Trees Are Fundamental to Shoreline's Character

Trees are front and center again in Shoreline. 

"To Tree or not to Tree, that is the question!" 

(apologies to William Shakespear!)

Trees that are now gone
 from Bear Reserve, part of Innis Arden
7/11 - ph credit Janet Way

At Monday's City Council meeting the Trees and Tree Board topic will be on the agenda. Council will take up Ordinances #617 and #627 which address respectively:  creating a Tree Board and Tree Cutting Permits for the Right of Way. 


The agenda link is here. Councilmeetings begin at 7pm, and public comment on this item will be at the beginning, but the discussion and potential vote will begin after about 7:45pm. You can contact the Council directly at:
http://www.shorelinewa.gov/index.aspx?recordid=10&page=36
or City Manager's office: 801-2213
http://www.shorelinewa.gov/index.aspx?recordid=11&page=648

Citizens who care about protecting our trees have been contacting the Council for years about these concerns and recently have taken other actions.

The Shoreline Preservation Society, a local non-profit organization is raising many concerns about these proposals and the potential impacts to our environment, health and character of the community. 
SPS (Shoreline Preservation Society) is now sponsoring an online petition, through The Petition Site/Care2, asking the community to support the protection of our trees through and independent, stand-alone tree board, not just creating a board ordinance that facilitates cutting more trees and benefits one neighborhood's "views".  


The petition has garnered over 230 signatures in just 5 days. You're invited to sign at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/protect-shorelines-urban-forest/


In Shoreline, tree preservation has been a continuing controversy for many years, and is fundamental to the community's image, quality of life and central to the political identity of different neighborhoods and factions.

Some magnificent London Plane Trees grace
Meridian Ave N, and provide shade and a beautiful
"tunnel of green"
ph credit, Janet Way

Some of the major concerns about these ordinances are:

• Need for SEPA Review to assess the actual environmental impacts of this ordinance 

• Tree Board needs to be an "independent, stand-alone" body, not just the Parks Board 

• Accompanying "Street Tree List" to the ordinance does not contain conifers, native trees or most of the existing street trees, when our current streetsides now are made up of over 40% conifers. 

• Permit process is designed to benefit one neighborhood, Innis Arden to facilitate cutting for views

Major Concern:
So, if all the trees that are now in the "Right-of-Way" (existing Street Trees) are not on the "approved list" in the proposed ordinance, they are all vulnerable to cutting, with just a simple permit.

Many of us are still asking are we Shoreline, Innis Arden or Shorelinnisarden? 

Thousands of beautiful trees are at stake in Shoreline and the Council has a responsibility to consider the legacy we leave for the future in our City.

Conifer in Right of Way in Innis Arden

Are We Shoreline, Innis Arden or Shorelinnisarden?

A local resident with very deep roots here has christened us "Shorelinnisarden" and designed us a new logo for the City of Shorelinnisarden! 

This inspired perhaps by a disturbing trend here. It seems we may be all forced to march to the Innis Arden Board Rules, if we are not careful. The upcoming discussions at the council to make Shoreline a "Tree City, USA" by instituting a tree cutting policy to suit the Innis Arden Board, will be something to pay attention to.


Maybe we already are?



Shoreline City Council is scheduled to take up the matter soon. But many are asking, really what would be the environmental impact of this proposal. Many are asking for a SEPA Review, to better understand what the impact would be. If you establish a Tree Board, with a pre-existing "Tree Management Plan" already in place, and a "Recommended Tree List" already established, how would this impact our whole Urban Forest Canopy? Especially if there are no conifers and most of the existing street trees not on the list?
Is it really better to have a Tree Board and a Tree City USA status, when having that moniker would really mean the Urban Forest would be diminished? Really?

Scene at Innis Arden's Bear Reserve where 46 significant trees
have been cut to please the "view conscious"

If so ................ All hail "Shorelinnisarden!" $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Are We Shoreline or Innis Arden?

"Friendly signage" warning pedestrians who
controls Bear Reserve

If Innis Arden has its way, we might as well all be living there,  but without benefit of the view!

Some of 46 significant trees cut in Bear Reserve

46 Significant Trees being cut in IA's
Bear Reserve. Signage posted now
warns "the public" to stay out of Bear
Reserve.

Innis Arden is a "covenanted" community within Shoreline, with "restrictive easements". It was founded originally over 60 yrs ago on lands platted by William Boeing.

Right now, the Innis Arden Board is busy cutting a forested grove called Bear Reserve that generations have enjoyed as a community trail. Nearby residents and the City tried but failed last year to defend this grove of trees in an Environmentally Critical Area. The Innis Arden Board pursued a policy to cut these trees in order to benefit other residents "view corridor", and has aggressively pursued this "view policy" for decades.

Much of Innis Arden is devoid of large trees, but
a few remain. You can bet they are in some intrepid
home-owners yard who has stood firm to protect a
significant tree.

Many Innis Arden residents have been sued by the Innis Arden Board, and ordered to cut trees on their properties in order to please other residents. This policy enhances property values for the "view residents" but encumbers others with fines, liens, and destruction of their own landscaping.

