Hazardous trees to be removed in Bainbridge’s Waterfront Park – Kitsap Sun

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND A swath of hazardous trees in Bainbridge Islands Waterfront Park will need to be cut down or pruned in the coming months, according to an analysis by city staff.

Of the 76 trees evaluated in the city park just off Eagle Harbor, city arborist Nick Snyder determined 74 needed some kind of work done.

There are 20 trees out there that need some immediate attention and about 32 that we will be getting to sometime next year, city Public Works Director Chris Wierzbicki reported to City Council members last week.

A large fallen limb lies on the ground among the tree trunks as a person walks a dog along the path at Bainbridge Island's Waterfront Park on Friday. An arborist has determined that 20 trees are high priority hazards and 32 are medium priority hazards, all of which will require removal or significant pruning in the next few months.(Photo: MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)

Of those 52 trees, 15 will be removed, and others will be pruned or have branches removed for safety reasons, according to the city. Two other low-risk trees, an invasive English holly tree and a dead Pacific madrone, are also slated to be removed.

There does seem to be a lot of trees down there and I know some of them are quite large and quite prominent, but they are dead and being that a lot of them are in pretty high-use areas, I think its important to address them to some degree, Snyder said. A lot of the dead trees where possible well leave as much behind as habitat snags and logs and stuff will be left on-site where appropriate, but in some of these areas, its just not appropriate to leave a bunch of snags in an open area. In some cases, we are calling for full removal.

Of the 76 trees examined in the park, 41 are dead and 11 more are in poor condition, according to Snyders analysis.

The way I approached it was kind of doing the least that could be done while attaining some measure of public safety, Snyder said. Obviously, its a shame to take down some of these larger madrone trees that have now died, but ultimately they are going to start shedding parts and its something we should address I think.

Snyder recommended the city replant 30 trees and 18 large shrubs in the park.

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Hazardous trees to be removed in Bainbridge's Waterfront Park - Kitsap Sun