Residents urge Sammamish commission to prioritize urban forest, park tree inventories and code updates

Three Sammamish residents used the commission’s public-comment period Feb. 13 to press the city to move faster on urban-forest planning, tree-code updates and support for private landowners after recent storm damage.

Jan Bird said she reviewed the city’s right-of-way tree study and recommended producing a similar inventory and management recommendations for city parks, noting that parks contain most of Sammamish’s canopy and that recent storms removed large numbers of park trees, including an estimated 50 in Pine Lake Park. Bird cited the ecological value of native trees for insects and bird habitat and urged the commission to recommend climate-adaptive planting guidance.

Mary Wichter described long-running stormwater and tree-code problems in parts of the city. She noted that the city declared an emergency after the recent “bomb cyclone,” and she asked for help to ease the financial burden on homeowners facing mass tree loss. Wichter said she had been told by staff (David Pyle, per a separate remark) that tree-code updates are planned in 2026–27 and asked the commission to seek interim administrative responses and structured assessments for the urban-forest management plan’s scattered responsibilities across departments.

A third resident, Barbara, described timber losses on private property with a stream buffer and urged the commission to revisit tree-retention rules that require landowners to replant mature cedars with multiple eight-foot trees; she said water scarcity and survival rates make that replacement requirement impractical for some private landowners.

Commission staff and members acknowledged the concerns and said tree-code changes and an update to the urban-forest management plan are on the city’s work plan (tentative timelines were discussed); commissioners asked staff to consolidate where the overall urban-forest planning work sits across departments so the public can track progress.