Now, in an Orwellian twist, ironically, Shoreline City Council is considering a new ordinance to create a Tree Board. This is to allow Shoreline to become a "Tree City, USA". The current concept is to designate the Tree Board as a committee under the Parks Department and only consider the city's "public trees".  This would mean all other trees would not be covered, and decisions about these public trees would be left to the Parks Department. THIS provision is being specifically inserted to benefit Innis Arden, in a blatantly political move which will satisfy a specific legal settlement.

So why is this a concern you ask?

It is a concern because nothing would be protecting the other trees other than some current codes (which are also up for change at the Planning Commission), and those under Parks control would be under new rules, where only trees on a specific list of street trees (which are only deciduous, that is trees which lose leaves, not "evergreens") would be "permitted" as street trees. So now all trees not on the list, including "conifers" could be easily cut down with a permit.

And this is what the Innis Arden Board has wanted all along. To be able to cut any tree that has the audacity to grow tall and is in the way of someone's million dollar view.

Conifer within the Right of Way 

But what would be the impact of losing those conifers? It turns out that there are many, many conifers in the "right of way" or ROW now in Innis Arden and elsewhere in the City. Estimates based on city surveys indicate 40 - 50% of the Right of Way trees are likely conifers. Losing them could have a serious environmental impact to the community as a whole. All of those trees now provide huge benefits, not the least of which is stormwater attenuation, water quality and air quality.

The Innis Arden "Reserves" are open space areas, platted in the original design of Innis Arden to be trails and respite from the hub-bub of modern life. They are mostly in ravines with native growth, and often have steep slopes and "Critical Areas" with stream corridors. They have interesting names such as "Grouse" and "Heron" and "Bear" named after previous inhabitants. But they are not open to the public.

Lower Bear Reserve with newer native growth and
snags visible from previous cuts

Some members of Innis Arden have complained bitterly at Council meetings about concerns on stormwater impacting the downstream areas of Innis Arden and imploring the City Public Works to spend dollars on infrastructure upstream to stop the runoff. But, at the same time, the Board spends year after year pursuing tree cutting policies, even in their "Reserves" and filing lawsuits against citizens and the City to achieve its tree cutting goals.

It seems like a strange way to conduct business and a strange way to be a neighbor. And a strange way to ask the City to spend its resources.

Shoreline's trees are an incredibly valuable asset for all of its citizens providing "services" of at least $1.8 million. A moderate estimate would put replacement value for our trees at least at $180 million for the services they provide. Most people in Shoreline value them highly and would like to find reasonable ways to protect and enhance our urban forest infrastucture.

You can comment on this matter by contacting the Shoreline City Council before Jan 23rd.

It also makes one wonder what will be the outcome of this latest tree battle. Will Shoreline be forced to live by Innis Arden Board's rules or will Innis Arden be governed as a part of the City of Shoreline? 

Bear Reserve - A Place That Matters

The "Tuning Fork Tree" stands proudly in the
Bear Reserve
ph credit - Janet Way

Huge Doug Fir Tree at Risk in Bear Reserve
ph credit - Janet Way

A Grove of Significant Trees in Shoreline that many neighbors care about is at risk from a proposal by Innis Arden Board's plans.

Trees in a Steep Slope Critical Area Proposed to be Cut
ph credit - Janet Way

The Reserve contains a bonafide Critical Area, according to the City of Shoreline. The IA Board proposes to cut 45 trees in this unusually forested area in Innis Arden. They claim since they are the owners that they can cut whatever they want to enhance views of nearby property owners.

Critical Areas or ECA's are places that are protected by cities and counties by their Critical Area Ordinances. Steep Slopes, Streams, Wetlands and other types of resources like flood plains are protected by City Ordinance and State Law.

However, other neighbors want to keep the trees because of the exceptional benefits they find in this grove of big trees. 

Bear Reserve is a popular walking path
for Innis Arden and nearby residents, just below
the site of the old Sunset Elementary School.
Children used to walk to school along this path.
ph credit - Janet Way

Some trees were already cut in the last few years there.  The Innis Arden Board is arguing that it is not a Critical Area. An appeal hearing is scheduled with the Hearing Examiner  in August. 

Curving Trunks indicate trees protecting a steep slope

There is also a small creek that was flowing there last week (in July). It seems to be hardly an "ephemeral stream" as claimed by the IA Board if it is flowing in July. 

Small stream flowing in Bear Reserve surfaces in the upper section of the ravine.

The trees proposed to be cut are "significant" by the current city rules because they are much larger than the 12" measurement. 

Alan Kohn is a retired UW Professor of Biology
who lives next to the reserve and is a member of
the Friends of Bear Reserve group.
ph credit - Janet Way

The trees offer a respite and valuable wildlife habitat to many species. While there we witnessed hummingbirds and insects flitting about.

Red Elderberry Grove in the Reserve
ph credit - Janet Way

What will be the fate of the trees in Innis Arden, and the City of Shoreline? That will be up to the City, the Hearing Examiner and the citizens who care.