Is there enough money to save this 400-year-old oak tree in Thurston County?
The City of Tumwater now has a plan to keep the 400-year-old Davis Meeker Garry Oak tree standing, almost two years after former Mayor Debbie Sullivan called to cut the tree down after a large branch fell near Old Highway 99.
The plan consists of a three-year maintenance plan. However, the funds the city has set aside to care for the tree might not cover what needs to be done in the first year.
The city’s Historic Preservation Commission unanimously approved the work plan for the tree on March 12. City spokesperson Jason Wettstein said the plan will be brought to the City Council in late April or early May.
A Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled in December that the city can’t cut down the historic tree without prior approval from its Historic Preservation Commission.
Assistant City Manager Kelly Adams spoke during the March 12 meeting. She said she also serves on a team called the Davis Meeker Garry Oak tree preservation team.
Adams said the preservation team has two goals, and they’re not mutually exclusive: To mitigate safety risks and retain the oak tree.
Adams said following the branch failure, the city contracted with an arborist to conduct a risk assessment. That assessment ultimately said the tree could stay, if properly maintained. Now arborist service Todd Prager & Associates has a treatment plan.
Adams said the city received a permit amendment from the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historical Preservation in December that would allow the city to do the first year of maintenance the tree requires.
She said the council has allocated $55,000 for tree maintenance and mitigation measures, and that’s not enough. She said the preservation team is discussing with city staff a plan to come to council to request more funding.
“This might not even cover the first year of work, so we’re working diligently to get a better cost estimate to go back to city council,” she said.
The tree work plan is split up into a three-year approach, which Adams said is “very conservative and very slow.” The first year involves root zone management.
Brian Coughlin, the city’s urban forester, said during the meeting that the more care that’s given to the roots, the more healthy shoots will grow from the tree. He said it will involve vertical mulching, where crews will drill holes into the ground below the tree’s canopy and fill the holes with a compound called biochar.
Coughlin said this is all that’s being done in the first year, because this work will set crews up to better maintain the tree in future years. He said he’s hopeful there will be a lot of new growth with this treatment in the first year, and it will also benefit the health of the soil.
“It’s going to be really sustaining and supporting the tree for future work,” he said.
Adams said during the meeting that years two and three would involve pruning treatment and an assessment to determine if pruning is enough to take weight off the tree, or if support cables are necessary. She said the plan may also involve installing fencing around the tree to keep it and the public safe, and native plantings. The tree would then continue to be monitored by arborists.
Adams said there is no cost estimate for the work involved in the second and third-year phases of the plan. She said staff are working out estimates ahead of the next discussion. She said it may be that the preservation team pursues a fundraising option or city campaign to get more money.
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