Dear neighbors and others who have showed support for saving our St. Clair Park ash trees,

Thank you so much for taking the time to sign, and hopefully share, this petition. We are planning to deliver this to the recipients this Wednesday, Aug 11th, so if you know someone who hasn't signed yet, but should, please encourage them to do so!  

Combined with our paper petition, we've received nearly 300 signatures so far in support of this request for a phased approach to managing EAB in the park. 

For an even stronger message, I'm asking you today to send a letter in support of this request as well, to any or all of the petition recipients listed below.  I'm providing a pre-written letter, but please feel free to adapt it, add to it, or write one all your own. This will help amplify our voice and hopefully show the city that the neighborhood and others deeply oppose the upcoming removal of our shade trees in the park, and want a more carefully considered, adaptive strategy put in place.  

You may have seen the recent MinnPost article about the ~100 ash trees just removed from Minnehaha Ave and how the community is feeling the loss (shared here if you haven't).  Let's try to keep this from being our story, too.  

Thank you,

Naomi

Recipients: 

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter: mayor@ci.stpaul.mn.us 

Ward 2 Councilperson Rebecca Noecker: ward2@ci.stpaul.mn.us

St. Paul City Council general inbox: Contact-Council@ci.stpaul.mn.us

St. Paul Parks & Rec Forestry Department: forestry@ci.stpaul.mn.us

Letter text:

Dear [recipient], 
In response to the City of St. Paul's plan to remove all the ash trees at St. Clair Park in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood to manage emerald ash borer (EAB), I support a phased removal approach for the ash trees, prioritizing maintaining shade and other benefits of the established trees for as long as possible.

Recent studies have shown that treating ash trees for EAB is an effective management tool and less expensive than removal when direct labor and materials costs are compared. When the myriad environmental and community benefits of an established urban tree canopy are factored into the equation, the cost savings of treating ashes are enormous. Treatment would preserve the highly-valued shade in St. Clair Park. These trees have been treated since 2014, but now the St. Paul Forestry department is planning to remove every ash in the park instead of continuing to invest in the established urban canopy of this neighborhood.

Re-treatment and pruning a minimum of 2/3 of the ashes should be prioritized, followed by the immediate replanting of removed trees with a minimum of four new tree species to increase resilience to future pests, pathogens, and climate impacts.

After losing entire blocks of boulevard ash trees on the surrounding streets due to the city's unwillingness to treat, we now risk losing most of the shade in our neighborhood's most used community open space. St. Clair park hosts a library branch, community center, playground, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, newly constructed soccer mini-pitch, and Keystone Community Services. All the users of these facilities benefit from the shade provided by the ash trees.

In terms of overall tree canopy, our district (Planning District 9) is near the bottom, ranking 13th out of 17 districts. Residents already have fewer benefits of urban trees in terms of cooling effects, energy savings, stormwater capture, and quality of life than most other districts. Our community deserves a thoughtful and strategic management plan for EAB, and prioritization of urban canopy preservation in community spaces.

Sincerely,

[your name]