DCNR, Gilmore to be tapped to review wooded areas
“I am the Lorax.
I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees,
for the trees have no tongues.
And I'm asking you, sir,
at the top of my lungs!”
-Dr. Seuss, “The Lorax”
It isn’t just the stuff of fairy tales and children’s books. There are those among us who also speak for the trees. In Lower Gwynedd Township, there are in fact, multiple agencies looking to protect, preserve, and add to the trees and wooded areas in our community.
Township Project Manager John L. Farrell is one such “speaker.” He presented a proposal to the Lower Gwynedd Township Board of Supervisors at the last public meeting. The proposal recommended that both a forest evaluation and strategic planning for the trees on all township property. Many of the township’s land development plans have included funds, often labeled as “fees in lieu of planting trees.” As the name implies, these funds are then set aside for the township’s use. Last year alone, over $100,000 was given by developers, and Farrell suggested now was a good time to use those funds to give back to the local wooded areas.
“We want to take what we have, and find out how we can put that back into the ground in a strategic way,” he said of the funds. “It becomes a mix; you want to plant new trees, but you also want to maintain healthy forest areas, clearing out evasive [plants] and vines, and stuff like that.”
He said that, while the municipality’s public works does so much for the local community, he felt the expertise of professional arborists would be a smart addition to help create a mapped out strategy around trees in Lower Gwynedd.
He’s hoping that, by working with both Gilmore & Associates, an engineering and consulting firm, and the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), the township can create a comprehensive “Strategic Forest Management Plan.”
The township would first utilize the free services offered by the state’s DCNR programs. These no-cost evaluations can help to pinpoint areas that are in need of improvement. Farrell said he was not sure they’d be as detailed, nor as future-projecting, as the Gilmore reviews might be.
“We don’t know the extent that their evaluation is going to be compared to the arborists at a place like Gilmore,” said Farrell. “So what we’re proposing to do right now is to kind of try both on the evaluation side. They [the state] will not help us with the strategic plan side, so that is definitely part of the scope with Gilmore.”
The review, he said, will include some basics, such as areas that need immediate attention for public safety.
“These trees we need to get rid of because they might fall on a trail,” he said as one example the report might convey. Once the factors were collected, the staff of the township could then decide how to proceed in the future.
The entire, multi-faceted review was estimated by Gilmore to cost no more than $14,510. Should additional space need review, the organization would do so at a cost of $305 per forested acre. The engineers estimated that the project would be completed by next spring.
The entire proposed package was included in paper form to the supervisors. DCNR was expected to give its first reviews of the wooded areas on or around July 9. As they do not provide strategic planning direction, Gilmore will also be used by the township to complete the needs for the community's trees.
“They will provide sort of a high-level view,” said Supervisor Tessie McNealy of DCNR’s work. “They will also help us connect to funds, funding to pay for the work that needs to be done.”
Gilmore’s James J. Hersh, who presented alongside Farrell, said that Gilmore would be happy to adjust the plans, providing consultation on an “as-needed” basis, after the township found out the details from DCNR.
“We could certainly have a discussion, and stop doing those items in the scope,” said Hersh. “We’d end up billing less than $14,500. We want to get started, because we know you’ve been waiting. But, my scope can be amended on the fly, and we just wouldn’t do it.”
By voting to accept the Gilmore proposal, the engineers and arborists could begin work, and the amount of that work could be set at a later time. The cap on spending was the concern for supervisors, who made note that the spending was to be “up to” the amount.
“If we were going to spend more, we’d come back to you [supervisors],” said Hersh. “If we were going to spend less, all we would need is Mimi’s [Gleason, township manager] direction. We won’t do them, and we won’t bill you for them.”
Chairwoman and Supervisor Danielle A. Duckett asked if this was a previously budgeted item, as it was to come from “in lieu of trees” funding. Farrell said that yes, up to $20,000 was set aside for this plan creation via the year’s budget.
According to Gleason, the funds from developers are technically stored in a “Stormwater Fund,” as the software does not show a more granular level of diversification. It is “set aside” in township cash funds, earmarked for “Trees.” It is not in the general funds, it is a separate holding for “tree money.”
Brenda Dahl, a resident of Lower Gwynedd, said she was excited to see these projects get started.
“I think this is great,” she said as she called in via telephone. “There are so many invasives in so much of the woodlands, and I am really looking forward to seeing what they say they want to do.”
She added she was happy to see funds from developers going back to the township’s trees to “make our woodlands better.”
“The state of our woodlands, and this is not just in Lower Gwynedd or even Montgomery County, but the state of woodlands in the whole Eastern United States is undergoing a really dramatic environmental degradation,” said McNeely. “So if we can devote ourselves to understanding our property, our open space, and what it’s going to take to get us back on the right track in terms of the forest region with native trees, and getting rid of the invasives as much as possible, I think that’s really important to laying the groundwork for future generations to really have a valuable resource in Lower Gwynedd. I’m very excited, like Brenda, to see it implemented.”
The motion to approve the proposed spending up to $14,510 was made by Duckett. McNeely seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
