[Music] [Music] [Music] e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Light Rail opening that would somehow magically give us some land I don't I don't understand it's an existing an existing parcel that's there that's very old that is potentially going to be developed and it's a large parcel so it could potentially have three four buildings maybe a parking garage space for park space so it's but it's currently being used at this the this Minneapolis Mart site if it redevelops with this bigger plan to incorporate park space into that property which is on the east side of the where the platform is going to be okay I have I don't drive through there very much so I don't not for years so I don't have a good sense of what's there nor do I really understand where those people go to a park was the closest one lone Lake lone Lake probably and I guess Green Circle Park in Opus right it's just more of a natural area of the Gazebo walking trails not really formal amenities like is at l m park but Al Green par Green Circle Park is also close by and the whole several miles of Trail tril okay and I shouldn't have tied it directly to the light rail I think it's ideally the timing wise if the light rail opens and we had a nice park there I think that would be wonderful but but it it's not directly tied to it okay thanks for clarifying y okay uh next page here Parker and open space purchase so we just have some dollars allocated um you know the city has purchased a number of of properties along the Miha Creek Corridor I think there's other properties throughout the city that we look at if there's a a property right next to a park I think that's something that we might be looking at so we do have dollars uh kind of set out there and and there's there's properties that we are definitely keeping our eyes on and if they come up we would love to purchase those and what's the prior number about the prior number so that that is uh what we currently have in that balance so we have $983,000 that has been allocated in previous cips that is sitting there ready for that so we're adding another 500,000 in 2027 so we have so right now if a property came up we have some dollars set aside for purch then it might be less confusing to say the the total is the sum of those possibly I don't know I can check with our finance department to see if there's a better way to clarify how yeah no I just but your point is that's sitting there say that again your your point is that's sitting there yeah and you know so to be honest we don't a lot of times we have dollars that are sitting there that we just don't put on there I think we we're showing this just so it's helpful to know yeah I mean it I I think it's nice to know that you know especially along the creek Corridor there's a couple properties that we're curious about and so um so me prior makes it seem like this is money we had that we already spent got it whereas like balance or current or something would got it Reser yeah understand yeah Reser say unpent previous or I don't know okay okay y that makes sense and one other question there's several references in here about um like the funding provides resources to purchase land identified by the park board that's that's not we haven't identified any to date that's if we identify is that what that means and good question is is that go ahead you look like you're ready to say yeah or say that uh it's something that there may be something already identified say along the Mina Creek Corridor or if something out of the blue comes up and it's a request for the city to purchase to be added the parks and would come through the park board at that time so pars we've already identified and reviewed that I not familiar with or is this not not this parkboard I think in general way back they talked about properties along the creek they didn't identify necessarily specific properties but it was just like house just just just east of banka Mills correct yeah okay thanks um just to point out there is a council policy on open space preservation and so I haven't I haven't looked at that for a long time but it does provide some Council guidelines on on when property would be purchased for preservation purposes oh good it's it's nice to know that we have dollars set aside for things that come up and what's the general the rule of thumb for how much is minona land an acre oh jeez that varies widely depending on if it's buildable not buildable mostly Wetland let's say it's suitable for a dog park just I couldn't answer that question I have no idea I I don't I don't You' have to ask the yeah well let's say it's buildable I still don't know I just I know that those the different factors can affect the price I have no idea and Road access I just was wondering how much sure land that could buy us and I I understand it depends not a lot e of an e of an acre on on Libs Lake know that right one for sale for 800 900 right exactly we can check with our assessment group to see if they have I I yeah we don't have that information I guess that would just be a question that I would have then is is this planning enough sure yep and I mean I think for an example when the marsh came up for sale we didn't have that those dollars sitting around and so we had to shuffle so I think if if there was something that was that important to the city we would make sure we work through whether it was park for just a city council depending on where where it fell to to try to reallocate dollars so okay we'll keep moving um this and uh we did that one Park habitat stewardship plan Leslie you want to talk about that yeah this is uh uh the relatively new CIP page after the natural resources master plan was adopted in 2021 so these are funds set aside specifically for Habitat restoration activities um if you recall last year we brought uh several Park restoration PL plans to the parkboard for adoption so Purgatory Park um Hillway and Ford Park and so uh the intent of these funds is to fund the projects that come out of those plans that you are uh approving and so we are are we're working through um in the natural resources master plan we prioritized Parks there's a table there's criteria and we're sort of just basically working down the list you know starting with our bigger Parks um we're sprinkling in smaller Parks just because we know they don't they don't require a lot of uh resources and we're it's just sort of going going to be a rolling thing we're going to you know um do some work in a park and then we're going to have funds down the road to come back and do maintenance and so it's a sort of a rolling process of funding for projects and Parks so I I had one question on this and it's maybe different purpose but Purgatory Park is down for 2028 yes and I know we already have funds doing work in the park but does that mean the master plan that we're reviewing we reviewed wouldn't be implemented till 2028 or is this a different this is project so the master plan you're reviewing is completely separate from this this is just habitat restoration so what this means is that we had funds allocated in 2023 for Purgatory Park and we started working on a projects with the contractor um when it comes back around it really just allows us to access some funds for the maintenance of the work we've already done okay because just like gardening habitat restoration is is going to be an ongoing activity um we're always going to have to deal with invasive species to some degree um and you know plants grow trees grow things change so we'll need to kind of keep going back and and doing some maintenance activities thanks U for me this is my favorite page um I I would if there's anything we can do to put more a little more money in there I think that would be great um to me the parks are all of the things that that are there for humans and then there's this little tiny sliver of money set aside for all the nonhumans that need that space um so I I think it's really important I'm glad it's there I'd be really happy if it was a little bigger it's 3.3% of the total that we're spending just uh put this a little into context um so this is a new page which is great and this you know came out of our natural resource master plan this is one piece of our overall budget related to Habitat restoration because we do within our Natural Resources Division we have an operating budget and we have funds identified in there for maintenance activities and restoration activities plus we have a lot of you know obviously you're familiar with the volunteer resources we have we have staff that are doing work we've got seasonals we've got um our icw crew which is our our institutional Community work crew uh and then we have contractors