Hi Everyone,

A bit of a long update here.  I know many of you were unable to make the public meeting last Thursday afternoon (thank you to those who did!).  In short, the imminent removal of most of the ash trees seems inevitable, but due to our efforts the forestry department has reassessed the trees and decided that six of the ashes are in good enough condition to be left standing, with an additional four trees to be reconsidered before removal.  In addition, the city is willing to plant larger replacement trees on a faster-that-typical schedule.  Ward 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Noecker is willing to contribute some funding (amount TBD) to pay for these larger trees, and they will be planted next year.  

We are considering these two results (keeping some of the ash trees and replanting quickly with larger trees) to be a big success!  There are several reasons why the majority of ash trees will still be removed, and I'm hoping the link for the meeting recording is posted soon so you can hear directly from the city and understand what those reasons are. 

I want to share with you the follow up from the city after the meeting, including a map of the plan for the trees at the park, and the response written by myself and other organizers, which I just sent back to the city this evening.  

Thank you for your continued interest in this issue. If you can, get out there and enjoy the last moments of shade in the park!  The plan is to remove the majority of the ashes sometime between now and Labor Day.

Best,

Naomi

City's follow up after the public meeting:

"On behalf of the Saint Paul Parks and Recreation team, thanks again for your time, ideas, and discussion yesterday.

Please find the follow-up that was committed to and some associated summary information:

1. Attached is a map indicating the trees that were identified by the City Forester as good candidates to remain, taking into consideration location, condition, and impact to surrounding trees among other factors. Each of these trees was last treated in 2020.
2. The attached map also indicates the four additional trees that were lesser candidates to remain. The City Forester will further evaluate these trees during field operations with a goal to have some or all remain if the success indicators listed above are determined. I have asked to be advised of this determination as it is made.
3. We will look to this group for continued dialogue on how to consider treatment for the trees that remain leading up to the next treatment cycles, as they are not part of the current treatment plans/schedules. Thank you for extending your willingness to do that.
4. We will look to this group for input and help for a successful reforestation at St. Clair Park, leading up to Arbor Day planting event in 2022. We discussed a desire to have input regarding the recommended tree species and caliper, and to partner to supplement standard reforestation with a potentially increased size for the new trees. Thank you Councilmember Noecker for offering your willingness to help resource this.

My thanks again to all involved. I appreciate the community perspective and questions as the impact of EAB touches this park. I also appreciate the engagement of our Forestry team in identifying park specific plan adjustments that can be considered without an adverse effect on other trees and considerations. 

Mike Hahm

Director, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation”

Our response:

Dear St. Paul Parks and Recreation Department and Coucilmember Noecker,

On behalf of the petition signatories and the West 7th community, we wish to thank you for making time to engage directly with concerned residents last Thursday regarding the impending removal of ash trees in St. Clair Park. While many participants in this effort were unable to make the meeting due to the short notice and occurrence during business hours, for those of us that could attend it was highly valuable to our understanding of the issues facing the ash tree grove in the park.

Still to be addressed are  the questions submitted in writing ahead of the public meeting last Thursday.  We are hoping that those questions which did not overlap with what we discussed in the meeting can be answered and shared with the public, in addition to the recording of the meeting for those who were unable to attend.

We did receive the map showing the six treated ashes that will be left standing, as well as 4 ashes that will be reassessed for removal. This, as well as the city’s response, is being shared with the petition signatories and local community groups.

We want to thank the Department, as well as Councilmember Noecker, for their enthusiasm and commitment to replacing the removed ash trees with larger caliper trees next year. We believe this will make a measurable difference in mitigating the loss of this communal shade. However, we wish to revisit few points made in the meeting last week to ensure that we don’t end up in a similar situation in the future:

1. St. Paul Urban Forester Supervisor Rachel Coyle mentioned that one of the reasons the pathway ashes are in such poor condition and not candidates for preservation is they were planted too close together, resulting in their uneven canopy/branch development. Will the replacement trees be planted at more appropriate distances from each other to prevent this issue from occuring in the future? We realize this may mean fewer trees will ultimately be replanted.
2. We are hoping that by increasing the caliper size you intend to consider balled and burlap trees. However, it is our understanding that these trees should be planted by experienced planting crews to ensure proper establishment. This will need to be a consideration for how the Arbor Day event is planned. 
3. We would like to advocate for there to be no additional locust trees included in the planting plan for the park. Our neighborhood is already saturated with locust trees planted in the past few decades. If a locust disease or pest arises, we would again be in a position of losing a large portion of the boulevard and park trees. As we’ve seen time and time again, diversity among urban trees is key to resilience.  We hope to see a minimum of four new tree species in the park from the replanting effort.
4. We want to ensure that the majority of the replacement trees will be locally appropriate shade trees. Some replacement plantings around the city appear to be smaller fruiting trees like crab apples, which may be beneficial for some wildlife but will not suit our need for reestablishing shade in the park.  
5. As a community, we are very concerned about climate resilience among our trees. We urge you to consider climate resilience (drought, pest, disease, and extreme temperature tolerance) as a primary factor in tree species selection for replanting.

Despite these positive measures to make up for this loss to our community, we want to reiterate our continued sadness and frustration that many of the ashes were just treated for EAB in 2020, yet will still be removed this year; the same year as the surrounding boulevard trees. The compounding effect of these removals occurring in the same year will be a big blow to our neighborhood.  Households that lost their boulevard tree will likely have increased cooling costs for decades as they wait for replacement trees to be planted and mature. Losing the communal shade at the local park will make this even more difficult. 

We understand your department has been “laser focused on reforestation,” as Mr. Hahm, St. Paul Parks and Rec Director, put it in the meeting last week, but we again ask for more care and consideration of the appropriateness of this focus given our equity concerns and how drastically our climate is warming. Last month (July, 2021) was the hottest month ever in recorded history. Our best bet for resilience is maintaining the mature shade trees we already have while increasing species diversity in under-shaded areas. Also heard from Mr. Hahm in the meeting was, “Individual tree treatment is viable but not at scale.” It seems that lessons could be learned from the City of Naperville, IL, which did undertake large-scale treatment as it’s first line of defense against EAB infestation, with great success: https://data.naperville.il.us/stories/s/8xjf-z55e. We realize that we can’t go back and change past decisions, but perhaps it’s not too late to adjust the department’s focus in the face of successful management strategies used by other municipalities and emerging research indicating that treatment is far more cost effective than removal and replacement. 

Thank you again for engaging with us and hearing our community's concerns and priorities. We look forward to continuing the conversation about reforestation of the park, and maintaining the ash trees that will be left standing.

Sincerely,

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