Tree Advisory Commission Meeting

APPROVED TREE COMMISSION MEETING DATE: Wednesday, September 5, 2018 TIME: 1 :30 P.M. PLACE: Urbana Public Works Department, 706 Glover Avenue, Urbana, IL MINUTES Members Present: Carol Augspurger (Chair), Marshall Bellville, Stewart Berlocher, Jackson Bird, and Michael Stevenson (Vice-Chair) Staff Present: Michael Brunk (City of Urbana Arborist) Members Bridget McGill (late arrival): 2:45 p.m. Members Absent: None Others Present: Keith Henson, Joan Henson 1. Call to Order Chair Augspurger called the meeting to order at 1:36 p.m. 2. Roll Call Roll was called and a quorum was present. 3. Approval of the June 6, 2018 Meeting Minutes Jackson Bird made a motion to approve the minutes for the June 6, 2018 meeting. Marshall Bellville seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously by a voice vote. 4. Public Input Public input occurred at the time the item was discussed. 5. Former Business a. Tree Diversity (presentation of a quick study of Family makeup completed by staff) Carol Augspurger discussed a website she used to identify plants, USDA.gov. She indicated that the site allowed the user to search for native plants within a state, region and county.  APPROVED TREE COMMISSION MEETING Mike Brunk indicated that categories had been added to the City of Urbana’s Tree Inventory program to identify trees as native or non-native and to specify potential allergens the trees might contain. He said that eventually there would be information to list native trees by continent, country, region, state, and county and to map their locations on a map. He added that there were approximately 156 different species/varieties, but their gender had not been defined yet. Stewart Berlocher stated that there were not many tree allergens. He mentioned that juniper was one, but that tree was not an approved street tree. Mr. Brunk commented that allergens were primarily limited predominately to male species of ash, maple and oak trees. Chair Augspurger asked how the information regarding native and non-native trees would be inputted since there were many trees within the inventory. Mr. Brunk said that a mass edit could be done by species, but he was still studying the method for completing the task. He stated that he was looking for a good source for determining allergens. He informed the Commission that Scott Tess, City of Urbana Environmental Manager, had listed all of Urbana’s street trees by family, genus, and species for inclusion in the City of Urbana Annual Sustainability Report. Mr. Brunk explained that one of the sustainability goals was to maintain a diverse urban forest. He said that the information Mr. Tess compiled would help the City work toward forestry diversity. He mentioned that the goal was to have a forest where the makeup of the City’s forest contained no more than 20% of any family, 10% of any genus, and 5% of any species of tree. He mentioned that 27% of standing City trees were maple. He added that the completion of the inventory would assist staff when ordering replacement street trees. Mr. Berlocher discussed his research for a book called, The Big Grove, about trees native to this area. He mentioned that he was trying to determine native trees in Champaign County. He explained that he found when the Burr Oak was planted. Using a record from 1915, he found that a sturdy Scarlett Oak was planted in Champaign County. He found information about trees in Burrill Flora, Mink Grove (which was near Rantoul, but no longer existed), and Linn Grove. Through his research, he found that a flowering Dogwood had been recorded south of St. Joseph. Carol Augspurger said that a definition of the term, native, would be helpful to identify native and non-native trees. She recommended using one source for information to provide consistency. Mr. Brunk said that trying to create an accurate list was difficult. He suggested the use of multiple sources for information that might be helpful. Mr. Berlocher said his list was confined to Champaign County and noted that it would be difficult to determine native trees for the state since some trees grew well in southern Illinois and others grew well in northern Illinois. Page | 2  APPROVED TREE COMMISSION MEETING Chair Augspurger asked Mr. Brunk to review the USDA.gov site to determine whether its information about native and non-native species could be useful. She asked if Mr. Brunk could provide a spreadsheet with a list of species that others could help determine if the species were native to Champaign County. b. Delisted-Hackberry at 1904 E. Main Street has been removed. Mike Brunk stated that the hackberry tree formerly located at 1904 East Main Street was removed because of the tree’s declining health. Mr. Brunk did not post the removal of the tree for discussion since the tree was deemed a hazard. Chair Augspurger asked who nominated the tree for Legacy Tree status. Mr. Brunk said that the church had requested the Legacy Tree designation. He added that the tree was near its end at the time it was nominated. Mr. Berlocher said that the age of the tree could not be determined since the rings were not visible due to the state of the tree. Mr. Brunk said that the City’s legal staff had advised that the City Arborist not make a determination about the health of the private tree. He added that the Commission knew at the time it was considering the designation as a Legacy Tree that the tree was near its useful life, but the tree had such an interesting history. c. Looking for assistance to define native trees in present inventory i. US natives ii. Midwest natives iii. Illinois natives iv. Regional County natives Chair Augspurger and Mr. Brunk agreed that this item was discussed under Item 1. 