PORT TOWNSEND — If the Sims Gateway and Boat Yard Expansion citizen stakeholders committee were to create a job description for the ideal vegetation to line the main route into Port Townsend on Sims Way, it might look something like this:
Wanted: Trees and shrubs to replace and/or complement much-loved Lombardy poplars. Must be native to the Olympic Peninsula, sturdy, long-lived, tolerate dry soil, require no pruning and be immune to pests and disease. Must not shed needles or leaves, send up suckers, smell bad, have an aggressive root system or produce pollen or fruit.
If such a plant exists, it was not mentioned during a stakeholders committee meeting Tuesday, when discussion and debate focused on a presentation by arborist and consultant Paul Thompson, who had been tasked with providing members with criteria and choices for selecting vegetation.
Thompson began by addressing the subject of pollen, which was a particular concern of committee member Joni Blanchard, a representative of businesses at the Boat Yard on the south side of Sims Way where she owns the Leatherwood Finishing Company.
Thompson said the amount of pollen a plant produces should not determine the kinds of plant species the committee considers for the project, and suggested that tenting boats while applying paint or varnish would be the most effective way of protecting them from all kinds of debris in the air, including those produced in the boat yard itself.
Blanchard disagreed that tenting was a solution.
“Pollen is a problem,” Blanchard said. “Maybe some trees with heavier pollen would work, but these fine pollens, like the oaks and the shore pines, it really just takes one good gust when a boat is 15 feet away and your whole thousand-dollar hull job is gone.”
One solution committee members discussed was the possibility of planting trees that released large amounts of pollen on the north side of Sims Way, which borders the Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park, or planting them on the eastern end of the corridor away from the boat yard.
Unlike the poplars on the south side of Sims Way that are proposed to be removed entirely, those on the south side will be selectively removed and replaced over time.
Committee member Steve Madder said his primary concern was prioritizing native plans had been overlooked in favor of non-native species like ginkgo and honey locust.
“I really encourage native plants because they’re most likely to be adaptable to this site,” Madder said. “Many of the trees that have been suggested are generally not suitable without [soil] amendments. We’d have much more likelihood of success using native species.”
Thompson agreed to produced a refined list of tree species for the project and submit them to the committee.
Among Thompson’s recommendations to the committee: do not choose different species for the opposite sides of the road if the intention is to create a gateway appearance; choose vegetation of different heights to create visual interest and that will shade the soil to help prevent moisture loss; and use informal groupings of plants rather than a linear line of trees which now exists with the poplars.
The nine-member stakeholders committee has worked since April with representatives from the City of Port Townsend, the Port of Port Townsend and the Jefferson County Public Utility District to review and prepare information regarding the development of the Sims Gateway project.
The committee was organized to provide a higher level of community involvement in the project, in part due to negative public response to the proposal to remove the Lombardy poplars along Sims Way.
The stakeholders committee will present its preference for vegetation and design to the Parks, Recreation, Tree Trail Advisory Board, which will meet on Tuesday next week for discussion and a vote.
A decision on the final design for the project could happen on Sept. 12, when the city council, the PUD and port commissioners meet to possibly vote on the Parks Advisory Board’s design concept recommendation.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
