Port Angeles — The city of Port Angeles may soon launch a new program aimed at getting more urban forest canopy in the city. It would be a cooperative with private land owners wishing to add more trees, but also getting some help from experts.
Paul Forrest, head of City Shade, has 1200 trees waiting to be planted for the City Street Tree Project as the City of Port Angeles is getting engaged to the idea.
Thomas Hunter, City of Port Angeles Public Works Director, is on board with the project and is working closely with Forrest.
Currently, five species of trees are growing for the project, trees beyond 60 feet in height will not be allowed for consideration of neighbors and sight-lines. Trees that buckle pavement and sidewalks with their root systems will also be eliminated and replanted with trees suitable for the urban environment.
Forrest and Hunter believe this project will get started sometime next spring.
“Well, I think that we’re still a little ways off from people signing up. I think that we need to spend the summer and maybe early fall kind of finalizing what the application process is going to look like. The last thing we want to do is to have people log in online at all of a sudden there’s a bunch of hiccups. So we need to figure that part of it out. Ultimately, what we’re looking at is opening up application for these trees next spring, collecting that those applications for a short period of time. And then ultimately due diligence in late spring and summer on all the things that Paul brought up relative to the placement of those trees. And then October of 2023 would be the first planting,” said Hunter
Forrest believes he will have 100 trees ready for the first planting scheduled for October 2023.