Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Tumwater staff present three-year Gary Oak treatment plan, invite historic commission review
Loading...
Summary
Assistant City Administrator Kelly Adams presented a conservative three-year work plan for the city’s nominated Gary Oak, said staff have a DAHP permit for year one and invited the historic preservation commission to review the proposal at a Thursday meeting at 6:30 p.m.; project documents are now on the city website.
Kelly Adams, assistant city administrator and the project manager for the Gary Oak treatment, briefed the Tumwater Tree Board on Jan. 12 about a three-year plan to manage the health and public-safety risks of the city’s nominated Gary Oak.
"We received a council resolution to commit to option B and to move forward on maintaining safety, but also maintaining the health of the tree," Adams said, describing a conservative approach developed with Todd Prager & Associates that phases ground and mulching work in year one and defers heavier pruning to year two. Adams said the plan is based on a level-3 tree risk assessment and that the city has received a DAHP permit for the first year of work.
The presentation emphasized transparency: Adams said staff updated the city’s historic register web page to include the tree assessment, the council resolution adopting Option B and the treatment plan so residents can review the same materials staff will present to the historic commission. "We wanna make sure that we are being transparent," she said, and invited board members to attend the historic commission meeting on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., where the item appears with public comment on the commission’s agenda.
Board members asked whether the historic commission had already seen the information; Adams said this will be the commission’s first formal review and that staff plan to submit the official application in February following an introductory presentation. In response to a question about the possibility of the commission objecting to the plan, Adams called it "a pretty conservative treatment plan" and said staff do not expect objection but would not speak for the commission.
Adams said all documents used to prepare the plan are available on the city website and that staff will work with the historic commission to ensure they have the detail they need. The board was told staff will continue outreach and will attend future tree board meetings to answer questions. The city will proceed with the planned first-year activities while pursuing the commission’s review and any additional approvals needed.
Next procedural steps: the historic commission presentation on Thursday; an official application to the historic commission in February; and continuing the three-year treatment schedule outlined in the assessment and permit.
