Will Lakewood Replace the Condemned Trees?

What is a habitat zone?

Urban habitat boundaries are not necessarily congruent with the boundaries of a specific underlying property parcel. An urban habitat zone may touch upon more than one property parcel. The zone may also include more than one habitat type if interdependence characteristics of any resident species exist.

Wildlife is not aware of these legal property boundaries that are filed away in the county clerk’s office. Amazingly, policymakers may struggle to grasp the concept that animals and other life forms do not easily adjust their shrinking habitats according to opposing land uses and legally defined property boundaries.

The field of geophysics has an analogous concept referred to as the habitable zone.

For a planet, the habitable zone is the distance from a star that allows liquid water to persist on its surface – as long as that planet has a suitable atmosphere. In our solar system, Earth sits comfortably inside the Sun’s habitable zone. Habitable zones are also known as Goldilocks’ zones, where conditions might be just right – neither too hot nor too cold – for life.

Belmar Park’s legal boundaries define a 132 acre parcel but the park’s habitat zone also includes various smaller nearby parcels that provide supportive or enhanced habitat attributes for plants and animals that share the habitat zone. 777 S Yarrow Street is an example of a parcel that is within the park’s habitat zone.

A consulting zoologist who inspected 777 S Yarrow Street and Belmar Park stated:

“Saving existing large and medium size trees in conjunction with grassland or other herbaceous (non-woody habitats) is very important for bird and mammal species diversity and overall habitat quality for many species.

If all of those large trees are taken out, replacing that habitat will probably never recover unless very careful, extremely long-term land stewardship occurs.“

Who Will the Children Hold Accountable?

The ongoing global destruction of habitats is too often endorsed by policymakers who then point the finger at somebody else.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For want of a horse the rider was lost,

For want of a rider the battle was lost,

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The Proposed Project

Belmar Park West is the proposed 411 unit multifamily project at 777 S Yarrow Street in Lakewood, Colorado on the east property line of Belmar Park at the Irongate office complex.

Over 60 large trees are to be cut down on the developer’s property adjacent to Belmar Park in Lakewood, CO. The collective tree canopy is a habitat for birds and other forms. There will be minimal tree canopy habitat replacement.

Due to their close proximity to Belmar Park, these large trees also extend the habitat zone of Belmar Park.

Cutting them down will eliminate important bird habitat plus other negative environmental impacts.

Lakewood’s Tree Replacement Formula Destroys Habitat

Lakewood uses the inadequate caliper inch tree replacement formula which allows the developer of Belmar Park West Apartments to omit over 2,200 3-inch trees that would otherwise be required under the science-based Audubon recommended basal area formula!

As per page 7 of the developer’s site plan, 69 large trees requiring replacement will be removed.

It is not possible to replace such large trees with equally large trees. So thousands of small trees should be planted instead.

It is estimated that:

The current tree replacement formula removes 84% of the existing tree canopy habitat!

Key points:

- - At least 2,282 additional 3-inch trees plus the city’s recommended 433 3-inch trees are needed to scientifically replace the 69 large trees that will be removed at Irongate.

- - Lakewood’s zoning ordinance currently only provides 16% of the reasonably equivalent number of 3-inch tree replacements at the Irongate project.

- - The Denver Audubon Society has recommended that Lakewood City Council adopt the science-based basal area formula explained below.

- - City Council can amend the zoning ordinance to protect all of Lakewood’s trees and include tree equity scores.

The vast majority of the existing tree canopy habitat zone at the Irongate west office complex will be destroyed using Lakewood’s inadequate caliper inch formula.

- - Scientists have identified that habitat loss is the biggest overall driver of bird declines.

- - Half of the earth’s 10,000+ bird species are in decline and 1 in 8 faces extinction according to Wired.

- - The US and Canada have lost almost 3 billion breeding adult birds since 1970 according to Cornell University.

What can Lakewood do?

Lakewood City Council can fix the inadequate tree replacement formula by changing one word at 17.6.5.9(A) of the zoning ordinance to replace the caliper equivalent method with the basal area method and defining the basal area calculation.

The basal area calculation is a simple calculation based on the area of a circle (r2 x π) that would be done for each tree that is removed. The developer has already provided the tree Diameters at Breast Height (DBH) measurements needed.

