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Additional Background Information Many Urban Forestry services the Public Works Department provides are relatively new. Historically, the tree program consisted of two field crews working on park and street trees. This changed in 1992 when the City's involvement in Urban Forestry was expanded by adoption of the Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP). Under direction of the Eugene Tree Commission, this policy document sets long term goals and policies for the management of trees on both public and private lands, including the provision of tree education and protection of Heritage Trees. Since 1992, we have implemented a number of Urban Forestry services supporting policies or goals cited in the UFMP. These include: creation of the "NeighborWoods" volunteer street tree planting program; development of a street tree species planting list that ensures trees are well sited, suited to soils, provide species diversity, including use of native species; implementation of International Society of Arboriculture pruning standards; adoption of minimum planting area widths for new streets and required street tree planting in all developments which create new streets; and code provisions requiring protection of "Heritage" street trees. (NOTE: funding used for the purchase of trees for the NeighborWoods program was eliminated in the FY98 proposed CIP) - The Urban Forestry staff of 10 employees consists of: an Urban Forester who provides supervision and program management; a technician who processes tree removal requests, provides information, investigates citizen complaints, and manages the NeighborWoods program; a technician who administers the noxious and nuisance vegetation ordinances; and 7 tree maintenance workers (forming two tree crews) who perform work on City-owned street and park trees. fi Funding for Urban Forestry is provided by the General (2.7 FTE), Road (7.05 FTE) and Stormwater (0.25 FTE) Funds. Only 1 FTE is funded within the General Fund for tree work within our 1,980 acre park system. Due to this, assignments are predominately hazard reduction and removal of storm damage from high usage areas within the developed parks. 1.2 General Fund "FTEs provide program " supervision, administer the Tree Preservation Ordinance and provide tree consulting services to other City departments (e.g., review of Planned Unit Developments and other land use actions). One FTE (pro -rated 0.5 General Fund /0.25 Road Fund /0.25 Stormwater Fund) provides administration of the obnoxious and nuisance vegetation ordinances. The remaining 7.05 FTE are supported by the Road Fund and work within the street tree maintenance program. The street tree maintenance program is, like the parks tree program, based primarily on hazard reduction. It is estimated that Eugene has 75,000 - 100,000 street trees. International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) standards for tree pruning recommends a 5 -7 year pruning cycle for tree health and dead wood removal. Eugene's two tree crews have been averaging 2,500 trees pruned per year. This equates to a maintenance cycle of 30 - 40 years. Program enhancements or service requests for aesthetic or low liability pruning of street trees receive low priority. Staff respond to a large number of service requests from the public. Contacts include requests for general tree information, tree removal information, reports of damaged trees, and consulting requests from other departments. In calendar year 1996, Urban Forestry staff received over 15,600 customer telephone requests for information or services, or an average of one call every eight minutes over the • entire year. This intense customer contact competes for the limited staff resources available for program development or service enhancements. Various portions of the Urban Forestry Service Profile have been reworded or expanded to include this information and/or clarify the language. For more information, please call Johnny Medlin or Scott Plamondon, Urban Forester, at 682 -5220.