Lincoln Park Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Austin Carroll (left) explains a grant award the city received that will allow it to complete a tree inventory and establish a forestry management plan during the Jan. 17 city council meeting.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
LINCOLN PARK – A $7,500 grant from the Department of Natural Resources will help the city inventory its trees and develop of forestry management plan, Assistant Parks and Recreation Director Austin Carroll said.
The announcement, which he made at the Jan. 17 City Council meeting, came with the recommendation that the bid process be waived and the contract for the work be awarded to the Davey Resource Group, which helped write the grant application and which covers 71 percent of the project cost. The remaining $3,000 will come from the Parks and Recreation budget.
The council unanimously approved the resolution.
“This will allow us to take care of the land that we have,” Carroll said. “We have 19 parks in the city, and as of right now, when we do tree planting, we are just finding empty spots and putting them in with some recommendation as to where.”
He said with the plan that the Davey Resource Group will develop, the city will know what type of trees it has and where to place new trees to get the most benefit.
“That way we are not constantly either replacing a tree because we planted it recently and it died, because it was in the wrong spot or was the wrong type of tree,” Carroll said. “That is the main part of the management plan.”
He said the tree inventory aspect of it will identify any trees that might need to be removed as well as the care that the city’s other trees might need.
“We are looking at invasive species, as well,” Carroll said.
He said the supplier will develop a guide which the city can use to manage its trees.
“The tree inventory aspect is just for us to get a better understanding of what we currently have,” Carroll said.