Tree Board

Tree Board Regular Meeting Minutes 1 September 2016 5:30-6:30 Thursday City Hall Memorial Room Attending: Tree Board Members: John Akielaszek, Steve Bailey, Abby Colihan, Geoff Beyer, Sarah Hoffmeier, Jeff Schumann, John Snell, Lynn Wild Volunteers: Ken Libertoff, Bob Troester, Fran Miller  Agenda The agenda was approved.  Approval of August Lynn had a follow up question regarding previous Minutes, asking whether there had been any follow up with the city regarding the potential damage to tree roots resulting from the sidewalk/street work taking place on Baily Ave. John S. will follow up with Tom McArdle. As part of the work being done there it was suggested that we should see if the Tree Board should plant other trees in the right of way. Minutes were then approved.  Public comments Bob Troester mentioned an article regarding massive tree die offs happening in California, apparently due to a variety of causes.  Discussion on f 2016/17 Spending (Budget) Jeff presented a list of possible expenditures that had been proposed by board members. They included (amounts are estimates): 2 Downtown Trees $400 Whips for Nursery $200 Tree Grate & Guard $1,200 Safety Vests $50 Total $1,850 The amount we have to spend by end of June 2017 is ~$3,290, leaving an remaining amount of $1,440. Other items for which we do not yet have estimates are: Grow bags for nursery Mowing services for nursery Page 1 of 3  Members and volunteers are encouraged to submit to Jeff other ideas, preferably with a dollar amount attached to it. Jeff will track planned expenses and the budget will be discussed at the next October board meeting.  Update on Tree Nursery On Thursday, 30 Aug, tree board members and volunteers walked the nursery to get a better idea of what needs to be done. Pretty much each tree was looked at and a decision was made as to what to do with it. There are about 32 trees in the nursery. It was decided to cut down 14 of them as being either too big or too damaged to move. Several large trees were noted to be left for the NBNC for their landscaping needs. There was a discussion about where to plant trees that we want to use from the nursery. It was suggested that some of the smaller Burr Oaks could be moved to Barre St. Also, Geoff will provide a list of potential sites that were noted while conducting the tree inventory. On Wednesday, 14 Sep., there will be a work day at the nursery, primarily to cut down trees and remove the stumps. Geoff, John S. and Jeff will also work on a plan to determine what else is needed to improve the nursery. John S. will is to arrange field trips to the Rutland and Burlington tree nurseries.  Update on St. Paul Street Project Lynn gave an update on plans to have Union Elementary students become tree stewards for the trees that were planted. The idea is to teach them about the trees, have them monitor the health and growth of the trees and learn how to become tree stewards. Lynn is working with Susan Reed and Deb Hickey. The first day out with the students will be Wednesday, 21 Sep. at 8:45 am.  Municipal Tree Care Training Geoff brought up that Elise at the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry program is offering us free training on municipal tree care. It was decided that we do want to have the training but we also need to tailor the training to support both park service and tree board needs. Geoff and John S. will work with Elise and Mark Duntemann on this. It was decided to have the training sometime in October. Geoff will send out a doodle poll to decide on the date. It is expected that the training will be all day.  Update on Tree Inventory Geoff reported that the inventory of city trees is continuing with support from Elise and the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry program. They plan to consolidate all information gathered to date into one database by 9 Sep. This will allow them to run a variety of reports. Page 2 of 3  Watering Abby reported that watering of downtown trees is still going well.  Other Business Sarah is interested in getting volunteers to help remove barberry in Hubbard Park. She will coordinate a time for this.  Next Scheduled Work Days September 3, Saturday 10 to noon September 15, Thursday; Noon to 2 However, the tree nursery work day on 14 Sep. may take the place of this. Next meeting Thursday, 6 October, 5:30-6:30 at City Hall Page 3 of 3