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Missoula urban forestry staff detail storm damage, recovery costs and staffing needs
Summary
City urban-forestry staff told the Parks and Recreation Board they identified thousands of storm-damaged public trees after a July wind event, have begun removal and hangar treatments, and expect significant unfunded restoration and staffing needs as FEMA and insurance cover limited costs.
Ben, the city’s urban forestry lead, told the Parks and Recreation Board that an intense wind event last July caused widespread tree damage across the city and that recovery will be large, slow and partly uninsured. “We’ve identified over 7,000 individual trees,” he said, adding the figure covers public trees with broken or hanging branches.
The assessment and recovery work has been prioritized into immediate hazard mitigation, hangar treatment (removing broken hanging branches), and full removals for trees that meet hazard or FEMA criteria. Nut graf: The event damaged an estimated share of Missoula’s public tree population, generated tens of thousands of cubic yards of debris and pushed the city to add temporary contracts, revise data collection and accelerate hiring — while leaving restoration work that FEMA or other sources will not cover.
City staff described the scale and costs in detail. Park and forestry contractors have removed several hundred…
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