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ry <br /> ITEM TITLE: The Liability of Eugene's Aging Urban Forrest <br /> Background: On December 1, 1993, at the intersection of llth Street and <br /> Washington, a section of a Catalpa tree broke free from the trunk and landed <br /> in the center of the West lane of Washington, blocking both lanes. The <br /> section weighed approximately 1500 pounds. It was fortunate that no person or <br /> property was injured, damaged or killed, as the intersection has a traffic <br /> light and traffic is regularly stopped at that point. <br /> This most recent incident in combination with over 125 other "near misses" <br /> that we can document in the past 5 years, involving anything from tree limbs <br /> falling on parked cars in parking lots to street trees falling on private <br /> homes brings to light the increasing liability that the City faces with its <br /> aging Urban Forest. In the past ten years there has been $44,244 paid out in <br /> claims and $197,977 total incurred and held in reserve for incidents involving <br /> street trees. The largest of these claims, $18,583 paid and $151,000 held in <br /> reserve, was the result of the death of a driver, killed on Washington Street <br /> in 1990. <br /> While we do not have an accurate inventory of trees lining our streets, our <br /> estimate is 100,000 street trees. In addition we have all the park trees. An <br /> Urban Data Service Report (ICMA) shows a survey of 2,861 cities that indicates <br /> that cities with populations of 100,000 - 249,000 have an average of 11.5 tree <br /> care employees with an average of 5,789 trees per employee. Eugene currently <br /> has 5 tree care employees. With the merger of Parks Maintenance into Public <br /> Works Maintenance, we have eliminated a Supervisors position. Using the <br /> funding from the Supervisors position and extra help funding we will add two <br />