Cultus Lake – DECEMBER 17 UPDATE – On Thursday, the Cultus Lake Community Association, as they do every month on Facebook, asks a question at the board meeting, this month they asked about Parking Lot B.
Question of the Month December 2020
How much money did the Park receive in regards to the sale of logs/trees removed from Parking Lot B?When is work scheduled to begin on Parking Lot B?
Answer:
The anticipated timber revenue is estimated to be $4500, the cost for tree removal was $5200.The project in currently in the RFP (Request for Proposal) stage and is anticipated to begin in February 2021 with completion in April 2021. Once completed there will be 360 stalls an increase from the current 295 stalls. The plan includes a minimum of 66 trees. The budget for this project is $580,000.
As expected, the critics have chimed in on the destination of the rotted timber and was Cultus Lake Board paid fair price.
Those questions can be found at Cultus Lake Residents.
In a phone interview with CEO Joe Lamb, FVN’s Don Lehn asks about the tree cut, the safety and financial reasons, Park funding (or lack thereof) and the financial future – Post COVID:
NOVEMBER 20 UPDATE – (Cultus Lake Community Association) – The Cultus Lake Community Association went to Facebook to explain why 38 trees have been removed near Main Beach. This is to allow for the construction of parking Lot B.
New trees will be planted to replace the ones removed by a ratio of 2:1.
From Joe Lamb – Cultus Lake Park CAO
There seems to be a significant amount of misinformation being posted to community based social media pages regarding the Tree removal in Parking Lot “B”.To clarify, the trees are not being removed to create additional parking stalls, they are being removed due to the fact that they have suffered, from the time the parking lot was created from root compaction and the trees are dying from the top down. The original design of this lot had vehicles parking on the roots of these trees and over the last 20 years the trees ability to get water and nutrients to the top has been prevented. The trees in the parking lot have been dying for many years and have now become unsafe and need to be removed which was brought before the Park Board in a meeting in April of 2020. The decision to remove the trees was decided long before the redesign of the parking lot was contemplated. The plan for the new lot has irrigation for the green spaces and replaces the 35 removed trees with 70 trees that will live for many years into the future. It will also include and new basketball court, resurfacing the tennis courts, a walking path that will link Main Beach to the Plaza, paved travelled areas and paved Handicap accessible stalls and Improved flow to help with lot safety. The Park, through the Environmental Committee has planted 100’s of new trees in the Park over this last 3 years and is committed to continuing to make the park safe and protecting the natural environment by investing in green spaces withing the 640 acres.For reference the two pictures below reference the Douglas Fir tree in lot “B” with root compaction and the other represents a Heathy Douglas Fir with no root compaction on Lakeshore Drive.
From Cultus Lake Park:
Recent wind storms had further damaged already weakened trees.
