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Committee discusses sampling methods and a 75% cap to avoid full clear-cuts
Summary
Members and staff said tree-by-tree inventories are feasible for small lots but impractical for large parcels; the draft summary caps clear-cutting at 75% and recommends sampling and extrapolation methods for larger tracts.
Subcommittee members and SCANS representatives debated technical approaches for applying mitigation and inventory rules across different parcel sizes. Derek Pando and City Forester Alex Sherman agreed that small residential lots can be inventoried tree-by-tree, while larger parcels would require point-sampling and use of existing datasets to estimate stand metrics for fee calculations.
Pando emphasized the draft summary’s intent to prevent full clear-cutting: “it it caps it at 75%,” he said, a design the subcommittee described as a way to preserve woodland patches and reduce the cost shock developers might face in worst-case mature stands. The committee discussed how partial preservation (for example, leaving a 50-by-50 backyard) could materially lower mitigation amounts compared with 100% removal.
