The Bloomington City Council voted 6-0 to adopt the city's first Urban Forest Master Plan, directing staff to start acting on its recommendations. The plan comes out of a 10-year canopy study that found some genuinely good news: citywide tree cover actually grew 5% over that span, even as emerald ash borer chewed through the city's ash trees.
Council voted 6-0 to approve and adopt the Bloomington Urban Forest Master Plan, directing staff to implement its recommendations.
The catch, per the plan presented to the council, is that the city isn't set up to keep that growth going or to handle the next threat that comes for the tree canopy. The study found Bloomington's forestry operation is understaffed and underfunded relative to what a city this size needs to properly manage its trees.
With the plan now formally adopted, staff have the council's direction to start implementing its recommendations. What that looks like in terms of budget requests or new hires wasn't detailed in the meeting excerpt available, so residents will want to watch upcoming budget discussions to see how the council backs up the vote with actual funding.