working so it it's it's bigger than just what you're seeing here so I understand what you're saying but I just want to make sure everyone understands there's more than just what you're seeing here okay next page is the park investment plan Darren that's your page anything specific on that page no predominately this page is just is identifying Mo mainly playground improvements so most of our playgrounds were refurbished and the early 2000s with the big Park referendum money so now those are uh getting to the age of time to replace them so gradually over the last few years we've been replacing the playground equipment so that's that's what this is more not doing a those were master planned at that times with new you know tanks and sidewalks and trails uh so not really need to master plan them again just just updating the equipment and refreshing the what's there for the amenities so can you speak a little bit about the Kelly Park irrigation Kelly Park irrigation uh I there's money in there to look at some kind of an irrigation system for the the gardens the Community Gardens so what that's going to be we don't know yet so once we get closer to when it's time to spend that money then we'll meet with the vendors to come up with what we're going to do how it's going to be irrigated so it I imagine it's a bit of a hassle to haul in that big tank of water Yeah well yeah yeah it takes some time we have a big water truck we just drive it down there and fill the tank every week so it's stuff time it's yeah yeah for those who don't know the Kelly that's a community garden site and we've got a large tank that we have to refill with water so the garden plot owners can use that so it's you know it's it's step time to do that for sure is location next to um Purgatory right across the street County Library there yeah I didn't know the name of it okay okay next page is Park Master planning and so Matt's not here lesli did we shift a couple things on this do you remember the shifts um from last year that's a very good question I I know there were a few shifts primarily um so this year the colon Nature Preserve is getting master plan um and then next year will be Meadow Park and well so one thing the page you just saw that Al that identifies funds for uh restoration part of that work is actually developing these habitat restoration plans that I mentioned that come to the park board we want to we're we're trying to time this so that those get completed before the master planning happens so we have that restoration and habitat plan as sort of a Baseline to inform the master plan so because of that and and also because of recognizing how long these can take he made some shifts on that and I can't tell you exactly what got shifted but I know there was yeah I think I know we were purgatories probably maybe a little bit of an oddball it took a you know a little bit longer time than I think we we may have anticipated and other Parks might so you know it's staff time and and how much how much time do we have to allocate towards these plants so we have as we get through these and and do these we'll learn more more about how long it's taking and um you know maybe have to make some adjustments year to year is it is it weird to anybody else that it's $90,000 for Meadow Park Plus Big Willow which are two pretty big parks although Meadow is mostly mostly Cattails um and then lone lake is 100 I I was expecting them to be more an even chunk per Park but maybe there's I'm sure there's a good reason yeah and I don't I I'm not firmar with the exact accounting but I think there's uh you know they're not all exactly the same and the level of effort for them is likely going to differ um you know Meadow and Big Willow are smaller Rel somewhat smaller Parks than lone Lake for instance and I don't foresee that there's any big changes happening in those Parks um lone lake is certainly a much bigger Park we have more amenities yeah you have soccer you have tennis you got pickle B you got a lake yeah so and a lot of different habitat yeah and a lot of different habitat exactly and then you know the prices or the the costs go up a little bit because there's inflation and we use Consultants to help us with these plans so I think there's just some inflationary cost built into I had the same question you know you had two that are less than one but I Matt had those are some of the explanations in Matt Matt works with folks on that okay next page is the plant pest program Leslie again yes this is so the plant pest program is sort of a fancy name for our tree disease management program so thinkk Emerald ashor Oak dutel um and so the this page and this fund was set up um years ago uh in recognition of that EAB would be coming um and so it was and it was partially funded from a lawsuit settlement with uh regarding an a spraying of imprelis over in L Lake Park so I don't know if anybody remembers that issue but we settled and the funds were put into this um fund the CIP fund to fund the future issues we knew we would be having with Emerald ashbo coming so we're sort of building up this pot of money uh as you know Emerald ashbo is here uh we are considered heavily infested so it's everywhere and I'm sure you're seeing it all over um and so we are you know it's kind of a bell curve we're going to be seeing lots of increase in in dead and dying trees and we going to hit a peak and then it will start to go down and we'll lose all our Ash so then we won't have that many Ash so so that's what this fund is for and is I know I don't think the tree survey is done yet but do you know how many ash trees there are well luckily we have a city Forester here to answer that question Hannibal Hayes is our city Forester so we have technical questions we can ask him that's why he's here yeah yes excuse me uh so we completed a a survey of the the roadways and then uh front yards at least of what the the contractor could see of all of the all the trees in in the city and so we they what they could calculate was that or estimate that there was about 60,000 ash trees along the roadways and in people's front yards um that does not include people's backyards that that does not include the wooded spaces so we feel comfortable doubling that number and thinking that there's about 120,000 ash trees within the city and is would this money pay for just the city-owned trees or the the residential trees no this is for trees that are being removed on city property okay or within right of ways that pose a risk to the public okay so not backyards um not in you know not between neighbors um things like that so it's that's so it's 120,000 is potentially how many trees the city would be on the hook for cutting down no 60 60 60,000 is in was identified in being in public spaces and rways okay okay and then does this include planting new trees does that come out of a different budget so that primarily comes out of our operating budget budget um but we do we we we can use some of this funds for replanting as well so we have we have you tapped into these funds for some replanting on city property on city property correct yes not on not on but this does not work on Buck Thor that's a SE that would that would separ part of this y okay next page is the ridgevale commas programming equipment so in 2027 we have allocated $200,000 for refrigeration system so the plaza area uh that circle out there um we're hoping to have um a portable refrigeration system so we can create ice there in the winter and have ice that's um reliable so uh as you know the the ice rinks this summer were this past winter were it was a challenge we were only open for 10 or so days and so um having reliable ice out there would be wonderful anything else on that specific no we don't know that we won't know the exact configuration and size you know we'll maximize as much space depending on what you know boards or whatever but we'll fit the system to fit in there and then do just something we put up every fall take down in the spring and uh have some rental equipment too for it but just a way to have uh some permanent ice for pleasure skating and utilizing that Park more year round and I assume this was part of the scope of the project that city council is really responsible for the approval of the overall Park project so that's this was in the scope of what was promised for the park and approved by city council it was a it was a possible future addition and it was kind of planned for We There are electrical Provisions in the building that were set in place so we could do this in the future so is there a chance that we'd reduce our other ranks throughout the city at the same time possibly or no probably something we we've talked about