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Draper tree committee weighs Arbor Day planting, $30,000 in tree funds and maintenance needs
Summary
The Draper City Tree Committee discussed using roughly $30,000 (a $10,000 carryover, $10,000 budget for 2025 and a $10,000 private donation) for Arbor Day plantings, with members urging caution about maintenance capacity and proposing the disc-golf/Rotary Park as a primary site.
David Flower, a member of the Draper City Tree Committee, told colleagues the group has $30,000 available to support planting this year — $10,000 carried from 2024 that already secured trees, $10,000 budgeted for 2025 and a $10,000 private donation earmarked for visible park plantings. He opened discussion on how best to spend the funds and whether to pair a symbolic Arbor Day ceremony with a larger community planting event.
Why it matters: Committee members said planting without clear maintenance resources risks losing newly installed trees. ‘‘If we’re gonna plant new trees, it’s a waste of money to plant them,’’ David Flower warned, saying staff capacity to water and check new trees is limited. Several members said hiring a contractor to plant trees could shift liability and ensure warranty coverage while the committee pursues longer-term staffing solutions.
Members compared Draper’s capacity with nearby cities that have dedicated arborists and higher tree budgets, arguing the city lacks a staff resource to sustain a larger planting program. ‘‘We have the money for trees. We have trees. We don’t have the maintenance factor,’’ one committee member said, urging the group to consider whether funds should prioritize replacements and maintenance as well as new plantings.
The committee discussed partnering with Tree Utah for an Arbor Day event and confirmed the nursery has trees reserved; committee members said about 37 trees were identified for a proposed disc-golf/Rotary Park project but noted species and final counts remain flexible. A separate nursery-reservation reference in the transcript listed an implausible numeric value (appearing as "1000000") and the exact number of trees the nursery has agreed to hold is not specified in the meeting record; committee members said they can revise species and quantities with the nursery.
Members debated target locations: the disc-golf course/Rotary Park was favored for irrigation access, parking and visibility; Smithfield Park was discussed but flagged for irrigation, soil and rodent problems that have required multiple replantings. The committee also discussed technical details such as irrigation maps, fencing against ground pests and species diversity to avoid monocultures.
Next steps: Members agreed to bring irrigation maps, a proposed planting map, and species recommendations to the next meeting and to pursue placement on the city council work session to request dedicated tree resources or an arborist position. The committee also discussed possibly hiring a contractor this season to get trees in the ground and obtain warranties while longer-term staffing is pursued.
