HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-STAC-2014-11-19STAC Meeting November 19, 2014
Present: Nina Bassuk, Judy Fogel, Jeanne Grace, Pamela Markham, Judith Maxwell, Paul Paradine,
Debra Statton
Forester’s Report: Jeanne will order the Elmira Rd trees for spring, then store if project not ready spring.
There are going to be a lot of trees. The road is paved, curbs are in, now the City is negotiating with the
contractor about the next part.
Fall Planting: 85 trees were ordered, all will be planted by the end of the week, all bare root. Nina’s class
planted 25 or so on the worst day possible weather‐wise ‐‐‐raining, freezing—but work went fast.
A beaver at Stewart Park took the butterfly magnolia planted near the Fall Creek inlet, also a big 15” ash.
The beaver has its den in the lagoon, maybe will move now that the water level is going down.
Once all the trees are planted, they’ll start with removals‐‐‐have lots of silver maples, also trees on Green
Street. Jeanne checks the silver maples in Fall Creek every year; four or more are to be taken down this
winter. That still leaves 200 silvers in the City!
For the $5500 grant, Jeanne and crew are taking out approx. 20 trees, but since these are so large will need
more than 20 trees to replace them. Nina’s remediation project can be included in the educational
component.
Jeanne and Nina met with Joann and Lisa from the City, and spent two hours going over line by line our
revisions to the Project Review Criteria for Trees. Some changes were suggested which Jeanne and Nina
made and sent back, so now it’s time for another meeting. Basically they liked the document. After this
approval, then it goes to Site Plan Review, part of the Planning Board, for their comment. To actually make
it into City code it has to be voted on by Common Council.
Jeanne asks us to help come up with a sign for those trees being taken out because too large for underwire
and in too bad condition as a result of trimming. Sign should say something more suitable is replacing
what’s being taken out.
EAB: Triage (injectable) is good for 3 yrs, but the injections can hurt the tree. Mark Whitmore has applied
to DEC for an exemption allowing him to use it at half the rate. Even though reports are suggesting its
effectiveness at much smaller dosages, still need exemption from DEC‐‐‐have to treat according to label, if
go off the label, there’s fear of under‐treating.
The dbh of the ash trees at Stewart Park‐‐‐the ones we all want to try to save‐‐‐ is equal to the dbh
of the ash trees downtown Jeanne got funding to save. For Stewart Park maybe can use Imidacloprid bark
spray ‐‐‐sprayable as opposed to injectable and dose only lasts one year, but won’t injure the trees and may
be more successful for the big ash trees with damage that can’t move the Triage well anyway.
For any trees under 8” “no treat, no worry, no hazard.” But larger trees will tip over completely in
the third year of the infestation—their roots will be gone. It’s recommended that tree cutters not enter an
ash more than 30% dead due to the hazard posed by how they fall apart.
Need to put on Forestry website about City’s program of proactive response to EAB. In Spring we’ll
make a leaflet to distribute about this to private homes downtown where there are ash trees. We’ll need
people with binoculars and tree Identification skills to go around and find the ash trees. This heads up will
offer neighborhoods the opportunity to make appointments with experts to decide how to handle their
trees. We can also email to neighborhood list serves and include pictures of ash and offer help in IDing.
Next Meeting Wed Dec 17, 2014 4pm Cooperative Extension
Minutes respectfully submitted by Debra Statton