we have not uh gone to that exercise but that would be a bigger thing we would do if we did do that it' be a a community process and something that would come back to the park board at that time y yeah that's something that if you all want to discuss I mean that's you know there was a hot Hot Topic Minneapolis was in the news regarding their outdoor rinks and so that's something that we can discuss if if you'd like um you know we that would be a good time right if you have something potentially incoming and sure we do an overall assessment for the whole city yeah it is I think you know we we have a lot of ranks it takes a lot of Staff time and resources to to flood these and you're still going to get calls from the neighbors because they all they everybody wants it in their neighborhood you know it's convenient well sorry that was a general comment uh we you know even this year we got calls you know why why why do we not have ice here so um we hear about that I you it's important to a few neighbors okay I'm personally not a big fan of skating it makes my feet hurt so I'm it's I just I'm I'm trying to imagine people clamoring for the chance to ice skate up at Ridgedale so I this will be circular it's not about hockey right it's about pleasurable doing laughs the Rockell Center I think we're trying to increase outdoor programming in the winter as best we that's and that's I'm all in favor of people being outside and my guess is this is more of a photo op type of skating scenario rather than you know speed skating or hockey and and things like that and so um it was initially in the ridgevale Commons plan we actually pulled it out because I think it was like 500 or 600,000 to have in in the ground cooling so we pulled that out because it was a budgeting concern at that time hoping that you know this was an approach we could there piping to this in the ground there's not ping but the electrical is set up for a rental or a mat system like this correct and there's some in information about how much energy this takes since we're trying to be sustainable and sorry to rain on this but I I don't have that answer okay right and this is this is scheduled for 27 so even though right I might still be on the park can can come in and out of of these different plans for sure yes and at at $200,000 you know that's an expenditure that city council has to approve I mean that's a a large expenditure okay uh next is Shady o Beach Improvement so uh every year we allocate certain dollars for Shady Oak Beach um this year we actually just rid the parking lot we've got some miscellane miscellaneous expenditures uh I know we talked about getting some things done in the concession stand we've updated some umbrellas and things like that out there so um this one is split uh City of Hopkins and city of atka so it's that same 2/3 1/3 split that we have with uh shida Beach so since I would assume they're budgeting yep 33% so we yep we run this page by the City of Hopkins to make sure we're on the same page and they they have agreed yes next page is uh skate park so we have uh this is one that we did uh up a little bit uh I don't know if you all remember but last year we had $900,000 in 2025 so we did bump that up a little bit so um we moved that up to $1.1 million for 2025 skate park uh was left uh we were going to go to the council you all approved kind of the site location of one that um was going to go to the council that was at the same time that the whole March situation came up so they decided to hold off on that till the community facility study was complete now that that's complete and they don't have a better use we we didn't see a better use for that that will have to then go go back to the city council and then we can start to get into design and things like that for the skat Park so skat Park is um something that is is funded um you know as we look through and I know Matt was planning to do this later this year is worked with a design company and make sure that that dollar figure is enough I I we hope so um but that it is in for 2025 so and the future is that to the future we put in there um store it once it's boring say that again well apparently after you use a skate park for a while you get bored with it you need a new one oh okay uh that actually is we we talked about we don't know about the restroom situation we've got the restroom situation on site kind of up near the baseball fields but don't necessarily have one closer to the because we are also looking at removing the building so if you take the building down you have more area easier to design the skate park the question would be there's Plumbing in the buing yep so is there like a phase two that could include a small restroom or something like that so that's that's unfunded out in the future okay very good so that that was that I think gets to my qu my question is um because I I did look at the facility study and not having heard the presentation it looks like demolishing is the right thing to do is that what it agreed to yes so they are going take that was the feedback that we received from the city council so there'll be a whole new plan for the skate park then based on that footprint right and they'll come back to the park board yes yep that way and is just off the top of your head without the building is the footprint big enough should be it should be yes yep because we were I know that was at 15,000 ft I think that's what kind of was the recommended it's very close yes y That's good okay uh Timberline Park Darren remind us on this one uh so this is we finalize it last last year were the uh neighborhood up uh Timberline Road and Hopkins Crossroad northeast corner of the city the group of residents owned a tennis court and they didn't want to own it anymore and they donated it to the city so we completed that property transfer late last fall might even end of October early November so we have the tennis courts have been removed we got that done last fall and now we'll just get grass to grow on site until we're ready to uh get the park built and then we've slotted 2028 for the year that we'll do that so we'll work with the consultant to come up with uh some concept plans do neighborhood meetings and all that and bring that back to the park board and get input to move that project along at that time is the project delayed till 28 because there's just higher priority things to do money until then yep y I was just going to say that we we don't it's usually what are projects do we have in the hopper and then also as we talked to our finance director he's trying to figure out year by year and so um you know if the parkboard felt strongly about trying to move something forward or back that's that's feedback that we would provide to the city council and our finance director to make you know to see if that would work so that that's type of feedback we're we're looking for if if you feel not only this one but any other project or if you felt the priorities were uh out of whack where maybe something should this one should move up and something else should move back um happy to listen to that generally a new project we would just put in 2029 right in our fifth year out where we did look at the capacity so we did move it up a year instead of just putting it at 5 years old to try to move it up a little bit ahead to keep it closer to when the whole process got initiated okay uh Trail Improvement plan that typically talks about the trail Improvement plan uh Darren do you have any specific comments on Trails I know they got the Minot Tonka Boulevard so we're going Marsh to the West um exeler boulevards on there uh you know this is that big list of of Trail segments that we have I I don't know how many there are in there 50 or 60 70 70 yeah um and so though you know we keep checking those off you know we've got about $1.8 million that comes in every year to this fund that we can use to build trails and and trails are very expensive and so um you know ideally we'd like to get one done a year but you know some of them are costing three or4 million and so we have to to skip a year so this is that big list we're taking them the U Trails team the internal Trails team has a priority and a reason for ranking those and it's weighted so um you know we look at that every 3 to five years and and and also if there's grants available for certain projects or a county is doing something you know we we look at a number of different factors for this so and two of the big ones on here is in 2027 so exceler Boulevard is a county road with stretch from 101 to Williston Road uh they've been looking at that roadway for a number of years to uh just the road condition everything else so that one has