Improve Bellingham's Urban Forest Management Plan Draft
City of Bellingham UFMP staff, Mayor, and City Council
The City of Bellingham released a draft Urban Forest Plan* (UFP) on April 15. This pivotal report will guide the City's actions and regulations regarding urban trees for the next 25 years. WMTP is working on a detailed assessment of the draft report which will be available in early May.
We already see that the City's draft lacks specific provisions to protect existing mature trees -- other than brief mention of an upcoming Landmark Tree Ordinance that will protect only a few hundred largest trees within our city (a tiny portion of our city's overall tree canopy). This omission should concern everyone greatly.
Some mature tree loss will inevitably occur as Bellingham grows and densifies. If we do not create effective regulations (and incentives) NOW to protect a significant portion of mature trees, our community's character, livability, quality of life, health, and climate resilience will diminish. We all witnessed recently how the lack of City regulations sadly green-lighted the removal of 320+ majestic trees along Meridian St.
Please sign our petition below. It will only take a moment to do, and your personal info will be protected. You don't need to be a registered voter or over 18. Then please share our petition link with your family, friends and social media networks -- to support our efforts to fix the draft UFP report. A key tool to protect our urban trees more successfully in the future will be a strong, clear UFP.
Note there is a Comment box in the form too -- a very potent way to tell the City in a few sentences your heartfelt feelings about why mature trees should be protected. Please do that!
Thank you!
* We encourage you to read the City's draft UFP report. The 'meat' of the report -- 7 pages of Recommended Actions over the next 10 years -- starts at page 56.
Sponsored by
To:
City of Bellingham UFMP staff, Mayor, and City Council
From:
[Your Name]
Please count me in as a supporter of Whatcom Million Trees Project's detailed "white paper" review of the City's draft Urban Forestry Management Plan Phase 3 report.
I support WMTP's suggested changes to the draft UFMP report that will make it a more useful and meaningful strategic document for our community. In particular, I STRONGLY support whatever we can do to protect and enhance our city's EXISTING mature tree canopy in a way that is compatible with the City's need for additional housing and growth.
Please refine your draft UFMP report so that we end up with a strong, clear UFMP that ensures existing mature trees will remain interwoven throughout our City (not just in parks and Greenways) and in all land use categories. Add specific Actions to ensure a significant portion of existing mature trees will be protected as the city grows -- as an essential element of our community's character, livability, quality of life, health, and climate resilience.
Thank you.