PORT TOWNSEND — A second town hall-style meeting on the future of the Lombardy poplar trees lining Port Townsend’s entrance is set for today at 5 p.m.
The forum, projected to run one hour, will be online at www.joinconferencing.zoom.us/join, with meeting ID 813 9413 5780 and passcode 503723. For audio only, dial 253-215-8782.
The discussion also will be broadcast live at KPTZ-FM 91.9 and KPTZ.org.
“We’re going to share out what we’ve learned and heard from the public,” said Steve King, the city of Port Townsend’s Public Works director, who has received many tree calls and emails.
The city plans to cut down some 130 poplars on both sides of Sims Way, hence its name for the plan: the Sims Gateway and Boat Yard Expansion Project.
As the Port of Port Townsend and the Jefferson County Public Utilities District — guardian of the power lines running alongside the trees on the Boat Haven side — joined the city in funding the projected $2 million endeavor, a river of public outcry has flowed on social media.
And during the first town hall meeting Nov. 9, several participants voiced their opposition to taking out the rows of trees. They provide a crucial windbreak, they sequester carbon and they should not be clearcut so fast, residents said during the series of breakout sessions.
A recording of that meeting can be heard at www.tinyurl.com/PDN-TownHallMeeting.
Tonight’s Zoom call will start with a project overview and then go to breakout sessions set for 5:15 p.m. and 5:35 p.m. Participants will have time to reconvene and “share key points” after each, according to the city’s schedule.
“I want to make sure people understand public comment is important; the information we’re getting is important,” King said, adding that “we’re trying to develop a path forward.”
Yet the proposal for removing the poplars has “probably not changed,” he said.
How they are replaced with other trees — species more suitable to the environment — and how the Boat Haven expands are among the other elements to be determined.
Funding for the project is divided three ways:
• The Jefferson County PUD’s $700,000 will pay for tree removal, undergrounding of power lines and a new walking path along Sims Way;
• The Port of Port Townsend is expected to invest $900,000 in boat yard expansion;
• The city’s share includes $370,000 for replanting the Boat Haven side of Sims Way and tree removal on the Kah Tai Lagoon side.
In discussions with the city Parks, Recreation and Tree Advisory Board, “there’s a desire to see native trees there” on the Kah Tai side, King said during November’s meeting. Some have been planted in the poplars’ shadow.
By this time of year, he noted, those shorter trees, perhaps a glimpse of the future, can be seen from Sims Way.
The Lombardy poplars are elderly and at risk of falling, city officials have said — and King added Tuesday that one specimen — in another part of town — did so in a recent windstorm.
“A big poplar on the golf course [on San Juan Avenue] came down. The tree was rotten on the inside, which is what happens over time,” he said.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
