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Forest Park, a 5,200-acre natural area managed by PP&R, provides critical refuge for hundreds of native wildlife and plant species and provides important air and water quality benefits. With more than 80 miles of trails, it also provides invaluable access to nature, recreation, and educational opportunities for the region. Further, an extensive network of existing infrastructure currently exists within the park, including electrical and natural gas transmission facilities, public roads, and other utility facilities. The park is protected by the Environmental Zones set forth in Title 33, the City’s Zoning Code, and the Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan (NRMP) to preserve the highest valued natural resources of the City.

Currently there are eight different utility easements running through Forest Park. These utility easements are held by Portland General Electric (PGE), Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Kinder Morgan, and NW Natural Gas. The infrastructure associated with these easements requires ongoing maintenance or additional infrastructure which can result in natural resource impacts that require mitigation. Additionally, infrastructure projects such as Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) road maintenance within or adjacent to Forest Park may require mitigation to offset ecological impacts. When work must occur on land protected by the Environmental Zones, the projects are reviewed through the Environmental Review land use process with the Bureau of Development Services (BDS) to ensure that the applicable criteria of the Portland Zoning Code (Title 33) and the Forest Park NRMP are met, including that any unavoidable impacts to natural resource and functional values are offset by appropriate mitigation. Additionally, PP&R requires a Non-Parks Use Permit for work in Forest Park to ensure that ecological and recreation impact is minimized as practicable. To receive a permit under either process, an applicant is required to mitigate impacts to the park. PP&R and BDS review mitigation proposals and provide technical input, while the applicant is responsible for carrying out the mitigation activities.

This current system is challenging for both the City and applicants for a multitude of reasons. First, it requires PP&R land managers with technical expertise to direct a third party to carry out mitigation activities in compliance with the park’s natural resources management plan. This process requires considerable communication between the parties and offers many opportunities for misinterpretation and/or non-compliance with City requests or requirements. To achieve optimal mitigation results, PP&R land managers have found that an extensive series of communications, site visits, inspections, and feedback is required to achieve the desired results. Standard Environmental Zoning Code mitigation requirements typically require applicants to plant trees. As a result, much of the mitigation currently being implemented involves revegetation with tree species. However, due to the nature of Forest Park and its abundance of forest canopy, revegetation with trees only does not always meet the highest ecological need for mitigating site impacts from construction and maintenance. Instead, comprehensive restoration over large areas, including the removal of invasive species and revegetation with shrubs and forbs, is mitigation more readily needed in the park. Third-party applicants often are not equipped to carry out this nuanced restoration work. Additionally, as our climate changes, selective pruning and creation of defensible space in the wildland urban interface is becoming increasingly necessary to reduce wildfire risk. Currently, under a programmatic permit from Urban Forestry, Land Stewardship is the responsible party for all activities in the permit, including wildfire risk reduction techniques, which means that it is beneficial for Land Stewardship to directly carry out that mitigation to ensure permit compliance.

BDS and PP&R are proposing an alternate approach that has the support of stakeholders. This alternate approach would, for qualifying projects, authorize PP&R to receive Title 33 mitigation funds from applicants in lieu of the applicants conducting mitigation themselves. PP&R would then utilize this funding to implement required mitigation, reducing inefficiencies associated with applicant-led mitigation. To carry out this process, PP&R site ecologists would submit a mitigation plan to BDS environmental land use review staff for each proposed impact. BDS would review those mitigation plans and, if approved, would include them in the land use approval for the project.

Fees would be collected by PP&R from the applicant and directed into the Forest Park Trust Fund. The Forest Park Trust Fund has three internal orders for each management unit of the park: the south, central and north units. Funds will be directed into each management unit where the impact occurred and would have to be spent in those units as described in the mitigation plan.

Under the proposed approach, fees would be calculated based on existing fees for tree planting and removal under Title 11, the City’s tree code. The Environmental Review Land Use Process generally requires mitigation for impacts to trees 6 inches diameter at breast height (dbh) and larger. Title 11 tree removal in-lieu fees apply to trees at least 12 and less than 20 inches dbh, as well as for trees 20 inches and larger dbh. Title 11 also establishes a planting in-lieu fee which is a fee per tree. Table 1 below proposes to apply the per-tree fee for trees at least 6 and less than 12 inches dbh. For removal of trees at least 12 and less than 20 inches dbh, as well as for trees 20 inches and larger dbh, the corresponding tree removal in-lieu fee from the Title 11, Trees fee schedule would apply. The total number and diameter of trees 6 inches or greater dbh to be removed would be used to calculate a total fee for mitigation. These funds would be utilized to inform the total mitigation budget and inform the mitigation plan. The mitigation plan will include such actions as revegetation of both trees and shrubs, and invasive species removal. It may include wildfire risk reduction where appropriate. The mitigation plan will include a descriptive narrative, timeline, and proposed acreage to which the mitigation will be applied. As required by the Forest Park Natural Resource Management Plan, all mitigation actions will be applied to the management unit (South, Central or North) where the impact occurred.

The alternative approach will reduce inefficiencies for both the City and applicants to accomplish more ecologically beneficial mitigation. It will simplify process and improve outcomes from that associated with applicant-led mitigation. It will ultimately result in more comprehensive and sustainable ecological restoration, as technically knowledgeable PP&R staff who are managing broader-scale ecological management of Forest Park would be planning, implementing and maintaining the mitigation rather than a third-party applicant.

Table 1: Fee structure based on tree diameter