Open houses for Urban Forest plan by PARD

[susan]

Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning out over the bad.
It's simply a choice to take action.    
-Anna Lappé

-----Original Message-----
From: Zoila Vega-Marchena <zv...@austin.rr.com>
To: fix290 <fix...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, Jul 27, 2013 9:25 am
Subject: [fix290] URGENT: Today Saturday to Tuesday, open houses for Urban Forest plan

 

Please, help the trees by attending one of the 6 PARD Urban Forestry open houses from Saturday July 27^th to Tuesday July 30^th, to provide your feedback on “what should be done for trees and vegetation in public spaces” as feedback for the Austin Urban Forest Management Plan that is being written by PARD Forestry with approval from the Urban Forest board.  You only need to spend 10-15 minutes to provide your feedback.  You can arrive and leave any time between the allotted times, at any of these opportunities. 

 

If you cannot attend, please email your comments by next Tuesday to urbanfo...@austintexas.gov

 

Saturday July 27th, 2013

• 9:00 am – 1:00 pm Sunset Valley Farmers Market, Toney Burger Center, 3200 Jones Rd. 
• 9:00 am – 1:00 pm Downtown Farmer’s Market, Republic Square Park, 400 West Guadalupe Street. 

 

Sunday July 28th, 2013

·         10:00 am – 12:00 pm Mueller Farmers Market, Browning Hangar, 4550 Mueller Blvd. 

 

Monday July 29th, 2013

·         7:00 am – 10:00 am Northwest Austin Recreation Center, 2913 Northland Dr., Austin, TX 78757. 

·         5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail, Under the Mopac Bridge. 

 

Tuesday July 30th, 2013

• 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm Ruiz Library, 1600 Grove Blvd Austin, TX 78741. 

 

This is just about the only opportunity for the community to provide your feedback since this “community plan” has already been written WITHOUT community input. 

 

Go to http://www.austinheritagetreefoundation.com/Urban_Forest_Plan.html for more details, the plan and data. 

 

The proposed plan is so vague that is not a plan.  There are no action items, no deliverables, no schedule other than implementing the plan from 1 to 20 years. There is no mention of who will execute specific goals, or more importantly WHAT, WHEN, AND HOW the goals will be implemented.  Outdated and incomplete tree inventory data is being used. 

 

Unfortunately, this plan will NOT produce any improvements.  Forestry failed a City Audit less than a year ago because of several serious operational problems, and for not having Standards of Care and an Urban Forestry plan.  The proposed plan will NOT help resolve the operational issues that caused Forestry to fail the audit, will NOT improve tree preservation, and will NOT help Austin increase tree canopy.

 

Please, attend one of these Open Houses and ask for a real Urban Forest Plan that will protect our Urban Forest and public trees, for an implementable plan that makes action items from the concerns brought up by the community, for a plan that has action and not vague words, for a plan that will be executed in the short and long term.

 

Please provide Forestry all of those concerns that you shared with the Heritage Tree Foundation, such as:

• the Parks Department, including Forestry, should maintain parks trees and vegetation,
• existing public trees (including older trees) should be cared for, watered and mulched by Forestry, not just by volunteers,
• trees should be planted in a manner that they can grow to be heritage trees, not those trees that die in a few years and don’t get replaced,
• trees should be preserved and their entire critical root zone should be protected from any encroachment, particularly from construction,
• cars should not park under the critical root zone of public trees in parks (barriers should be installed),
• dead trees should be removed promptly,
• the public should be notified when a large public is going to be removed (ribbon or sign),
• when dead trees are removed, they should be removed low to the ground and not leave unsightly “snags” that do not provide a significant environmental benefit,
• snags should be tall and have some branches for birds to perch and cavities for wildlife, and should be located in true riparian areas, not in parks where they endanger people,
• proper tree species should be planted,
• adequate soil volume and tree spacing should be provided for trees so that they can grow to heritage size,
• Forestry staff, including foresters, should be trained and experienced and do their jobs properly,
• trees should be assessed properly and not removed for being a safety hazard when they are not,
• hazardous trees should be fenced until Forestry can remove them,
• public trees should be treated as green infrastructure and not removed so easily (particularly public street trees that get removed by developers in order to have driveways for construction),
• wildlife and creeks are important, and vegetation, trees and creeks are important to wildlife, so all should be protected,
• trails and bikeways should be designed without encroaching on older trees or causing tree removal,
• etc.

 

Thanks,

Zoila

 

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