Words by Sophie Vaughan
The September 2023 City of Akron Tree Commission meeting set another record for their shortest meeting on the books, clocking in at just over 6 minutes long. This meeting consisted of quick updates regarding the public education strategy. The October meeting was more informative and provided updates finalizing public education materials, as well as news about two grants: one grant awarded to the City in the amount of $1 million to develop a nursery and Urban Forestry Academy on Theiss Road, and a proposed $300,000 grant to be used for 2024 tree plantings. The November meeting included an appearance by the City of Akron Arborist Jon Malish, who updated the commission on Tree City application status, grants received, and upcoming grant requests.
September’s meeting began with a roll call and a motion to accept the August meeting minutes. The motion passed 5-0. Tree Commission Chair Sarah Vradenburg then asked City of Akron Parks Maintenance Foreman John Hilkert about letters to be sent to residents notifying them of upcoming tree plantings. This inquiry had come up at several meetings leading up to the fall plantings. Hilkert said the letters would likely be sent out to residents in mid-October or early November.
Vradenburg mentioned that she had sent an email with talking points for the Commission to use at speaking engagements. She mentioned an upcoming opportunity to speak to the public with Phil Lombardo before asking the Commission if they felt ready to begin reaching out to City Council members about speaking at ward meetings.
Tree Commission Vice-Chair Jeff Fusco inquired about progress on the brochures, and Vradenburg said she was still waiting to hear back from Aitkin on the current status. Fusco said he would like to have the brochures in hand or at least in development when they begin speaking to the public. Vradenburg stated that she would email Akron Chief Communications Officer Stephanie Marsh again about the layout after the meeting. Fusco commended Vradenburg on her work on the content for the brochure and said that he would like to see what it is going to look like.
Vradenburg stated that the T-shirts were almost ready to be picked up and that they would definitely have them by October. She then offered to email the group with possible dates for an in-person luncheon, as suggested in the August meeting. This concluded the September Tree Commission meeting.
October’s meeting began with a roll call and a motion to accept the September meeting minutes. The motion passed 5-0. Vradenburg then asked Hilkert again about letters to be sent to residents notifying them of upcoming tree plantings. Hilkert explained at this meeting that notification letters would not be sent out ahead of these plantings. Out of the 494 trees being planted by the City of Akron this fall, all 138 of those to be planted in front of residences were requested by the homeowners. This means the Tree Commission will not be hearing planting appeals from residents for this round of tree planting.
Hilkert also told the group about a tree planting to take place on Vincent Street in Akron on November 5, where volunteers from Cleveland Clinic would join the City of Akron in planting 50 trees.
Hilkert then informed the Commission that the City of Akron has also been awarded an Inflation Reduction Act Urban and Community Forest Grant by the USDA Forest Service in the amount of $1 million. City of Akron Arborist Jon Malish would like to use these funds to develop a nursery on Theiss Road, to include a greenhouse on the property so that the City can grow their own trees from seed to be planted for tree canopy growth. Malish also hopes to use these funds to develop a certificate training program called the Urban Forestry Academy. Malish sees this as an opportunity for workforce development, wherein people who complete the Urban Forestry Academy program could fill positions at the nursery, which will need several full-time staff members, or pursue other forestry careers.
Hilkert relayed that Malish plans to ask City Council for funds from the budget to cover startup costs for the nursery and certificate training program.
Hilkert also stated that the City is applying for the Great Lakes Restoration Grant for an award of $300,000 to plant trees for 2024. Fusco suggested that the Tree Commission draft a resolution or letter in support of this grant to be submitted with application materials if Malish felt this would be helpful.
The Commission then discussed the public education strategy, including an upcoming Ward 2 meeting for which the Commission had been asked to speak to the public about the Tree Commission. All members expressed willingness to attend, and Aitkin agreed to bring some of the new Tree Commission T-shirts to the meeting to hand out to the public.
Vradenburg then updated the Commission on the status of the brochure that had been in the works for several months. The graphic designer working on the brochure was in the process of final revisions, and Vradenburg hoped they would be finished before the Ward 2 meeting.
Fusco suggested adding information about the Urban and Community Forest Grant award and the Great Lakes Restoration Grant proposal to the talking points for the Ward 2 meeting to let the community know about the work the City is doing to grow the urban tree canopy. This concluded the October Tree Commission meeting.
November’s meeting began with a roll call and a motion to accept the October meeting minutes. The motion passed 5-0. Malish then updated the Tree Commission on the current status of various applications and planting statistics. Malish relayed that the 2023 Tree City USA application had been submitted. Malish then provided highlights from the application.
In 2023, the City of Akron planted 970 trees, worth a total of $342,000. The City pruned 124 trees for a total cost of $25,000 and removed 747 trees, which cost a total of $280,000. This means that the City planted only 223 more trees than it removed. The expense of management, public education, membership and salaries related to trees amounted to a total of $170,000. The City also had a total of 88 volunteer hours for tree plantings.
The minimum requirement for a Tree City is $ 2 per capita in tree-related expenditures.
The City’s tree-related expenditures totalled $820,702.40, which is $4.37 per capita. Malish did not include leaf collection or other various expenditures in the total for the application, since the requirements were already met without those costs.
Malish noted that pruning 124 street trees out of the 55,000 located throughout the City is not enough. Malish stated that for the capital budget for 2024, the Public Service Department has requested a significant increase in pruning services. Malish requested support from the Tree Commission for this request.
