Tree Advisory Commission Meeting

TREE COMMISSION MEETING DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 2019 TIME: 1 :30 P.M. PLACE: Urbana Public Works Department, 706 Glover Avenue, Urbana, IL MINUTES Members Present: Carol Augspurger (Chair), Jackson Bird, Bridget McGill, and Michael Stevenson (Vice-Chair), Derek Liebert Staff Present: Mike Brunk (City of Urbana Arborist) Members Absent: Marshall Bellville, Stewart Berlocher Others Present: None Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 1:37 p.m. Roll call was taken. Public Input There was no public input. Under the Canopy Mike Brunk gave an update on the status of the Under the Canopy publication. He provided an explanation of what the publication is and listed changes from the last edition. Derek Liebert suggested putting the publication online. Mike Brunk explained that artist copyrights are limited to print as the cost for electronic use were very high. Bridget McGill asked if there is a poster version that people could hang. She also mentioned putting a fee on it to cover the cost of extra printing. Mike Brunk said people do use the publication for that purpose, but having an unfolded version would be a great idea. He explained that we would not be allowed to charge people for this 3rd edition of the publication as because it is funded by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and USDA Forest Service. Approval of the December 5, 2018 Meeting Minutes Michael Stevenson made a motion to approve the minutes for the December 5, 2018 meeting. Jackson Bird seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously by a voice vote. Former Business a. Native Tree Makeup  TREE COMMISSION MEETING All of the trees listed in the inventory are now categorized. Mike Brunk reviewed the breakdown of the tree inventory. He asked for guidance on how to proceed. Carol Augspurger suggested including age and size in studying the native tree breakdown. She offered to do a size structure analysis. She also suggested planting mostly native trees unless they wouldn’t survive. Carol recommended using nursery sources from zones south of us for introducing southern zoned trees to the community. Bridget McGill asked if Mike is taking location and diversity into consideration for choosing new trees. He said yes, to a certain extent. More discussion continued on increasing native trees numbers in city tree planting efforts. Mike Brunk stated that there were some factors to consider when setting parameters for increasing native tree planting. He stated that that non-native trees can serve a good purpose when planting in harsh non-native environments, for increased diversity for planting sites that have spatial constraints or harsh environments and overall forest diversity. Mike stated that nurseries native tree availability would also shape the City’s tree selections. He went on to say that with the exception of unsuitable locations and cooperative tree requests that he thought attempting to find native trees to fill the majority of tree planting sites would be a worthwhile effort. Michael Stevenson moved that a guideline be set in place that over the next ten years, to the extent that the species are available and not selected by homeowners, we want all city selected replacement trees to be native species except in areas that are deemed unsuitable for their species in which case they can be non-native. Also, those native species be selected with the mindset for making them suitable for proposed climates in this region. Bridget McGill seconded. There was discussion and the motion carried. Adjournment Michael Stevenson made a motion to adjourn, Jackson Bird seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m. The next meeting of the Urbana Tree Commission will be held on Wednesday, June 6, 2019 at 1:30 p.m. at the Urbana Public Works Department, 706 South Glover Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61802 Tamra Jane Corbin Recording Secretary Urbana Tree Commission