harvesting. There was some discussion about whether the harvesting will still be in process given the warm weather coming up but it would still provide us an opportunity to see how the harvest went and what steps are next. Proposed dates for the walk through are; 12 March – a Saturday 13 March – a Sunday 19 March – a Saturday We would meet at 9:00 am at the landing site.  Please email Jeff S. if you would like to come and your preference on which day. He will send out a reminder email.  Update on Inventory & Management Software Alec provided an update on the progress of acquiring the software. It was decided to purchase Urban Forest Metrix. The primary factors in choosing this product was that it is compatible with iPad devices (which the Urban Community Forest Program is lending to the Parks Department) and there was a need for software designed for tree professionals. It is expected that the software will be purchased and installed within the next 3 weeks. Geoff and his crew will then field test it for inventorying street trees. These field tests will be used to come up with a method/procedure on how to do a full inventory. Once this has been determined then teams will be go out to do the inventory of street trees. This is expected to happen in late April, after leaves are small and not obscuring the upper branches.  Update on St. Paul Street Project & Moving Trees From Nursery Lynn passed out a schedule for the remaining work for the St. Paul St. Project and then went into more detail about it. The basic plan is that the sites where trees will be planted will be identified and marked. Then Dig Safe will be called out to see if there are any problems with the sites and adjustments will be made if necessary. Two days before planting the holes will be dug and then the day before planting the trees from the nursery will be dug out. Lynn’s scheduled had planting occurring on 6 May, Arbor Day in Montpelier. However there was a discussion about possibly having some of the plantings done earlier, on or around 22 April, which is Earth Day. One of the conflicts that has to be worked around is that the timing of the plantings coincides with when Geoff’s crew is expected to be doing the street tree inventory. Lynn also mentioned that on 6 May there will be an Arbor Day conference in Montpelier. Lynn is working with Danielle Fitzko in arranging a coordinated event with the conference and the St. Paul St. plantings. One option talked about would be to have conference attendees come down to St. Paul St. between 1 and 2 to help with the planting. Lynn, Geoff, and Jeff did visit the tree nursery to look at the trees that have been marked for the St. Paul St. Project. Unfortunately some of the trees have been damaged by mice and may not be suitable for transplanting. Geoff figures that if we plan on taking 16 trees out of the nursery may get about 12 good ones. Remaining trees for the project would have to be purchased. Lynn will be updating her schedule and sending it around.  EAB Planning John A Updated the group on what would be happening next. He said that we are still in the pre-arrival phase; EABs have not yet been discovered in Vermont.  He has tried contacting various tree businesses in the area to arrange for them to be on the lookout for possible EAB damage when they remove ash trees. He has not had much success with this yet and will be going back to them. Removal of street ash trees that are in poor health is something that can begin sooner than later. We also need to arrange for a quarantine area to take infected ash trees to once they have been cut down. And there will need to be engagement with neighboring communities to have a coordinated response when EAB does show up. He also mentioned that when planting new street trees, the Tree Board needs to have a diversity of trees. John A encouraged everyone to read through the EAB Preparedness Plan which can be found on the City’s website or by following this link: http://www.montpelier-vt.org/documentcenter/view/1244  Update on spring tree pruning workshops at Hunger Mountain Please note and spread the work that there are two tree pruning workshops scheduled at Hunger Mountain Coop  Saturday, March 12, 10:00-Noon, John Snell  Tuesday, March 22, 4:30-6:00 Geoff Beyer  Consideration of Trees to plant and Purchase for 2016 Jeff volunteered to head up a subcommittee to review John S’ draft list of trees to consider for planting in 2016 and what trees we might order, either for replacing street trees or to add to the nursery. Anyone interested in this process should contact Jeff.  Theme of Earth Day 2016 There was not enough time to talk about this item. Work Day Planning:  5 March 10 to Noon TBD John S will not be available this day. If someone had a suggestion on work that could be done, plead notify the group.  17 March Noon – 2:00 TBD Next meeting Thursday, 7 April, 5:30-6:30 at City Hall