News about Trees, Tree Removal and Chipping
About trees
Tree Chipping
The City of Santa Rosa will hold a free chipping event for residential property owners in the fire-impacted areas. City residents with fire-damaged green waste on their property are encouraged to bring that waste to be chipped at the following designated times and locations.
February 24 & March 10, 2018
9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Nagasawa Park
1313 Fountaingrove Parkway
February 25 & March 11, 2018
9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Coffey Park
1524 Amanda Place
Eligible green waste materials include burned and partially burned brush and felled trees up to 12” in diameter on residential property and adjacent sidewalk areas. The materials cannot be contaminated with fire debris, and residents are responsible for transporting their green waste to the chipping sites. The green waste will be chipped at no cost to residents, and the resulting wood chips will be used by the City of Santa Rosa Recreation & Parks Department for various projects throughout the City.
No permit is needed for tree removal within the wildfire burn areas of Santa Rosa city limits. However, residents should photograph the tree’s condition prior to its removal. The photographs will later need to be presented during rebuilding permit or entitlement application submittal.
For more information, visit www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/damaged-tree-removal/
Removing Burned Trees from Your Lot
The City of Santa Rosa now allows residents to remove any burned trees that pose a threat to safety and property, without getting a permit. In order to capture the value of the old trees that are being removed and to mitigate for their possible replacement, the City is asking residents to include photos of trees to be removed with every permit package. This is much simpler than the traditional tree-removal process that requires an arborist’s examination, a written report, a tree-removal permit, and payment of a fee. The details of the photo-submission process are TBD.
Replacement of Burned Planter-strip Trees
In collaboration with FEMA and the In a meeting with representatives from the Santa Rosa City we heard that residents will be required to remove and replace burned trees in the planter-strip. But we also heard (The “planter strip” is the land between the street and the sidewalk.) This is because the residents own that land (and the trees on it!), and the residents have only given an easement on that land to the City. Santa Rosa City is going to reconsider the types of trees that should go in the planter strip, in order to minimize future damage to underground utilities. While the burned trees should be removed fairly soon, planting replacements should probably be held off until after houses are rebuilt. Beautiful, tree-lined streets certainly enhance property value!
Listen to the Director of Transportation and Public Works Jason Nutt speak about sidewalks and tree removal from the recording of the February 15 Town Hall event (~ 56:00 minutes in the video)
Video Recording of Sonoma County/City of Santa Rosa Community Forum held on February 15, 2018