Tree Issues, Hendricks Park - Laserfiche WebLink

New Search

I• EUGEN / I Public Works /// Administration Division City of Eugene MEMORANDUM 858 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon 97401 (541) 682-5262 (541) 682 -6826 FAX Date: October 15, 1997 To: John Prior, Marc Lapine, Sanford Tepfer, Wayne Harrison, Ron Funke, Jon Raney, Suzanne Clark, Wendy Schwall, Stanton Tepfer, Gloria Merriam, Joe Garrison From: Christine Andersen, Public Works Director Subject: Hendricks Park Tree Assessment In the past four months there have been a number of community discussions about how best to deal with hazard trees in Hendricks Park. These discussions have been very useful in bringing forth a variety of perspectives on goals and strategies for managing the Hendricks Park urban forest. We appreciate the difficulty of pulling you together for a group meeting with City staff on Friday, October 17, at 4 p.m. in the first floor conference room at 858 Pearl Street and look forward to seeing as many of you as are available to discuss the findings outlined in this memo. In addition, a community meeting is scheduled Tuesday, October 28, at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria at Edison Elementary School, 1328 East 22nd Avenue. This memo is intended to summarize the conversations we've had to date, outline the issues that need to be addressed in the short term, and discuss some of the opportunities and challenges we face over the longer term. Fact Finding to Date In response to concerns from park staff and local residents about tree failures in the area of the picnic shelter, the City in 1996 began a series of investigations and outreach activities to develop a hazard mitigation strategy founded in fact and consistent with community values: • Local consulting arborist Nathaniel Sperry rated and identified 42 trees in the shelter area which pose a fairly high degree of hazard potential. • City Urban Forester Scott Plamondon did additional analysis and testing and narrowed the number of hazard trees to 18 (that figure has since been revised to 19). • The 18 hazard trees were posted for public inspection on July 1, 1997. • A public information session was held at Hendricks Park on July 17. Approximately 30 area residents attended the information session. Although several park neighbors expressed concern about the risk of trees falling onto their homes, others felt there should be options to removing all the hazard trees. • Subsequent meetings were held with a smaller group of attendees who inspected each of the 18 trees and offered their support or opposition for each tree's removal. • In August, the City's Urban Forester met with Alan Kanaskie, Forest Pathologist for the Oregon State Department of Forestry, and Mike Cloughesy, Forestry Agent for the OSU Extension Service. Each of the hazard trees was cored and received a root crown examination.