Peninsula Environmental Group offers a variety of arborist reports for Bainbridge Island, WA, including pruning specifications and tree permitting services for homeowners to remove, prune and maintain view corridors within Bainbridge.
The City of Bainbridge Island recently passed a new set of legislation directly affecting tree owners on the Island. The new regulations will officially be adopted on April 23, 2018, as part of an Earth Day Celebration. Our urban foresters and environmental scientists know the many benefits trees provide. These “green” benefits are described as services and include health and well-being services, social, economic and ecosystem services. As such, Bainbridge Island wants to know if the trees being removed are being replaced with new trees to compensate. If trees are removed, are their equitable services they delivered being replaced? We offer arborist reports for Bainbridge Island, which can help you navigate the new regulatory requirements.
Navigating the regulatory environment can be tricky and often requires trained professionals, whether consulting arborists, foresters, biologists or wetland scientists. We can help in these situations with the following services:
An arborist tree inspection, evaluation and arborist report is the general reporting and diagnostic service offered by consulting arborists. We evaluate and analyze associated tree risk, tree health, any signs and symptoms of pests or pathogens. Our reports will identify and recommend opportunities for tree treatment like pruning, cabling, fertilization, root excavation, and more. This type of report can be synonymous with a Tree Risk Evaluation.
Most tree removals, tree pruning, and view management activities will require a permit application alongside our arborist reports. Permits take time and can be difficult to properly fill-out. If filled-out incorrectly, or submitted without all the required information, they could be denied and require re-submission. Our Environmental Policy Specialist can help you move forward in your permitting process by taking responsibility for city staff communication, report tracking, permit requirements and conditions of approval.
Bainbridge Island protects many trees across the Island, including all trees within environmentally critical areas, trees protected from development, street trees, and trees of a significant size. As of late April 2018, nearly the entire island is considered an environmentally critical area due to scientific concerns about island-wide water distribution. Before removal of any tree on the island, we recommend an arborist verify the tree’s protection status. Most trees on the Island will require an arborist inspection, evaluation and report to successfully be removed.
If tree removal would interfere with critical wildlife habitat, like a bald eagle perch, Peninsula Environmental Group wildlife biologist can retained to survey the site and determine timing and removal methods that will minimize impacts.
Since trees provide so many services, removing them without replacement is a loss of social, economic and environmental equity. As such, Bainbridge Island usually requires the replacement of removed trees when the option is available. Working with Peninsula Environmental Group, our arborists and horticulturalists can help you identify what replacement trees will function with your landscape, and more importantly, what tree will not function with your landscape. A thorough site analysis and plant selection plan will help create a City appropriate, sustainable, attractive landscape correctly paired with the site’s environmental, soil, and weather conditions.
Site plans are required on all Citywide permits applications. Site plans are usually on 11×17 paper, their perspective is top-down, and they include many important site parameters like contours, critical areas and buffers, building footprints and setbacks, streams & wetlands, pavement, storm water discharge and more.
Trees considered an imminent threat to life or property can be mitigated for appropriately. The removed tree still requires city review and post-approval within 14 days of removal. Imminent threat hazard trees are very rare and often occur in excessively saturated soils.
