HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-06 (draft) Arborist Advisory Committee minutes
ARBORIST ADVISORY COMMITTEE
c/o Office of the Mayor, 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 2603
Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720
ARBORIST ADVISORY COMMITTEE
(DRAFT) SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 MEETING MINUTES
HAWAI‘I COUNTY BUILDING, PUNA CONFERENCE ROOM – HILO
25 AUPUNI STREET, SUITE 1501, HILO, HAWAI‘I
ATTENDANCE
Committee Members Present: Leonard Bisel, Chairperson
James Boyd Friday
Jonathan Sudler, Vice-Chairperson
Bobby Camara
Roy Takemoto
Carol Wyban
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CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 10:05 a.m.
STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC
There were no statements from the public.
APPROVAL OF JULY 5, 2019 AND AUGUST 2, 2019 COMMITTEE MINUTES
The Committee moved to strike the parenthetical reference to “kamani” under the
“Update on Proposed Park Improvement Plans for Kūhiō Kalaniana’ole Park” section of
the August minutes.
The Committee voted 6-0 to approve the minutes as amended.
LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE OPTIONS WITHIN THE COUNTY
Responsibilities for landscape maintenance of County properties are essentially split
between the Department of Parks & Recreation (P&R) and Department of Public Works
(DPW).
DPW takes care of public building grounds, such as County buildings, by contract. The
Department also maintains anything within the streets. One gap are trails that the
Planning Department gets through dedication when certain types of subdivisions occur
where access to the shoreline or mountains are triggered. The subdivider dedicates to
the trail to Planning and no specification is made to any department for maintenance.
During discussion considered:
maintenance staff of P&R may be spending most of their time with a lawn mower.
poor tree maintenance costs you more in the long run so it’s good to do it right in
the first place.
Arborist Advisory Committee
September 6, 2019 meeting minutes
what kind of weight would a letter from this Committee be recommending
maintenance procedures to the Mayor or Council?
where would an arborist position fall organizationally within the County? Which
would be more receptive?
addressing the albizia issue was placed under DPW
in 2016, the arborist position was being added to the County’s budget
is the current mindset not to want more street trees since it means more
maintenance? How do we educate?
County will need capabilities and funding.
County made need two arborist positions – one each for DPW and P&R.
The Committee will draft a motion on recommendations to the County for
consideration at the next meeting
EXCEPTIONAL TREES LIST FROM GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
(GIS)
Committee members referred to an excel spreadsheet distributed with tax map key,
scientific names, common names and general location information of exceptional trees.
Eight of the current trees are privately owned.
The Committee will work with this and an application being developed for inventory.
FIELD WORK
An application for the field work on inventory of exceptional trees is being considered
and can be demonstrated at a future Committee meeting.
The program would be installed on mobile devices and tailored to load data of location
coordinates and description of the trees.
The Committee can work with County staff on developing the fields for this eventual
application.
ARBORIST POSITION
Discussion of seeking an arborist position for the County was a part of the conversation
on landscape maintenance.
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ARBORISTS’ GUIDELINES
Reference to these guidelines can be incorporated into the draft motion on landscape
maintenance recommendations to the County.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 11:27 a.m.
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