been identified as them is time to get reconstructed so then we can capitalize with the big project instead of like along Plymouth Road or the project this year on Hopkins Crossroad to try to build a trail alongside an existing road we can capitalize and get much more bank for our buck to build the trail uh with the along with the county project so it help keep so going to be expensive but it helps keep our cost down with the design construction everything but that'll be a big project most likely will be a trail on both sides of the road on that trail segment so is that both sides what's that is that most of the ones I think are recently only on one side when we add them as a standalone project do is one but when they do a big reconstruct project down the we do two L okay when con Ro 101 was redone from old excels here down to 62 we put Trail and sidewalk on both sides and then when 101 got done north of minona Boulevard we have it on both sides so to speak in favor of having it on both sides as a bicyclist if you are riding against the direction of traffic people coming out of a side road or out of their driveway do not look um to their right you should ride with traffic though well but if there's the trail isn't on both sides you can't oh you're on the trail okay um so if there's no Trail I ride in the street yeah that exeler one's really cool because it helps access to Scenic kites Elementary and even the high school like y access that's really cool and then the second one is the project led by three R Park District for their Bryant Lake to fish Lake so that's luckily that project we can get a trail segment identified on our list done by Three Rivers so that'll be predominantly the Baker Road segment from minaka Boulevard down to Roland Road so that'll be a that'll be a huge project um I divided the total am amount by the number of miles of trail and I got 2 million a mile is that is that our number now uh I I don't I could I don't know I'm not sure I have on that addended page that was in there with the table that kind of gives each each segment is in there for a kind of a budgeted number um I haven't I haven't done the maths I I don't I was thinking it was more like a million dollars a month M instead of two but I know they do update that every year I know they are looking at current construction prices and and adjusting those and I know they're going up I I I I also can't verify if it's 2 million but it's expensive so look at the table she right looking at the table looks like that's about right yeah and I don't know if certain segments for whatever reason are a little bit more per mile or not but yeah the um Greenway uh the one that goes in the trench in Minneapolis Midtown Greenway was $6.5 million a mile so it can be a lot right so we're in good shape way under budget way under budget there we go okay uh we probably have a couple more here Trail rehab Darren again I assume that's just maintenance on existing Trails correct yep updating existing trails with the older asphalt or uh other projects so you can see and 2029 we have replacement of the the bridge in Big Willow Park over minihaha Creek uh so here we have another unfunded project of TBD so that's Athletic Field improvements so we have um dollars in there or potential dollars in the future for lighting over at Lone Lake Park again that's been in there for a few years we've just talked about potentially lighting the soccer field I believe is that correct the two soccer fields um but that is not funded that's just a project that's up there um Trail segments unscheduled so this is that one the addendum um we have you know so Le $91 $91 million in future um funding for Trails so that's the addendum that has the 70 or so segments that are listed so there's although we're getting a lot of funding for these we have a lot of segments to do and and um like I said it it seems like it's Aver about one segment per year based on the cost so that's it is that that's it for all the pages yes Dave this is for Darren I guess and and every time we add one of these Trails which are like big sidewalks a lot we have to the city has to follow those so there's there the funding for the increased maintenance to that is in an operating budget not in the CIP correct okay yeah parks part where it be in the CIP in a separate section is if we eventually add uh equipment if we need more people and we need more machines to do it but but but the general maintenance is in the operating budget yes so really the and we're just looking for feedback tonight uh and hopefully you know if if did we miss anything are there projects out there that we we didn't get is there something that you maybe feel that shouldn't be in here and or any reprioritization so you'd like a certain project to move up likely if if one moves up we have to work with our finance director and he likes to then move one back type of deal so because he the funding is kind of per year he's got to make sure because it all goes back down to the tax levy and so um we be open to any comments or suggestions you have I know we've already received a few appreciate that I think it looks good I I'm happy to see that skate park is on there and funded so just whenever students advocate for any sort of involvement and engagement in the community I always like to see that come to fruition so whether it's the mountain bike park or the skate park so it's an impressive list I yeah does this need a motion for any or not we would yeah we typically motion to approve it and send it to the city council and then and or if you have any and there's no other CIP projects you didn't present this is all the ones this is all the par control related projects so we still have some you know there's streets there's equipment you're not fling you know snow plows and things like that but yes this is all the parking Trail related yeah there's other no more comments yeah if we we would like a motion I guess so yeah I'd make a motion to approve this to pass along do we have a second I'll I'll second would you like to take a roll yes with me sorry all my papers to call it in a certain order that's why I really okay Byers dorf approve D Lorenzo approve Hanley approve Ingraham approve Jacobs approve sersi approved and wall approved all right moving on we have the Well Community Forest management plan and Leslie's taking that one I am thank you so thank you chair and parkb members um if so you as you recall we've I've mentioned several times that we are working on a community Forest management plan so at this point um the goal here is to bring it to the park board we don't have a written plan to give you we are currently developing a plan so I'll try to keep this relatively brief but I want to give you some background around and start to talk about some of the draft goals that we're thinking about to just give get a give you a chance to give us some feedback so um oh I contr and and by the way this is the logo that we had developed for our planning effort so I want to make sure um so I just I'm G to get a little bit of background some of uh talk a little bit about existing conditions um we did quite a bit of public and staff engagement so far in internally and then with with the with the public but we obviously uh wanted to give you all a chance to provide some feedback as well um talk a little bit about challenges and opportunities that have come out of some of the work we've done and then draft goals and strategies and next steps so that's um and I'm going to go through this pretty fairly briefly but I'll pause and give you guys an opportunity to ask questions and then uh Hannibal is here our city Forester so if we have really technical questions he can certainly answer them so it just Bears worth repeating uh mitaka as a community is very rich in trees we have lots of trees um the map you see on the left all of the green generally is the canopy of the of the um Community what we call the community forest or Urban Forest you might hear me using those interchangeably um the the red part are actually what we call the urban heat Islands that's where we have uh excessive heat and no surprise it co size where we have a lack of trees and shade so we have a wooded community and trees do provide a lot of benefits to our community um so you know there's it I this doesn't even list all of the benefits um they provide um they provide social benefits ecological benefits even economic benefits um you know they they produce oxygen they mitigate climate change they absorb storm water they cool uh homes for when we need to heat them um they provide Shad so we can reduce our cooling costs and so there's just an innumerable amount of benefits um if you it's hard