In 2019, The City of Bainbridge Island hired Peninsula Environmental another arborist, Katy Bigelow, to help revise their local ordinances with respect to trees and forests. Read report here.
Critical areas like wetlands, steep slopes, shorelines all have fairly strict ordinances in place to limit impacts and development, while generally still allowing for it if mitigation occurs. This code will be similar but for trees. Currently there are protections for trees and the amount of forest you need to leave on a property while developing it, but they are fairly new and in need of revision from professionals that work directly in this area, as opposed to City Council/Staff that may not have an expert understanding of the system. These revisions are to the municipal code itself and aim to improve tree preservation and management with language that is accessible, clear, and backed by scientific sources.
This revision project included assessing how well canopy cover goals that were set for City of Bainbridge Island in 2006 have been met. Using land classification data already available for Bainbridge Island and zoning/ parcel data, we were able to get an approximation of the canopy cover per zone/per parcel.
If you represent a local municipality and would like to discuss contracting a similar project, contact us today!
