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Post Falls urban forestry reports tree removals, nursery expansion and proposed code change on street trees
Summary
Urban Forester Preston Hill told the commission crews are removing beetle-killed trees along corridors, the city expanded storage and nursery capacity, and staff propose moving the street-tree requirement from City Code Title 17 to Title 12 to remove a developer 'cash out' option.
Preston Hill, Urban Forester for the City of Post Falls, briefed the Parks Commission on winter operations, tree removals, nursery work and code updates.
Hill said crews completed a large in-house project installing two 20-foot shipping containers and pallet racking to accommodate staff growth and equipment needs. He described an ongoing large-scale removal of dead and dying trees—many killed or degraded by bark beetles—along the Centennial Trail corridor, Kiwanis Park and portions of the community forest, noting staff are about halfway through that effort. "One of the goals there is to get that existing population of beetle larvae ... off of the site so that those larvae...don't move into live healthy trees next door," he said.
On policy, Hill said staff are working with community development and engineering on code edits and a March meeting with developers. He described a specific proposed change: moving the street-tree requirement from Title 17 (subdivision code) to Title 12 (sidewalks and public spaces), which he said would remove a developer's option to 'cash out' required street trees and allow the city to require trees adjacent to infill lots. "We're moving the entire urban forestry or street tree requirement code from title 17...to title 12," he said.
Hill also noted routine sign-clearance pruning (about 100 obstructions) and plans to expand the city tree nursery by adding container/pot-in-pot capacity. He announced Arbor Day scheduled for Saturday, May 2 and a fourth-grade field trip planned for the community forest.
Commissioners asked about staffing and volunteer roles; Hill confirmed some projects are in-house, that staff took paternity leave which affected winter capacity, and that volunteers and schools are part of educational programming.
