HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-28-24 Public Comment - M. Kaveney - UPF Board meeting 3_28_24- work plan commentsFrom:Marcia Kaveney
To:Agenda
Cc:Mitchell Overton
Subject:[EXTERNAL]UPF Board meeting 3/28/24- work plan comments
Date:Thursday, March 28, 2024 11:04:23 AM
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Dear Advisory Board Members and Mr. Overton,
I have an Earth Day event commitment tonight and will be unable to attend tonight's UPFmeeting in person. I appreciate the opportunity to comment via email and hope you will find
the following comments and suggestions useful.
I am interested in your Work Plan action item as it sets your agenda for the next two years.Today I am commenting on Focus Areas 2 and 5, specifically your planned review of the
Forestry Management Plan, Street Tree Guide, Historic Preservation of trees, and Sunset HillsCemetery. I hope you will be able to add subcategories to your work plan to reflect the
following suggestions where applicable.
FOCUS AREA 2Forestry Management Plan review:
Encourage and ensure the inclusion of strong (enforceable) tree protection language withcorrelating supportive UDC code updates. Our urban forest incorporates the sum total of trees
on both private and public land and we are losing mature trees, native and not native, at analarming rate with new developments- even infill developments such as the ponderosa pine in
the future parking lot of the 5th and Main St Hotel. The Medical Arts redevelopment is alsoremoving many mature spruces within its boundaries. As you all are aware, mature trees
cannot be replaced within our lifetime, so I hope you will agree that every effort needs to bemade to protect and preserve those that are currently standing.
Street Tree Guide review:
Encourage an increase in the required number and use of native trees and shrubs such as cottonwoods,
willows, ponderosa pines. These trees do need space to grow but are drought tolerant once established
especially the ponderosa pines (our state tree) and are the best host trees in our area for larval insect
species which, in turn, support a great diversity of bird and small mammal species. Cottonwoods and
willows have a self-pruning process which gives them the reputation of being messy but properly pruned
and picked up after, they can be beautiful additions to any park, or wide boulevard area. (i.e. Choteau has
massive cottonwoods along their street boulevards.)
Historic Preservation for Trees:
With both new development and infill, it's becoming more urgent to get the The Heritage Tree program up
and running to protect our historic individual trees. The ponderosa pine at the 5th and Main hotel site is
about 150 years old (USDA morphology) and has been living in less than ideal conditions for decades,
and even worse conditions since 2017 and is now slated for removal because there are no city codes
requiring the developer to let the tree age in place. We need protections for these centuries old Heritage
trees that add interest, connection, history, carbon storage, and habitat to our community so they are
protected during demolitions and construction. 150 people have petitioned to keep the tree alive and the
developer has been unresponsive to that request date. As far as the public knows, they plan to go ahead
with removal.
Encourage the addition of historic groves and tree stands to the Heritage Tree program. Historic
groves have provided habitat, corridors, and havens for decades and centuries and can come down in the
blink of an eye as we saw with Canyon Gates multiple tree stands amounting to the removal of over 150
mature cottonwoods and another hundred mixed trees including chokecherries, junipers, and aspens.
Suggested Additions to Focus Area 2:
Tree Ordinance- this would be good to add Focus Area 2 as we currently don't have an ordinance toprotect trees from removal.
Tree Cutting Seasonal Ordinance- that would limit when trees can be cut down and carry heavy finesfor tree removal during bird nesting season. (Unlawful to "take" active nests in Montana). Encourage theaddition of strict regulations that mature tree removal, if deemed necessary, must happen outside ofnesting months.
Case in point- Canyon Gate (Story Mill and Bridger Drive) began tree removal before the final approval oftheir preliminary plat in mid-June of 2022 at the height of nesting season. They bulldozed all the treeswithin about a week's time and displaced over 20 (recorded) song bird species that were presumablyactively nesting. There were no penalties for this. When the city commission approved the preliminaryplat- it included the razing of the entire property for infrastructure purposes and that led to the completeremoval of all existing vegetation and topsoil on the 14 acres.
Add Trees as a Natural Resource in the UDC:Currently our UDC includes wetlands under Natural Resources but not trees. This, given our status asTree City, USA, and our growth policy would seem to be a timely addition to strongly encourage.
Focus Area 5
Sunset Hills Cemetery:Encourage the protection of the mature trees in Sunset Hills Cemetery as it provides one of the largestconcentrations of spruces and other mature trees in our urban forest and provides excellent habitat andshelter for many birds, including owls, and small mammals.
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Thank you again for this opportunity. I appreciate the volunteer work you are doing- it is particularlyimportant during this time of rapid growth. Please email me if you would like additional specific UDCcodes or information regarding one of the subjects I mentioned.
Warm regards,Marcia KaveneyBozeman resident, and Bozeman Tree Coalition member