Experts, subcommittee suggest changes for West Lake Hills

For several months West Lake Hills City Council members Linda Anthony and David Moore have been meeting as a subcommittee to discuss potential changes to the West Lake Hills tree ordinance, which governs the removal of vegetation within the city. The ordinance has been a point of contention among some citizens who felt it was overbearing.

What started as a rule prohibiting cutting down trees on neighboring properties evolved into the current ordinance in the 1990s, City Administrator Robert Wood said.

Several forestry and fire experts have spoken to council, including during a public meeting Oct. 14 for citizens to hear from the experts and ask specific questions.

Experts at the October meeting—Will Boettner, a Wildland Urban Interface Specialist with Texas A&M Forest Service; Richard Gray, State Fuels Program coordinator with Texas A&M Forest Service; Kelly Simon, a member of the Urban Wildlife Program for Texas Parks & Wildlife; and Jonathan Ogren, principal of Siglo Group, a company that specializes in integrating land use with natural systems—weighed in on key issues of the current ordinance.

Ogren said the real challenge with any ordinance change will be balancing tree and vegetation removal while remaining true to the city's master plan, which lists the preservation and protection of the area's natural resources as a primary purpose.

Subcommittee report

Anthony and Moore presented a list of potential ordinance changes to council Oct. 22 including two suggestions to implement as soon as possible and one that needs additional research.

The two council members recommended changes to both the fire safety buffer zone and the limbing up, or tree pruning, sections of the code.

Moore told council the subcommittee was not ready to give a recommendation about changing anything in the city's code pertaining to invasive species.

"The issues [involving invasive species] are extremely complex and vary with each property," Moore and Anthony wrote in their proposal. "The subcommittee would like to continue its research with the help of experts to further study [the] thinning out of all invasive species including Ashe Juniper and propose recommendations hopefully before the end of 2014."

A ride into the buffer zone

Moore and Anthony recommended the removal of any vegetation within the 30-foot buffer zone surrounding homes, including setbacks, without tree replacement.

The current tree ordinance is closely aligned with the standards set by the FireWise Community, a national program designed to educate residents about wildfire, in regard to the fire safety buffer zone. FireWise recommends a 30-foot area around a home be a defensible space for fire protection. The city only allows the removal of Ashe Juniper trees, also known as Cedar trees, that are less than 54 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter within the 30-foot zone. Residents may remove other trees, but must obtain special permission from the city to do so.

"Thirty feet is sort of that magic number," Boettner said. "[That] is when radiant heat [from a wildfire] won't cause a home to catch fire most of the time."

Boettner said removing all the trees in that buffer zone is also not a good idea. The increased direct sunlight on grassy areas can turn it into what is known as a fine fuel.

Gray said even though 30 feet does not seem like enough, it breaks the continuity of the fire and gives the fire department room to work.

"When we see fires come in and burn structures, very rarely do we see a wall of flame," Gray said. "What we see is a fire move to an area, and the high heat and weak points in structures cause ignition."

Gray said the most bang for one's buck is using fire-resistant materials during home construction as well as performing annual maintenance, such as cleaning gutters and clearing dead brush.

Getting a limb up

Anthony and Moore also recommended the height for pruning trees—also known as limbing up—be increased from 9 feet to 12 feet.

"Whatever the height of the green stuff under your tree is, when it is on fire, it will be two or three times bigger," Boettner said.

Residents wanting to trim their trees are also currently required to obtain a permit if they wish to prune more than one tree. The subcommittee recommended no permit be required for pruning any tree as long as the pruning is done in accordance with the city's code.

Space invaders

The current ordinance does not cover invasive species of plants, something the subcommittee would like to change. Moore said the issue was too complex to have a recommendation for council Oct. 22, but he said he would like to continue researching the issue for future changes.

Simon said she recommends active management of exotic invasive species.

"The food [provided to wildlife by invasive species] is of lower quality, and nesting attempts fail more often," she said.

Boettner said invasive species represent an out-of-balance and disorganized system, which is prone to disaster.

Discussing changes

Neither the limbing up nor buffer zone changes recommended by the subcommittee were passed at the Oct. 22 meeting but are expected to be brought before council Nov. 25 with more specific language.

The subcommittee will also look at adding invasive species management to the city code as a way to increase the safety of residents in the event of a wildfire.

"I see an ordinance that protects trees, I see a fire department willing to help and I see a process to remove trees that need to come out," Gray told the public during the Oct. 14 meeting. "With that in mind, I think we are far more ahead than when [wildfire discussions] started in '97."

Tree fact # 1. Travis County is home to two of the largest trees in the nation of a species native to Texas. The National Champ is a white shin oak, measuring121 inches in circumference, 45 feet tall, 72-foot crown spread. It was last measured in 2007. The co-champ is an Evergreen sumac. Measuring 27 inches in circumference, 21 feet tall, 26-foot crown spread. It was last measured in 2011

—Big Tree Registry, Texas A&M Forest Service

Tree fact # 2. Environmental benefits from a single tree may be worth more than $275 each year. The emotional and psychological benefits, along with real estate value, raise the value of urban trees even higher.

—Forest Inventory of East Texas

Tree fact # 3. One large tree can lift up to 100 gallons of water out of the ground and discharge it into the air in one day.

—North Carolina State University College of Agriculture & Life Sciences

Tree fact # 4. One large tree can provide a day's supply of oxygen for up to four people.

—North Carolina State University College of Agriculture & Life Sciences