to see but on the far right um there's a a program called it tree uh which is a nationally recognized um Pro it's a a webbased program that that calculates benefits of trees and looks at many different factors so this is an example of an oak tree a 35 diameter 35 in diameter oak tree um and then over 20 years it talks about some of the benefits it provides so you know rainfall intercepted is 55,000 gallons of of water so I I'm not going to read through it but they provide a lot of benefits to our communities and there's certainly a valued resource that we want to protect so if you recall in the natural resources master plan one of our key goals was to manage and improve the community forest ecosystem um so again recognizing the importance of trees that and how they shape our community and benefit our community um one of the outputs of the natural resource master plan was the identification for of the need to develop a community Forest management plan so that's exactly what we're doing um today and it was in the CIP if you recall in 2023 funds were available to help fund um hiring a consultant to help us do this so we did hire uh a consultant uh WSB is the name of the company um and interestingly enough uh our consultant we're working with is Emily ball if you don't remember her she was our former city Forester before Hannibal so she's now on the consultant side of the world so she is working on the management plan with us um Community forestry I wanted to put this up here because we talk about the community Forest but forestry is an entire professional area of work and and th that's why the city has a city Forester on staff to oversee all of the forestry work that we do um and so Community forestry or urban forestry um there's a definition here the management of planted and naturally occurring trees in urban and urban interface areas so it really focuses on the management and care of trees not only in our maintained areas like our you know turf grass areas in parks along roads um but also Even in our natural areas and so it really encompasses all of that and and also the sort of the unique situation of the fact that we have trees in natural areas but we also have a very Urban environment so we have a lot of pavement we have um we've changed the way water flows on the land we have compacted soil from a lot of the cultural you know old historic cultural practices farming obviously building so all of that impacts the trees that we have in the community and so this is just a little bit about um Community forestry as a practice the the map on the right interestingly enough that's from a program through the Met Council called growing shade it's an interactive program they have a mapping feature and so you can go there and actually map communities and look at the the urban uh canopy uh tree canopy um that they have and so that's what that is showing here as you can see lots of green again the fact reflects the fact that we have a lot of trees so just to talk a little bit about um the uh second sorry I'm trying to keep up with my notes here so I can actually see what I'm talking about um I wanted to just talk a little bit about our forestry program um this is the program within Natural Resources Division that Hannibal actually manages and so we have a lot of current initiatives that are underway and we've been working on these for years um the plant pest program which you saw in the CIP that's our forestry fund that's a program that manages the diseases and PES and diseases um that we um have occurring in our trees uh we have Oak preservation grant program in case you're not familiar with that it helps private property owners actually treat uh and preserve Oaks on on property we have the risk and Hazard train ation program so that's where we actually have staff that Scout along roads and trails for trees that pose a risk to the public and then we actually remove those so that's a lot of the work that Hannibal staff does uh we obviously replanting is a big part of what we do uh we obviously lose trees for various reasons we want to make sure that we're replanting um on public property and parks where it makes sense Park pruning and care so that kind of we plant a tree we need to care for it um over a certain length of time to make sure it it thrives and grows uh RightWay pruning um for infrastructure projects so we actually go through all of the streets when we have Street reconstruction happening or we're we're replacing uh the surface the mill and overlay if you if youve heard of that term we actually go through in the beginning and our staff actually goes and arranges for a lot of the pruning so that the trucks aren't hitting the trees and things like that uh conservation arbc culture um research program or projects we have going on with the University of Minnesota this is just keeping a breast of current research and science related to trees and tree health and Tree Care um inventorying and monitoring uh one thing with the community Forest it's really important that we continue to understand what is what makes up our our forest our trees so inventorying is uh an area of practice in forestry that really it's about collecting data so we know what we have have and what we want to manage and helps us set goals and and uh metrics um and then monitoring certainly for uh new emerging diseases uh tree Health if we have you know concerns in areas where we may be experiencing tree loss es especially like EAB um we want to make sure we're continuing to monitor for future conditions that might beom and then wood utilization or reuse um we have a lot of wood product if you can imagine from EA we're finding ways and and Hannibal has been doing a lot of actually leading work on the idea of reusing that wood um so finding ways that we can use it in house that we can create um help um sell it for others who are creating markets to to deal with all of this wood product that we actually have and actually reuse it instead of just uh so safe to reuse that pardon it is safe to reuse it Y and then technical assistance education Outreach and and volunteerism we have a the Natural Resources Division as you know because I know we've provided reports to you we have a robust education and outreach program and volunteer program forestry is very much a part of that so our forestry staff do a lot of that work so that's um kind of currently what we do I it's hard to see this but this was just a snapshot in 2023 um and I can't even read it but we we do a lot of work obviously that I just mentioned um this just talks about number of trees that get removed we actually report that to the council in the budget packet every year there are some metrics related to tree removal um so if you're interested in learning more we can I can talk to you about that later so that's just a quick snapshot of what we do um now I'm going to talk a little bit about the planning effort that we have initiated and um kind of get into some of these themes and goals and strategies that we're hoping to get feedback from the parkboard so last year we had a um we developed a sort of a public engagement plan that we implemented um really the goal was to look not only internally at our operations and our staffing um but also externally with regard to the public so Community groups the public even professionals that are out in the field um we wanted to get input and feedback from all of those different groups so we actually performed kind of an internal audit on our existing forestry program and you know that consisted of looking at our operations interviewing staff um not only in forestry but staff that we interact with or intersect with in other parts of the city so Parks is certainly one of them uh streets and engineering and things like that so um and then we had uh hosted several um we had we had a survey that was on motanka matters if you recall um and then we had a number of popup events where we were providing postcards to hand people to take the survey um so the farmers market the open house um The Spook tacular we actually went to the IC Food Shelf um to um solicit input and and and encourage people to take the survey um from that from that audience we worked with our Dei de Andi coordinator Jace Alexander to sort of extend the reach into some of the audiences he works with um with church groups with apartment buildings um and then we also um had two focus groups so as we started to understand what community members were concerned about and were thinking we wanted to dive into some of the key themes that were coming out so we had a focus group with uh community community members um who really we don't necessarily interact a lot with we may not be um really in