The city is seeking volunteers to serve on a new task force charged with overhauling policies for tree management. The effort comes after the Kingston Common Council rejected a law proposed by Mayor Steve Noble that would have significantly expanded the city’s authority over trees on private property.

The 12-member tree policy task force will examine the city’s current tree ordinance as well as policies adopted by other communities, solicit public input and make recommendations for changes. The task force will include two members of the Kingston Common Council, city staff and representatives from the Tree Commission, Climate Smart Action Commission and Complete Streets Advisory Council. Council President Andrea Shaut will appoint four volunteers from the community to round out the task force. Those volunteers will include one owner of manager of private property in the city totaling 25 acres or more, one certified arborist employed by a commercial tree company, one homeowner and one renter residing in the city. The application for the committee is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QTJWPWD.

The new task force was created last week based on a resolution introduced by Alderwoman Marissa Marvelli (D-Ward 3). It follows the council’s rejection in May of a new tree ordinance pushed by Mayor Steve Noble. Noble’s proposal would have expanded the city’s authority from trees on city property or adjacent to city rights of way to all trees on public or private property. Property owners who wished to remove healthy native trees would have had to either replace them with a tree of equal or greater value or pay a fee based on the value of the tree as established by the city’s urban forester. Another section of the proposed law would require applications for building permits to include a “tree protection plan” and prohibit building over a tree’s root system.

Noble’s law spent a year making its way through the legislative process until April, when Wiltwyck Cemetery superintendent Matthew Sirni produced an online video explaining the implications of the proposal. Among the things Srini pointed out was that the root protection provisions would effectively prohibit the cemetery from digging new graves anywhere on its property and that private property owners could be prohibited from building backyard sheds or other structures based on proximity to a neighbor’s tree. Facing strong public opposition, the legislation was unanimously rejected by the Common Council.