Before the Wind Blows

Posted on March 12, 2021 | updated: July 6, 2023

On January 11^th Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, and the surrounding area experienced wind gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour. Trees were down throughout the area, on cars, on houses, powerlines, and in the roads.

Events like this can be overwhelming for municipalities to deal with. Communities that have a storm response plan can mitigate, respond, and recover more quickly from a natural disaster. If your urban forestry program does not have a plan for storm response you should visit the Smart Trees Pacific Website.

The following web page has lots of good information and a template your community can use to make an Urban Forestry Emergency Operations Planning Guide For Storm Damage: https://smarttreespacific.org/urban-forestry-emergency-operations-planning-guide/.

The number one subject that should be covered by a plan is safety. Storms cause havoc and hazardous conditions that can endanger municipal workers and the public.

Making sure everyone understands and adheres to all applicable safety regulations and practices is very important. Other components of a complete safety plan include: Identifying a safety officer, creating procedures for managing safety of external personnel, managing personnel, hazard areas and procedures for decontamination.

Beyond safety, this plan template includes sections on communications, contracts, incident command system, inventory, mutual aid agreement, training, vegetative debris, vulnerability, and resources. By using this process and guide template, you can create a plan that prepares your community to deal with the urban forest in times of a natural disaster.

Preston Hill, Urban Forester for the City of Post Falls outlined the process they use. Preston acts as the safety officer during an emergency by fielding calls from all city departments and the public, compiling information on all the incidents, and prioritizing actions. Preston credits the collaboration by different city departments with making it easier to deal with the recent storm damage.

Cleaning up after a weather event can mean dealing with large amounts of wood and brush. A plan can assist in making sure the wood goes to the best use and helps to offset the cost of cleanup.

If you live in a region that has a strong timber industry, establishing relationships with mills before a natural disaster can help you get your logs into the mill after a disaster. Knowing the log buyer at the mill and their procedures for accepting urban wood will help get urban wood utilized on a regular basis not just after a disaster.

Post Falls’ wood utilization plan includes chipping brush to be used in mulch rings, getting native conifer logs to a local mill, and working with Cannon Hill Industries, a local wood recycler, to deal with root balls and trunk wood that is not going to make a log.

Many communities need to deal with trees that cannot be brought to a traditional mill. The Urban Wood Network is an organization that is dedicated to building national awareness of the urban wood market by bringing together urban wood efforts, providing leadership, and sharing information. Visit their website at: https://urbanwoodnetwork.org/.

You can view webinars and see how other municipalities and campuses have set up wood utilization programs. Nick Goodwin is the Urban Forester for the City of Coeur d’Alene; Nick will be purchasing a Wood Mizer mill to be used in his program to repurpose urban wood into lumber that can be used in park projects.

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