10-29-2007 TBMHUTCHINSON TREE BOARD
Monday, October 29, 2007
5:00 p.m.
Council Chambers, City Center
Agenda
Members present: X Laura PoserX Steve Cook,
__Corey Stearns, __Dale Redetzke, , __Newton Potter,
Mayor
;
Others Present:X Mark Schnobrich, City Forester;X John Olson, Public Works Manager
Meeting called to order at 5:10 p.m.
X N
There was a quorum of members present: ___Y
Due to no quorum being present no formal decisions were made at this meeting
1.Approve Minutes of September 24, 2007 meeting
Tabled until next meeting.
2.Review of Energy Tree Utility Report
Mark did discuss the upcoming presentation to the Utilities Commission on October 31, Wednesday, and
gave each member present an updated copy of the presentation. The Tree Board is scheduled to present
st
at 3:00 p.m. on the 31. Steve Cook suggested adding the number of trees removed to the report and also
to report to the Commission the condition of our community forest by disclosing the tree specie
breakdown that is currently found in Hutchinson. This information may be valuable in stressing the
importance of continued planting of diversified tree species in the future.
3.Discussion of council action on proposed tree fee system
No discussion on this topic.
4.
Preliminary discussion on Forestry Master Plan
John Olson briefly discussed the draft of the Forestry Master Plan and highlighted some of the findings
of the plan. He mentioned what the size of trees as represented by percent of overall population is and
what the percent the different make up of the community forest is. While the City’s urban forest
represents39 different species, the majority of the population is comprised of relatively few species. Only
5 species make up 77% of the population.39% of the City’s tree population would be considered young
(less than 6 inches in diameter. Just over 51% is considered maturing (between 6 inches and 24 inches in
diameter.8% would be considered mature (between two and three feet in diameter), and 2% would be
considered over-mature (over three feet in diameter).
John also mentioned that pruning of boulevard trees was going well. However we are still behind if
we are to follow industry standards. We currently prune about 352 trees a year. To reach our goal
of pruning every boulevard tree every 5 years we would have to increase the number of trees pruned
to 850 trees per year.
5.Other Discussions/ New Business
Steve Cook suggested that the city web page should include a “Frequently Asked Tree Question” section
to help citizens get answers to often asked tree questions.
At 5:45 p.m., discussion meeting was adjourned
.
_November 26, 2007 at 5:00p.m., at the City Center
NEXT MEETING: .