PORT ANGELES — Options for tree removal and revegetation of the city’s largest park were presented at a gathering last week that drew more than two dozen participants.
The options were contained in a two-pronged version of the $150,000 Lincoln Park Master Plan that the city Parks, Recreation & Beautification Commission reviewed at its regular meeting Thursday.
The Port Angeles City Council will have the final say on what happens in the city-owned park.
The plan is funded by the Port of Port Angeles, which owns the William R. Fairchild International Airport adjacent to the park, and was presented by landscape architect Juliet Vong, president of HBB Landscape Architecture of Seattle.
It differs from the one Vong presented in April in two main respects: It eliminates an orchard and adds an approximately 1-acre parking lot on the fairgrounds side of the park as part of the fairgrounds’ long-range plans.
The plan seeks to address the problem of the park’s diseased trees and trees that obstruct the flight path to the airport with three options: doing nothing, removing current and future tree obstructions, and removing only trees that are at or near obstruction limits.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said it will pay for initial but not long-term tree removal and revegetation costs at the 147-acre park.
The FAA objected to the orchard because it draw birds, another flight hazard.
The proposed plan also lays out a vision of a new Lincoln Park that would include a system of pedestrian and biking trails, an expanded wetland, a nature walk, two playground areas and a local-foods garden.
Oct. 10 meeting
Cost estimates for fulfilling the plan will be presented at a 6 p.m. Oct. 10 open house at the Vern Burton Community Center, Vong said.
A funding source for the non-FAA-related park improvements has not been identified, city Recreation Services Manager Richard Bonine said.
“We haven’t determined yet where the money is going to come from,” Bonine said.
Vong identified eight non-FAA funding options to pay for the park’s new features, including the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program and the Salmon Recovery Fund.
The tallest trees — some of them 70 feet and growing — are in the eastern section of the park, Vong said.
Tree removal
“Tree removal quickly became one of the bigger issues on the park and particularly hard to grapple with as we’ve gone through the process,” Vong said.
The plan does not call for the cutting of any tall trees on private property, Vong said.
Most of the nine people who attended the meeting concentrated on the tree-cutting aspects of the plan during 30 minutes of comments.
They included Devon Graywolf, who urged the city to have an independent arborist — not one hired by the city — determine how many diseased trees are in the park.
Graywolf walked around the commission table and put the leaves of a plant that came from the park under the nose of each commission member to smell its vanilla scent, saying it had medicinal qualities and also grows in Olympic National Park.
Then she tapped a small drum while she and William Hunt sang a one-minute song, intoning, “I’m an Olympic mountain woman/I’m an Olympic mountain man.”
Pilot appreciates plan
Pilot Jordan Von said he appreciated what the master plan called for.
“You’re doing it for the safety of my passengers and the safety of those that use the airport,” he said.
Kim Weimer said he was worried that planes might fly too low over the park once the trees are gone.
But pilot Mel Rudin said pilots are close to hitting the trees now as they approach the airport.
“It’s a win-win for the city, a win for the port and primarily a win for safety,” he said.
“The port contributes by virtue of FAA funding,” Rudin said.
“You’re going to get a safer park and a more usable park.”
Trees likely would be cut in late 2014 after an environmental assessment, port airport manager Doug Sandau said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