tune to natural resource issues and Forestry and then we had a second separate group that was really um focused more on those uh audience members who are more in tune to forestry and and natural resources so you know friends of Mena Parks was there our volunteer some of our volunteer program U people were there um we had some industry professionals that live in the community that were there and so it was um it was really it was a really interesting conversation to hear sort of those two groups um you know we're always trying to figure out how can we extend our reach and and educate and and and raise the awareness of what we do and so it's not often where you can talk to sort of a dedicated group of people who can really give us feedback on you know we we think you should do this or we would like to see this so that was really helpful for us and then we also worked internally with this Natural Resources Division staff um to really kind of dive into some of our own needs and and understand where we think some of the gaps are and what some of our goals um are for this plan and I want to point out we talk a lot about master plans and management plans and use those words um at least in my mind they have very different meetings so a master plan is a very high level like 30,000 foot plan um you know for for kind of providing General guidelines this really is meant to be a management plan which is a more of like a 5,000 level plan it's really about operations and really kind of get really specific specific into activities and help guide what we do on a daily basis in our division with our staff so I just wanted to sort of point that out so this is truly a management plan versus the natural resources master plan so in a lot of the uh conversations we had we sort of sort of distilled this General Vision for this management plan that we're developing and so a healthy resilient and sustainable Urban Forest that provides vital green infrastructure Ure benefits to the community and persist for future Generations so that really tries to encaps encapsulate the idea that trees provide benefits on many different ways and we want to make sure it's resilient and persists for those Generations that are uh going to persist be long be long Beyond us so when we plant a tree now we're planting for a hundred years from now so that's what that really recognizes and if you recall from the master plan the natural res ources master plan um there was a section on the community forest and it really sort of um it it divided sort of how we work and and some of the work we do into these three different areas so if you can see there's the urban plantings these are trees in a highly Urban Disturbed environment um which is very different than trees in a natural area which would be our you know parks and woodlands and then there's the Traditional landscape that's what we were calling um you know uh residential areas where you have got Turf you're mowing you know it's a different environment than either of the other two um we are we tend to call refer the the Traditional landscape we tend to refer more in line of um What's the phrase we use modem maintained so you might hear entertain hear that phrase as well so just some of the themes that came out of our internal AUD um tree maintenance workload is significant and can be more reactive than proactive there's always more to do than what we can do and so um sometimes that does create frustrations because we can't always react as as and be proactive as we as we would like and there's significant demand for forestry staff um from various you know whether it's the public um whether it's internal departments um there's just always demand for for we get calls or they get calls every single day on forestry related questions and now with EAB that's probably doubled or tripled um Emerald ashore has uh increased in numbers um and prevents presents significant issues not only with the just the sheer volume of dead material that we will be we have and we will have but also what happens when those trees are gone you know something has to sort of fill that void and so what's going to fill that void um forestry program Vision goals and workload are not well understood by other departments and divisions even within the city um so you know we are a big organization and so there are certainly times where One Division may not necessarily understand what another division does forestry staff are are trust are considered a trusted resource so that was uh H we were happy to hear that um for not only for internal staff but also residents so I think that was something we try to capitalize on um they are very highly skilled and trained staff that we have and we're lucky to have them um there are growing opportunities to interface with other departments and divisions especially with related to the CIP um if you think about even the trail these Trail projects we've been talking about all of them will intersect with a lot of trees and so finding we're always continuing to try to find ways to intersect forestry staff with some of the the engineering work that we're doing and then there's always more opportunities to engage with businesses which are large Property Owners within the community and so that was recognized as a interest and a need um within our um our division um so external input um you know generally there's um uh developing the community awareness is really important that was a theme that came out we need to help people understand what community forestry is and why it's important and and why it's important to support report um there was a strong uh interest in having us use different communication methods so that people are aware of our programs that's one thing we sort of realize that still even though we hear from a lot of people a lot of people are still not aware of the resources and programming that we have and the expertise we have on staff U work to reduce Urban heat island impacts I showed that map in the beginning this is really tied to you know climate change um mtig or ad adaptation um and our climate action an adaptation plan that the council recently adopt adopted also includes this and certainly trees are a big part of mitigating Urban heat island so we want to make sure that's um at the Forefront of a lot of what we do which we're already doing in terms of our tree sale we target Urban heat island areas um educating on what trees can do for us for our children grandchildren so people understand why they're important and why we need to protect them and then um need to be careful in introducing new tree species and think about the impacts and this was sort of a really interesting area of conversation um not only in our focus group but in what we've been talking about internally as we as our climate change our climates change our climate changes um even planting zones are changing as you've are probably aware um how is that impacting our trees when we plant a tree like I said now we're planting for hundred years from now what's our climate going to look like in a 100 years should we be thinking about um you know what species we're planting so that they are resilient and adaptable to a future condition and this was an interesting quote trees and forests allow me to unplug from everyday work and remove remove myself from the hardscaped world which I kind of like that okay um challenges um so invasive species as we know uh existing and emerging pests and disease uh you're familiar with cultural practices so these are historic practices or even current practices that impact trees so tree roots soil compaction root cutting you know we build a trail we're going to impact Roots um aging Forest um a lot of what you see out here um is here because we stopped farming the land we stopped you know tilling and we start we we let things grow because we developed and So eventually trees are aging out so we need to look at what's that age structure of our of our community forest and think about you know in the next 50 years if we have a lot of Armature trees dying what's coming up after that climate change extreme storms heat and drought uh Never Enough resources and limits on data we can't you know inventory every single tree in the city so we have to um do the best we can with current technology and Innovative practices for ensuring that we have data so we're making datadriven decisions as we manage the community Forest so as we distilled a lot of the information we were gathering from both internally and externally these sort of four opportunity areas kind of RADS to the top um one is City operations so this is really internal operations related to Tree Care Management what our forestry crews are doing on a