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Home My Public Portal About06-16-2021 Minutes Tree Board Regular Meeting 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov Tree Board Minutes | 1 of 3 Minutes Tree Board Remote regular meeting 9 a.m. June 16, 2021 Virtual meeting via YouTube Live Town of Hillsborough YouTube channel Present: Chair Andrea Lewis, Vice Chair Frances Harris, Tim Logue, Liz Waters and Gregory Yavelak Absent: Casey Collins Staff: Public Space Manager Stephanie Trueblood Guest: Sarah Meadows and Will Spoon 1. Call to order, roll call and confirmation of quorum Chair Andrea Lewis called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Public Space Manager Stephanie Trueblood called the roll and confirmed the presence of a quorum. 2. Agenda changes and approval The agenda stood as presented. 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on April 21, 2021 Motion: Vice Chair Frances Harris moved approval of the minutes as presented. Member Tim Logue seconded. Vote: 5-0. Ayes: Members Harris, Lewis, Logue, Liz Waters and Greg Yavelak. Nays: None. 4. Presentation A. Data collection Hillsborough resident Will Spoon shared information about the use of i-Tree, a North Carolina Department of Agriculture tool that assists in estimating tree canopy. He has experience with the tool and estimating tree canopy for the City of Asheville’s tree commission. He has used i-Tree to estimate tree canopy in Hillsborough. He noted the tool did not count the Collins Ridge development within the town limits but the other boundaries looked accurate. He reported Hillsborough’s tree coverage was about 50-50. He suggested the town could create a tree canopy goal and periodically assess achievement of that goal. Discussion included acknowledgement that the Tree Board has a reforestation plan for town property. Suggestions included a cost-sharing program encouraging people to plant trees and identifying neighborhoods that have less tree canopy to help the Tree Board decide where to plant more trees in rights of ways and where to encourage residents to plant trees. Tree Board Minutes | 2 of 3 Spoon noted i-Tree may not acknowledge young trees because they are hard to see on satellite imagery, so it may appear that newer neighborhoods have room to plant trees where young trees have been planted already. 5. Discussion items A. National Pollinator Week Sarah Meadows, chair of the Hillsborough Garden Club’s Bee City Subcommittee, shared the plans for celebrating National Pollinator Week including a wildflower seed give away and bee hunt. B. English ivy removal Logue reported he had worked on removing ivy on a tree on the Town Hall Campus and some trees along the Riverwalk greenway. There was some interest in setting up a Saturday morning ivy removal, perhaps earmarking certain trees. Trueblood suggested planning a fall workday along the northern edge of the Old Town Cemetery. The Tree Board planted trees there and English ivy has encroached. There was interest among board members in continually reminding residents that it’s important for the health of trees to remove English ivy. There were suggestions of acknowledging residents who have taken action, placing an “Ivy removal crew” sign when removing ivy and asking the Public Information Office to write a newsletter article, thanking those who have taken the time to remove English ivy and directing readers to the ivy removal video. There was a suggestion to create an English ivy removal subcommittee. Harris agreed to serve on that subcommittee even as her term on the Tree Board ends. 6. Updates A. Hillsborough Garden Club None. B. Bee City Subcommittee No additional report. C. Staff and board updates Trueblood gave the following updates: • The flower bed around the fountain at the Town Cemetery has been refreshed with new soil and planted with pollinator plants. • The boxwoods in the Old Town Cemetery are being removed June 16-17. • The FY22 budget increases the planting budget from $5,000 to almost $10,000 to support pollinator gardens and tree plantings. • The removal budget for trees is increasing by $5,000 because of the expense of removing trees dying from emerald ash borers and English ivy. Once the emerald ash borer has damaged trees, the trees cannot be climbed, making removal more expensive. • She suggested the Tree Board plan on conducting some education on best practices for mulching around trees. There was some discussion on researching whether there is already a good short video on how to mulch trees that the Tree Board could share or promote. • There will not be a meeting in July. 7. Adjournment Lewis adjourned the meeting at 9:58 a.m. Tree Board Minutes | 3 of 3 Respectfully submitted, Stephanie Trueblood Public Space Manager Staff support to the Tree Board Approved: Aug. 18, 2021