City plan seeks to avoid tree controversies

Spokane city officials have a plan to avoid a repeat of last year’s controversy over removal of trees during reconstruction of South Bernard Street.

They’ve come up with a detailed method for identifying trees that need to be removed as street reconstruction moves to different parts of the city this spring and summer.

Also, they have reached an agreement with the Spokane County Conservation District to provide new trees to replace those that must be taken out to make way for new pavement.

Tom Arnold, director of city engineering services, said a survey of trees along 12 miles of arterials scheduled for reconstruction showed that only 19 trees would need to be removed out of about 500 trees along the corridors up for work this year.

“As you can see, we are not doing a wholesale removal,” he said.

The city is in the third year of $117 million street improvement program approved by voters in 2004 and scheduled to continue over a 10-year period.

Last year, residents living near South Bernard between 14th and 29th avenues sought to block removal of 17 older trees that were too close to curbs and pavement to be saved.

The city planted 24 new trees farther from the pavement as replacements.

The dispute led city officials to reassess how they decide which trees should stay and which should go, Arnold said.

“We learned some lessons,” he said.

The lesson was to forge a cooperative effort among city engineers, the city’s urban forester, the city Parks Department and the conservation district to address tree issues prior to construction, he said.

Trees along streets scheduled for work this year were initially logged onto an inventory and then checked by the city’s urban forester to see which would be pruned or cut down.

Property owners are being notified and given a chance to help make decisions on replacements.

On Feb. 26, the City Council approved a master contract with Aardvark Tree Service Inc., of Medical Lake, to provide removals for various projects, including the street bond.

The contract amount was $49,000.

In addition, the conservation district through its urban forester has agreed to provide replacement trees at no cost to the city as part of the district’s emerging services to the city.

In 2004, the City Council agreed to join the conservation district, which places a $5 per parcel charge on property tax bills within the city, or about $360,000 a year citywide.

Previously, Spokane was the largest city in the state not to be part of a county conservation district.

The new tree-replacement program has an advantage of identifying problem trees early in a project and getting them replaced in the spring, which is the best time for planting, Arnold said.

One of the largest projects this year is continuation of reconstruction of Ash and Maple streets on the North Side. In 2005, the sections between Wellesley Avenue and Cedar Road were rebuilt.

This year, the project moves south to the sections between Northwest Boulevard and Wellesley.

The Maple section is up for work first.

When that is finished, construction will move to the Ash segment.