day-to-day basis how we're managing rist trees how many times we're inspecting um so that's one area um the second one is inventory assessment technology and Innovation so this is just really about keeping up on um you know the the data part I was mentioning so making sure we're collecting data regularly um thinking trees as an a asset and how we manage that asset and then um monitoring using Innovative monitoring methodology from remote sensing to drones and Hannibal's done some work with drones even um so we want to make sure we're keeping a breast of current research and science planting preservation and res Ian and so thinking about as we plant and as we replant from the trees that we're losing um what species are we choosing are we ensuring we have a proper age class are we ensuring we're not planting you know all trees of one species so that when the next Emerald ashb comes it you know kills everything um so those are so those are things we need to be thinking about as well and then climate change and and storm response uh and then lastly public education uh Outreach and technical assistance um and that should include volunteerism in there as well um so the messaging we're using how we're communicating our programs trying to reach audiences that we haven't reached in the past we've started creating some of our materials in bilingual uh using bilingual you know um creating bilingual materials so that we can tap into non English speaking audiences so things like that and then private property support is a big part of that you know lot large portion of our trees in the community Forest is on private property so how can we educate and engage people to take action on their own property so I have four slides on sort of these goals and strategies and there's a lot here um and these are just related to parks and so one thing we've been as we've been developing potential or draft goals and strategies we're thinking critically about how we can sort of Whittle this down into what's really important for us um not everything relates to park so I didn't put everything in there but um I'll just kind of quick go through these and then and I realized I said I was going to stop to see if there's any questions and I never did I just kept going I just saw a lot of nding heads so maybe I'll just stop right now and and see if there's any questions one question before we get to goals it's probably relevant is the trend today that our tree coverage is declining that trees so um and you can correct me if I'm wrong H but in talking to so looking at the inventory data we have and we've been regularly kind of assessing and again we're not we're not inventorying every single tree in the city we have to do some statistical sampling um but generally the canopy is about stayed the same um and so that's what I've heard and that's you're sh you're not in your head so it's generally stayed the same and we we've lost trees we're replanting trees um Emerald ashore is obviously a big impact so we're going to want to re kind of re um assess in you know five years to see where we're at but in general it's about staying the same so was your goal to keep that stable over time or to increase the C keep it stable keep stable okay if we were a community with you know very urban community with very little trees and lots of urban heat island um you'll think of like you know Minneapolis or some you know we're just a very different kind of community we could do nothing and we would have trees growing because we have a lot of species coming yeah I know you see the cottonwoods and the seeds that are out they're spreading everywhere um you know boxelder trees are a type of species that will readily grow around here if you just let it because was our number one was that natur yeah boxers are number one species and you know some people say it's a junk tree well we don't like to say it's a junk tree but what it is is it's it early successional tree meaning it easily will spread seeds and grow and so if we again if we did nothing a lot of that is going to grow whereas in you know if you're in Downtown Minneapolis you have to physically and actively be planting trees if you want to increase your canopy so the goal is an overall canopy increase it's to maintain and have a resilient canopy meaning if we have future disturbance storms another EA another another Emerald ashbo like insect or event that we have a forest that can withstand that we have you know a variety of species a variety of age classes and we're not just wiping out the whole community at once it's so like out west where the that Pine thing hit yes the Pine Bar Beetle yeah yes yeah good question are there any other questions I guess just a C curiosity in the question if we have maybe 120,000 Ash emerald ash trees or ash trees from a statistical guesstimate what how many trees do we have just you know just to put in 120,000 1% 10% I mean I think it I believe if I remember correctly that makes up about 16% of our canop 16% one six or 6 Z 16 okay so you Rel about 1.2 million trees or something like that okay and then when you see excuse me when um and I'm thinking mostly like uh the lake minaka trail and stuff when the orange trucks AB who are those guys the tree guys yeah when they come cruising through and doing their work do they have to notify you guys as to what they're doing in the city from standpoint of canop or you know just working with trees or or not yeah they I mean they they I maybe you can answer that question they I don't know if they have to but they try to yes so they do not have to get approval by anyone from the city to do that type of work but they do notify us okay they do ask us not to share a whole lot of information with the uh with residents about where exactly they're going uh but I just feel a call this uh this afternoon uh walking a resident through the fact that they don't report to us but they can uh certainly work with uh Aspen Tre care yeah thanks okay um I I didn't see unless I missed it that there was any statement about wanting to focus on using native tree material so the uh the opportunity area or Focus areaa the planting preservation and resilience it includes the spe species choices age class climate change and storm response so what that means is that's an area that we want to have a goal around which you're going to see I mean I haven't got to it yet but it's not going to this plan is not going to specify you know what species we should be planting it will say I'm I would hope You' try to have mostly natives with whatever um assortment made sense for the place that the tree is going to live and if if I could go back so this here this is this is really important in in in my mind as far as when we think about tree species in a natural area we're certainly thinking about Native species and the whole ecological system and what makes sense um if you're looking at an urban planting um that may be a case where you have have more ornamental trees being planted um not necessarily the city's planting them there but but property owners are planting them there right so it's it's it there's a mixture it's it's about the right tree in the right place okay um there's I think I remember reading somewhere that there's a developers are supposed to use at least 25% native plant material yes and so our in the during the development process um our ordinance requires the use of 25% of landscaping it could be trees it could be shrubs it could be the herbaceous plants so the grasses and the flowers um do need to be 25% native and pollinate supporting pollinators okay the key um I have fairly recently run into people just in random places uh one didn't know what buckthorne was well they probably had heard of buckthorne but they want said what is all this stuff that's grown in the back of my house and it was all Buckthorn so I was happy to see that there was going to be continuing effort to reach out to people because despite the fact that you think everybody in the world must know what Buckthorn and garlic mustard are they don't right yes um so make sure you leave that party yeah yes yes we we we've we've heard that before and so that is why that's why we continue to include education and Outreach and raising awareness in all of that in all that we do I was curious with the education piece just thinking about young people and I know there's like storm water and there's already like ins in school to even like teach kids yeah even like the differences in trees I feel like very few children know like even at type of tree let alone like oh what's the difference between an invasive one and a non-invasive one I don't know if there's space or if it would be under this but I would love