6. New Business a. Request for removal of two linden trees at 2510 Scovill Circle Joan Henson, property owner, thanked Mr. Brunk for the attention he gave their request. She asked the Commission to consider the removal of two linden trees located within the City’s right-of-way at 2510 Scovill Circle. She explained that following a windstorm on June 10 there were many limbs down. Keith Henson, property owner, stated that one tree had been hit by lightning damaging the roots. He said that the branches were bent as a result. He mentioned that there was a high percentage of linden trees in the urban forest. He also stated that the linden tree attracted Japanese beetles. Page | 3  APPROVED TREE COMMISSION MEETING Ms. Henson said that the roots of the trees had caused the sidewalk to buckle. Both Mr. and Ms. Henson thought that smaller-sized trees would be more appropriate for the right- of-way. Mr. Brunk stated that typically the City did not remove trees in their condition. He said that trees with split branches, cracks, or deadwood would be candidates for removal. He said the trees under discussion did not have any of those problems. He said that trees were very vigorous. Mr. Henson said that the trees were planted in 1976 and the branches had been bent by the wind. Mr. Brunk said that those reasons were not conditions for removing the trees. He explained that trees were not removed for cosmetic reasons, such as fruit, twigs, or nuisance. He noted that the City considered the trees as part of the community forest and not solely on the wishes of the adjacent property owners. He said that the adjacent property owners could offer to pay for the removal and replacement of the trees, but it would still require the approval of the Tree Commission. Chair Augspurger said that the trees did not meet the public nuisance definition. Mr. Bellville said that although he understood the concern of the property owners, he did not see a reason to remove healthy trees. Mr. Brunk said that there was adequate room for the trees within the right-of-way. Mr. Berlocher said that he was sympathetic to the property owners concerns, but that trees provided shade and value because by removing heat from City streets. Michael Stevenson moved to remove two City-owned linden trees located at 2510 Scovill Circle. Ms. Henson said that he would like to remove and not replace the trees. Mr. Stevenson amended the motion to state, “remove and include stump removal of the two City- owned linden trees located at 2610 Scovill Circle.” Mr. Bellville seconded the motion. A roll call vote was conducted: Carol Augspurger—Nay; Marshall Bellville—Nay; Stewart Berlocher—Nay; Jackson Bird—Nay; Michael Stevenson—Nay. The Commission voted 0-5 on the motion. Chair Augspurger stated that the motion was not approved. Page | 4  APPROVED TREE COMMISSION MEETING b. New emphasis on Cooperative Tree Planting Program Mr. Brunk explained that the City was exploring a new marketing program to promote the Cooperative Tree Planting Program. Under an existing program, adjacent property owners were allowed to share the purchase cost of a tree. Mr. Brunk explained the expansion of the program to allow donations that would go toward the purchase of trees in areas of the community where trees needed to be planted. Chair Augspurger asked where the trees would be planted. Mr. Brunk mentioned that the City lost around 625 trees due to the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). He added that the City typically removed around 100 trees per year, which meant that the City was having a difficult time maintaining its forest. He said that the City would like to increase the urban forest in northwest Urbana. He said that he would discuss the proposed program in more detail at the next meeting. c. New Trommel Screen at LRC Mr. Brunk announced that a new trommel screen was at the Landscape Recycling Center (LRC). He explained that until now, the LRC rented equipment to process yard waste into compost material. He said owning the equipment allowed staff to process material year-round. He stated that the LRC were planning to purchase screens to produce a finer quality of wood mulch that could be used for playgrounds. He said with the new equipment, the LRC could dye wood chips. At this time, Mr. Brunk said that they would not be dying wood chips. Mr. Brunk explained the operation of the LRC. The LRC was created to allow Champaign County residents with an option for disposing of yardwaste that converted it into a reusable material instead of being landfilled. Bridget McGill arrived. Mr. Brunk explained that the operation of the facility was self-sufficient. Because of storms, a land clearing job and new housing development, he said that there was an abundance of material for sale. 7. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:56 p.m. The next meeting of the Urbana Tree Commission will be held on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. at the Urbana Public Works Department, 706 South Glover Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61802 Barb Stiehl Interim Recording Secretary Urbana Tree Commission Page | 5