Here is the Proposed Zoning Ordinance Change to 17.6.5.9(A):

“Trees that are removed following the standards outlined in Section 17.6.5.8.C.4 shall be replaced at a rate of 100 percent of the total ~~caliper~~ basal area of trees removed from the site.

Basal area is calculated as follows:

Basal Area = tree radius squared times pi or r2 x π
Tree radius = tree diameter at breast height (DBH) divided by 2.
Pi = 3.14

Basal Area Example:

Tree diameter = 12 inches ; 12/2=6 ; 6×6=36 ; 36×3.14 = 113.04 basal sq in”

The Tree Replacement Calculation Lakewood Uses Today:

The multifamily project will remove 69 large trees with a combined caliper of 1,299 inches.

To simplify, that is an average caliper of 18.8 caliper inches per tree.

‘Caliper’ is a forestry term for the diameter of a tree. The project developer has already measured the diameter, or caliper, of each tree at breast height (DBH) and meticulously plotted the tree sizes and locations on their site engineering drawings. Well done on the part of the developer.

Lakewood then sums the caliper inches of each tree to be removed to derive one number representing the total caliper inches of all condemned trees combined. As long as the total caliper inches of the replacement trees equals the total caliper inches of the removed large trees, Lakewood is happy.

So what’s wrong with using caliper inches to determine tree replacements?

Let’s assume Lakewood runs a pizza parlor and you ordered an 8 inch pizza. Lakewood could tell you they are out of 8 inch pizzas but can give you two 4 inch pizzas because the caliper of the two 4 inch pizzas is equal to 8 inches. Is that a good deal? No. It is a huge rip off.

An 8 inch pizza has 50.24 square inches of pizza surface area. A 4 inch pizza only has 12.56 square inches. Two of them only have 25.12 square inches. So you would be getting half of an 8 inch pizza. That is also the method Lakewood uses today to calculate the number of replacement trees.

Today, Lakewood ignores the cross section area of the tree also called the basal area which is similar to the area of a circle or round pizza.

So if a developer had cut down one 8 inch diameter tree, he would be allowed to plant two 4 inch caliper (diameter) replacement trees which would be half what is needed.

Here’s how Professor Kim Coder of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia and author of over 500 technical publications and articles and President of the International Society of Arboriculture explains it:

“The immense scale of values, benefits, and functions from a large tree can require many trees in replacement to reach some semblance of equivalency and value return to the owner and/or society.

Do not accept “pennies for dollars lost” when big trees are removed. Maintaining tree asset values and their appreciation over time is key to great communities.

Another more ecologically accurate means of determining the number of replacement trees with a given size is based upon removal tree cross-sectional area (sometimes referred to as a “basal area”). Each square inch of removed tree cross-sectional area is replaced by a square inch of a replacement tree cross-sectional area.

Because removed tree trunk size was proportional to its crown, and because a tree crown provides many values, crown replacement as estimated by basal area is appropriate to use in replacing tree values and functions lost.”

-End quote

So the average basal area of those 69 removed trees is 278 square inches per tree or a total area of 19,182 basal square inches. (1299 caliper inches/69 trees =18.83 avg diameter/2=9.41 radius x9.41×3.14= 278 sq in x 69 trees = 19,182 total basal sq inches)

In their letter of June 5, 2023, Lakewood Planning will allow either 650 2-inch trees or 433 3-inch trees to replace the 69 removed trees. Either scenario equals the 1299 caliper inches of the trees being removed.
433 3-inch trees only provide 3,059 sq inches of basal area. (3/2=1.5;1.5×1.5=2.25×3.14=7.065×433=3,059)
Basal Area of a 3-inch tree = 7.065 sq in
Using 3-inch trees leaves a deficiency of 16,123 sq in of basal area. (19,182-3,059=16,123 )

At least 2,282 additional 3-inch trees are required to make up that basal area deficiency.

(16,123/7.065=2,282.0948 )

FYI – Basal Area Calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/biology/basal-area

What happens if we do nothing?

Planting thousands of small replacement trees seems like a big ask. But protecting and preserving our environment is much easier to do now than fixing it later. It may not be possible to fix later.

Losing biodiversity is more expensive in the future than protecting it now.

The collective choices of city councils can make the difference.