Q&A
Parks Department's response on tree risk management and assessment methods
1:26:19
ยท
3 min
Parks Department representatives respond to Council Member Holden's concerns, explaining their tree risk management program and assessment methods, while addressing the proposed bill to codify tree maintenance standards.
- The Parks Department outlines their tree risk management program developed nearly a decade ago
- They explain that criteria for assessing trees for risk are available on their website
- The department expresses concerns about codifying current practices, citing the need for flexibility to innovate and improve their methods
Ben Osborne
1:26:19
Okay.
1:26:19
So, you know, first of all, I wanna thank you for all the support you have given to, the trees over the years.
1:26:25
I know you've put a a a lot of funding into tree planting, tree maintenance, tree bed care, things like that.
1:26:31
So, you you know, your interest in the county is is crystal clear.
Robert F. Holden
1:26:36
Could you speak up a little?
1:26:37
Because I'm a little hard here.
Ben Osborne
1:26:38
Sorry.
1:26:39
I may just be a little further from the microphone than I should be.
Robert F. Holden
1:26:41
Yeah.
1:26:41
That's good.
1:26:42
You.
1:26:42
You
Ben Osborne
1:26:42
know, I was just thanking you for the for the support you've
Robert F. Holden
1:26:44
been doing.
1:26:44
I heard that part.
Ben Osborne
1:26:45
Yeah.
1:26:47
So specifically, on the on the bill.
1:26:50
So, you know, as I mentioned before, the when we developed our our tree risk management program, nearly a decade ago, we were the vanguard, and in in many ways, we still are.
1:27:04
And, you know, the the criteria for assessing trees for risk, the standard is on our website.
1:27:12
So we are transparent about that.
1:27:15
And, you know, as I as I mentioned before,
Robert F. Holden
1:27:18
you know About specifically, though, what what the rating of a specific tree, you you're against because that's a lot of work.
1:27:23
I get it.
1:27:24
But if you could if you could classify, when we make a complaint, whether that there's, you know, how like, I I'll put a complaint that there's carpenter ants all over the place.
1:27:35
It looks like there's a lot of, you know, debris around it.
1:27:38
It looks diseased.
1:27:40
Certainly, when it does come down in a storm, it looks like it came down very easily.
1:27:44
And you look at it, it's hallowed rot.
1:27:45
And and what I was told, I don't know if this is still being done, that when they go out and look at the tree, they knock on it to see if it is some kind of noise or hollow, and then they maybe but how do they assess the tree's health and you know, none of this is is is this on the website, how they assess the tree's health?
1:28:06
How do you determine whether it's diseased and what what extent?
Ben Osborne
1:28:10
Yes.
1:28:11
Some of it is, and there there is information about the, you know, the kind of most present, concerns about of of pests and disease, on our website.
1:28:21
The the criteria for doing the risk assessment are on our website.
1:28:26
You know, as you mentioned, sounding a tree, as we call, we knock on it with a, you know, a soft mallet.
Vickie Paladino
1:28:30
That is that is part of the inspection process.
1:28:30
So our our
Ben Osborne
1:28:30
opposition to this, content of the bill itself.
1:28:42
The the risk assessment, component of the bill, that is exactly what we already do.
1:28:48
Of the building clearance assessment, we recognize that that that kind of formal assessment of of risk to property from trees growing into them, is missing from our system.
1:28:59
So, we you know, we're, you know, we've we're developing exactly that type of system.
1:29:04
It doesn't exist out there in the industry.
1:29:06
We have to develop that.
1:29:08
It's being locked into that kinda current state, that concerns us because we developed the the tree risk management system that we use now, based on a a standard that the industry had developed for looking at one tree.
1:29:23
And, you know, we apply that to our our entire population, and that ability to innovate is is really key.
Robert F. Holden
1:29:28
Well, what I don't and I'll and I'll just turn it back to the chair in a second.