Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

**Forest Management Partnership:** The Lake Whatcom initiative represents expanded city capacity for watershed stewardship. Staff described recent organizational changes, including bringing Washington Conservation Corps crews in-house and creating a new field operations manager position. The management plan will focus on stewardship through stand-level inventory, climate adaptation with 30-year projections, and forest health through wildfire resilience measures including variable density thinning and selective harvesting. Council members expressed interest in how future thinning contracts would be structured to minimize environmental impact. **Municipal Broadband Feasibility:** The fiber network study concluded that providing municipal broadband service is not financially viable under current conditions. Three scenarios were analyzed: dark fiber leasing (requiring $40 million in ongoing subsidies), leased access servic…

**City Staff:** Supported both agenda items. For forest management, staff emphasized the city's evolving capacity through new restoration crews and field management positions. For fiber infrastructure, staff acknowledged disappointment that municipal broadband wasn't financially feasible but stressed the importance of upgrading existing network reliability. **Council Member Lisa Anderson:** Questioned contract terms for the forest management agreement and sought assurance that future thinning operations would come back to council for approval with environmental impact considerations. On fiber infrastructure, supported moving forward with network upgrades while ack…

**Mike Parleskin, on forest management goals:** "These are opportunities for increased wildfire risk. So we'll be implementing solutions such as variable density thinning, uneven aged and selective harvesting, and variable retention harvests. To lower wildfire risk. And as a suite, this will create a healthier watershed to protect our drinking water." **John Gaven, on municipal broadband financial analysis:** "So overall, the financial analysis is the local construction costs are fairly expens…

After this meeting, the city has formal authorization to proceed with the Lake Whatcom forest management partnership and committed $41,295 to the collaborative planning process. The fiber network study has been officially received and categorized as a "report" rather than a comprehensive plan, with direction to staff to develop proper planning documentation. The city has committed to maintain and update a Long-Term City Fiber Needs Map for coordinating future infrastructure installation with other public works projects. Most significantly, the committee p…

### Meeting Overview The Public Works and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Council Member Hannah Stone and including Council Members Anderson and Lilliquist, met to review two agenda items. The committee unanimously approved an interlocal agreement with Whatcom County for collaborative forest management planning in the Lake Whatcom watershed and adopted a resolution on fiber network improvements, though only after amending it to distinguish between a "comprehensive report" and an actual "comprehensive plan." ### Key Terms and Concepts **Interlocal Agreement:** A formal contract between two government entities (in this case, the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County) to collaborate on shared responsibilities and split costs for a common project. **Lake Whatcom Watershed:** The land area surrounding Lake Whatcom that drains into the lake, serving as Bellingham's primary drinking water source and requiring careful forest management to protect water quality. **Variable Density Thinning:** A forest management technique that selectively removes trees at different intensities across an area to improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk, and increase biodiversity. **Carrier Class Network:** A telecommunications infrastructure built to professional standards that can reliably support commercial internet service providers with guaranteed performance levels and minimal downtime. **Dark Fiber:** Unused fiber optic cables that can be leased to other organizations, versus "lit fiber" which comes with active network equipment and services. **Service Level Agreement (SLA):** A contract that guarantees specific network performance standards, such as 99.999% uptime, which commercial customers typically require. **OTDR Testing:** Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer testing that identifies problems in fiber optic cables by measuring light signals to locate bends, breaks, or other performance issues. **ACP (Affordable Connectivity Program):** A federal program providing $30 monthly internet discounts to low-income households, currently at risk of expiration. ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Hannah Stone | Committee Chair, Council Member | | Lisa Anderson | Committee Member, Council Member | | Michael Lilliquist | Committee Member, Council Member | | Joel Pfundt | Interim Public Works Director | | Renee LaCroix | Superintendent for Natural Resources | | Mike Parleskin | Natural Resources Field Operations Manager | | John Gaven | Fiber Optic Networ…