Malish then presented information on two grants for which the City of Akron is applying. Malish mentioned that legislation for these grants was introduced at the November 20, 2023, City Council meeting and was placed on the consent agenda, which should pass at the next City Council meeting.
The first grant is for $1 million from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Ohio requested $42 million and received $9 million. Malish explained that over $400 million is unaccounted for, out of the $1.5 billion allotted in federal funding. He said that because of this, there is speculation about another potential round of funding from the federal government to the states, which will then be distributed to cities.
The $1 million Malish is requesting would be used to fund the updating of tree inventory using LiDAR technology and 4G imagery, which uses AI to measure trees down to 1/10”. This is made possible by information and technology generated from scans taken while driving by the treed areas, similar to how Google Earth works. A demo was completed in Firestone Park. Green Hill, based out of Istanbul, developed the technology and partnered with Davey Tree to introduce it to North America. If the plan is implemented, Akron will be the first city in the nation to use this technology and to have this type of scan performed. Malish asked the Tree Commission for a letter of support for this grant. Vradenburg asked for an email with more information, and Malish agreed to send more details after the meeting.
The second grant for which the City of Akron is applying pertains to wood waste utilization. The City is requesting $300,000 to develop outlets and sources for urban wood waste, such as mulch, firewood, timber, rough-cut wood, etc.
Malish said that there are more than 275 different species of trees and cultivars in the City of Akron, some of which are not commercially available. Trees such as Lavelle Hawthorne, which were planted in the 1960s and are currently being removed, are roughly 60-65 years old and only 12-18” in diameter. This means that the number of growth rings and density of the wood could make it of particular interest to craftspeople and artisans. Malish wants to explore possible outlets for wood in these situations. He would like to see the City of Akron set up a distribution network to offer free mulch for residents; he would then hope to develop a wood waste and yard waste program for the residents as well, instead of said waste going into a landfill via trash bins.
The mulch for this type of program would be double-shredded mulch, such as the type of mulch that is commercially available — not single-process mulch that goes through the wood chipper. The grant cannot be used to purchase equipment, but the City’s leaf processing equipment can also process wood into double-shredded mulch. The grant funds would instead be used for program development. In addition to offering mulch to residents, Malish would like to make shredded leaf mulch from the City’s leaf collection each autumn available to residents. Malish asked the Tree Commission for a letter of support for this grant and will send details to Vradenburg via email.
Malish then updated the Tree Commission on autumn tree plantings that the city is conducting. The contractor started the planting process for the City on Monday, November 20. As mentioned in the October Tree Commission meeting, Malish reiterated that all trees to be planted in front of residences were requested by the homeowners. Malish added park paintings to the fall tree planting list as well. The total trees to be planted include 138 trees requested by residents and 195 trees to be planted in parks.
Malish explained that these plantings will exhaust the three-year planting contract, and the City of Akron will be re-bidding this contract by the end of the year. Malish said that, after discussing with Hilkert, they determined that three years is a long time for a contractor to guarantee pricing. Malish has noticed a significant increase in pricing over the last three years. While the City had typically budgeted $350 per tree in the past, bids are currently almost $500 per tree. Malish attributes these higher bids to the rising cost of nursery stock and shipping.
Because of these cost increases, Malish has proposed developing and operating another City of Akron nursery, as Hilkert mentioned in the October Tree Commission meeting. As mentioned before, this nursery would utilize the city-owned land on Theiss Road that is currently the focus of preservation efforts and will be home to the Urban Forestry Academy, the new workforce development and training program that will be launched using the $1 million USDA Forest Service Inflation Reduction Act Urban and Community Forest Grant awarded to the City of Akron.
Malish explained that opening the nursery on the same site as the Urban Forestry Academy would cut costs significantly. Malish will propose a pot-in-pot operation, in which production pots are placed inside permanent in-ground containers (socket pots). The capital outlay is initially expensive, but the turnaround and availability of plants pay off. Plants can be pulled any time of the year instead of waiting for a specific dig time. There is no need for heavy equipment to get the tree out of the ground and ball and burlap it; with pot-in-pot, the grow bag containing the tree is easily pulled for planting. This process, developed by Dr. Carl Whitcomb, prevents girdling roots, which is detrimental to other potted operations.
Malish requested another letter from the Tree Commission to City Council, in support of the proposal to develop and operate a nursery at the new Urban Forestry Academy location on Theiss Road.
Fusco made a motion that a letter be authorized by the Commission and sent to the Ohio Urban Forestry Grant Program Inflation Reduction Act Grant in favor of the City’s application, and to be written and signed by Vradenburg. This motion passed 5-0.
Fusco then made a second motion authorizing Vradenburg to write a letter in support of the City of Akron’s application to the USDA Forest Service Wood Innovation Grant Program. This motion passed 5-0.
Malish then relayed that he and Hilkert would be working this winter on maps for the Master Tree Planting Plan, which he will present to the Tree Commission for approval and then to the City Council.
The Commission also discussed that tree requests are not currently available through 311, and Malish is working to correct this oversight.
Tree Commission meetings are usually on the third Tuesday of the month. Information about the Tree Commission and upcoming Tree Commission meetings can be found at https://www.akronohio.gov/government/boards_and_commissions/tree_commission.php.