The Downtown Park water splash features may be nature enough for some,
and then there's our neighborhood parks and trails. The Powerline trail is awesome. BY
1 - 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3 at the Redmond Senior & Community Center
REDMOND, WA - Redmond’s new community gathering place continues to mark milestones and make great strides in construction. Next week, the community is invited to join the City of Redmond in celebrating the Redmond Senior & Community Center Topping Out Ceremony, as the project team places a beam in the tallest section of the building. The event will take place from 1 - 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3 at the construction site adjacent to Redmond City Hall at 15670 NE 85th St, Redmond, WA 98052.
CM David Carson |
Council Member David Carson says....
"When I joined the Redmond City Council in 2008, I fully expected that park properties along Redmond’s eastern edge (collectively known as the “String of Pearls”) would be, at the very least, made available to Redmond’s citizenry to enjoy since they’ve been in our inventory for now more than 50 years. That unfortunately has not happened, and budgets don’t seem to be getting any easier to afford city-developed projects. Leveraging of our civic pride is a way to do this and involve our residents. It would be a real achievement to make these beautiful properties available to our hiking and recreating public.
Below, are David's thoughts:
Redmond tree canopy in ~2017 |
The tree canopy webpage has been updated to include information on suggested trees, tree selection, planting tips, care, and watering along with volunteer opportunities.
Updates to the Redmond Comprehensive Plan, describing the 40% canopy goal, timeline, and key strategies were adopted by City Council on November 17, 2020.
The 2021-22 budget included $150,000 for Carbon Footprint Reduction/Tree Canopy Expansion in the biennium. To date, 1.71 acres have been cleared in the Monticello watershed with 1.21 acres planted (540 trees) in the spring of 2021. The remaining .5 acre will be planted in fall/winter 2021-22. Additional plantings are being considered on park properties.
Two mature Cedars will be removed during King County's sewer line replacement. Will King County or the City try to repurpose them for salmon habitat? Beavers are gnawing down quite a few alders this year. Will aerial photographs account for these losses?
In 2021, Public Works has planted 150 trees at Keller/Bear Creek using stormwater funds and over 100 trees will be planted at Smith Woods through Parks/Stormwater funds.
In 2020, the following number of trees were planted on City owned land:
o Natural Resources planted 1,240
o Parks 230
o Forterra (Green Redmond Partnership) 509
o Adopt-a-Stream Foundation 840
o Total trees planted: 2,819 Strategy
C: Increase Planting on Private Property.
City-led Planting: Staff has conducted research on a variety of incentive programs to provide trees or discounts to purchase trees along with estimated costs to manage the program based on current models in use around the region. Opportunities are being evaluated to propose a program in the 2023-24 biennium.
The Green Redmond Partnership planted nearly 2,000 plants and engaged 438 volunteers across 17 parks for a total of 1,264 hours of volunteer engagement. As noted above, they planted 509 trees in 6 parks in 2020.
According to the website, only two Green Redmond planting events were planned for this Fall. According to Zoe of Fortera ,the two October events were "sold out" by September 30, (some exceptions were made for officials). In years past, Green Redmond held multiple events. Not too long ago, Parks Director Hite said one of the limiting factors this year was the cost of trees.
Earth Corps has also been a partner on planting and community engagement.
Current Tree Canopy Coverage: The most recent analysis in late 2020, shows that Redmond’s 2019 tree canopy coverage is 37.9%, this includes parks within the incorporated City limits but not contiguous city limits. (The Watershed Preserve (800 acres) is counted as canopy?) This represents a decrease of .2% or (24.7) acres from 2017. This amount of loss isn't terribly bad considering our considerable development. It's clear the City is doing what they can to preserve our canopy. The changes in canopy cover occurred within the contiguous city boundary. The tree canopy coverage in the contiguous city boundary is 32.9%, down from 33.2 (24.7 acres). Does street trees and off-site mitigation with saplings count towards canopy?
Staff updates tree canopy coverage on a 2-year basis in even years. The data is updated using aerial photographs that are captured in odd-years (2019) and the data is available in even years (2020). The next update would be in 2022.
Source: Edited Council Committee of the Whole Parks memo, 10/29/2021
Opinion, Bob Yoder
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Idylwood Park restoration/ Photo Yoder |
Gary Smith teaching restoration at Idylwood Park / Credit Forterra |
Fall colors My wife, Pam, is standing in front of our beautiful Palmataum Japanese maple tree. With great sadness we lost this cherished tree two years ago to severe back-to-back annual droughts. It thrived on our property for 43 years. Other's in the neighborhoods lost their trees. The City also had to cut down some of their street trees and cottonwoods at Idylwood Park owing to drought.
Bob Yoder
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Is this the "Redmond Moving Art Center?" |
City Park Operations Manger David Tucheck in Idylwood Park with Cottonwoods |
W |
Internet photo |
Internet photo |
Resident posts eagle notices on city notice board |
David Tuchek in front of tree #10 near Idlylwood Creek bridge |
Internet photo (not in Redmond) |