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Lake Forest Park tree board recommends city accept $71,000 SFI grant to assess urban-forest management
Summary
The Lake Forest Park Tree Board voted to recommend that city council accept a roughly $70,600 grant from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative to fund an assessment of the city's urban-forest practices and readiness for SFI certification; board members asked staff to fast-track council consideration this month.
The Lake Forest Park Tree Board voted to recommend that the City Council accept a Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) grant of roughly $70,600 (about $71,000) to fund a citywide assessment of urban-forest management and preparedness for SFI certification.
The recommendation, approved unanimously by the board during the meeting, asks city staff to finalize the grant agreement and present the project to council on an accelerated timeline. "This is a ... almost $71,000 grant from SFI," a board member said while describing the award and the steps remaining to accept the funds.
Board members said the grant would pay for an independent assessment that uses SFI’s urban and community forest standards — a set of goals and performance measures SFI has published — to analyze the city’s policies, outreach, park and street-tree management, and other practices. The assessment would identify gaps, list recommended improvements and include a pre-audit readiness step; SFI staff told the board the full certification would be substantially more expensive and is not required to take advantage of the assessment.
Why it matters: board members said the assessment would provide data and recommendations to update the city’s 2019 forest-management plan and to align future policy changes with climate and disaster-readiness objectives. Council liaison Larry Goldman said staff could fast-track an introduction to council so the city could act before federal funding priorities change.
Key details and limits: board members repeatedly noted constraints on what the SFI funding can be used for. The grant is reimbursement-based, requires monthly reporting, and SFI staff said the award cannot be used to create a complete city-owned-tree inventory (an explicit inventory or parcel-by-parcel tree count is not fundable under this grant). Board members also flagged that federal funding is subject to change, and that the city would have roughly 12 months after acceptance to complete the funded work.
Next steps: the board approved a motion recommending that council accept the grant and authorize staff to finalize the agreement. Tree Board members asked staff to send a letter on city letterhead to SFI confirming the board's interest and requested that Mark Phillips, the tree board chair, present the proposal at a council work session (the board discussed a possible Sept. 11 work session and a Sept. 25 council vote on an accelerated schedule). Board members also discussed whether the city would assign some of the work to the new urban-forest planner or contract out the assessment to consultants, depending on capacity and required expertise.
Board action: The board moved to recommend council accept the SFI grant and to proceed with finalizing the agreement; the motion passed by voice vote.