to just plug for young people being empowered to like know and identify a lot of times I feel like I remember being a child and I was like we have to recycle every day because I was told at school like and that I was the one dragging it out so I feel like if we could get kids to get their parents to care as well that could be helpful any other questions I if I might have just a moment to get on my soap box and plug um the idea of you selling be root plants at the plant sale I bought 25 pollinator shrubs from this from henpen County um they were all about this tall and it was $37 and they're all look well one species hasn't leaped out yet but they're looking good um it was easy to transport easy to plant um maybe you can buy them from hanpen County I 25 didn't seem like that much till I got to planting um so slightly smaller bundles if you could customize a smaller bundle but I maybe there's some reason not to but it seemed really easy to me from my personal just planting perspective and that there's they're all alive still um I thought it was a good experience and cheap we are starting to offer uh be rot stock um so the tree sale the tree and shrub sale that is happening I think right now right um there are a portion of that are bar root trees and so and they're so they're being offered at a reduced rate Bas from the traditional potted tree that is normally sold at the tree zone but the isn't that part of the lottery where you don't know till later whether you get the trees well the the tree cell in general is based on a lottery yes yes which is I would I guess I'd hope that if there were more bare root options it would be cheap enough that and easy enough from the staff's perspective that you could let anybody give them so if I could just jump right quick the uh the tree sale does have a lottery phase to it and that is geared towards uh first-time buyers but then also people who are in those those High Urban heat island areas to give them priority Choice which I completely I mean I'm I that's a great idea I just it's as a consumer it's hard to think about am I what well okay maybe I didn't understand all of it I just saw Lottery and said I'm not going to win so I'm I didn't even try yes so that's just the lottery is just the first phase of the tree sale and that only goes for one week after that week is up then uh it opens up to the general public so anyone who's a minaka resident could go on to the website and buy trees and we still that sale is still live and so we still have trees left over so you could go on and and still buy a tree um so speaking to the the size of these trees we are offering bare rooted trees that we grow in what's called a gravel bed Nursery so that that just improves the the root system of these trees however they are 1 in in diameter and so these could still be the same size of the trees that we've traditionally offered so they could be up to eight or 10 feet in height so but your comment about purchasing smaller trees to help facilitate more planting is is uh has been brought up before so that actually was a question I was going to fell off and I remember the the Gravel Pit behind the high middle school that's that's the so that's working out those trees I mean that's that's been successful yes yeah it's been very successful and and we expanded it this year too yes yeah we bought nearly doubled it in size so it's going to hold 300 trees oh great okay okay any other questions okay so I'm gonna I'm going to go through some of these goals and strategies fairly fast um and I know it's a lot here but you this is just sort of your first taste of it you will be seeing all of this again and in in in written form so you'll be able to have it in front of you when you can react to it but uh so I broke this down into those four categories so those operations so this is really about following best practices in the establishment maintenance and management of the community Forest on public property so this we're just talking here about public property and Parks so um some of the key strategies that are coming out of this or have come out of the work we've been doing is develop and adhere to a three-year establishment and maintenance plan for all newly planted trees so think of every tree that gets planted in the park when you see the gator bag around it the watering bag that's all in our inventory and we are routinely tracking how much is getting watered when it's getting watered we have seasonal staff we watering it all and we need to do that for every Nutri plant we need to add to this you know this inventory of trees that get get watered and cared for um now of course we have trees that are kind of going off the inventory because they're maturing but we just need to make sure we're we're caring for everything that we plant we don't want to be planting and not and then not caring for it so assessing and maintaining areas of public parks and Facilities to determine pruning cycles and budget so um um this is something I've learned I'm I'm not in the forestry profession but pruning Cycles are really important to make sure we have trees uh that get pruned regularly which means they are stay healthy and they grow uh uh and and live longer so it's a really important piece of the operations that we do uh working to preserve mature trees uh on public property so think of those Majestic Oaks that we have we want to make sure we are um doing what we can to protect and I know you've probably seen what's happening at the marsh we have a tree that we are trying to he's valant trying to to save and I think he thinks it's going to work we just did some work on Mills Park saing the tree uh Mills Park you may have noticed a lot of turf was removed around the base of trees um and mulch was put down so that those are all efforts to help protect those trees um so analyze and advance and propos budgets for rightaway pruning um right now um I guess the industry standard is to prune trees along streets and rways once every 10 years I think we're in about a one every 15E cycle because we have so many trees um so we need to critically think um if we can reduce that um that that cycle time uh ensure our operations um specifications and best management practices are being used on All City projects so think about the trail projects we've been talking about any construction projects that happen in our Parks U making sure that our forestry staff and our forestry um principles and goals are being adhered to and then prepare the community forest or a community forestry based disaster Readiness response and Recovery plan which was also actually identified in the climate action and adaptation plan that the council just approved as well um so this is thinking about you know a severe storm that comes through um a tornado where we have a significant amount of tree loss how do we respond and recover from that so that's related to operations does anybody have any questions concerns thoughts anything missing what are the other four areas three areas so it's the city operations inventory and assessment planting preservation resilience and then public Outreach so I'm going there's a slide for each of the okay I'll I have something about Outreach so I'll wait okay so this is just operations okay hearing none I'll move on so assessment Technology Innovation so um here it's really about utilizing and investing in technology to support Community forestry inventorying work assessment and Innovation activities um so this uh one of the really important things we need to do is to keep updating our public property treat inventory um you know again we were you may think it's easy to go and let's go Mark every tree and Survey it and get the size and the species but it's it takes a lot of work to do that so it's something we're constantly um working on to update um but there's also some new technology to do this remote sensing drones and there's also a lot of big price digs with that too so we haven't cracked that not quite yet but um adapt research projects um once every 5 years in collaboration with the university um select a project that most aligns with Community Forest program needs and goals um so this is just continuing that research piece um and making sure we're we're at the Forefront of innovative research and best practice uh utilize it tree software to evaluate tree benefits across the city and so that one picture I showed you that had the some of the summed up some of the uh quantifiable benefits of a oak tree um that came from the it tree software so this is industry standard uh software that's used throughout the country and it's recognized as being a scientifically valid method of quantifying benefits of trees and so um we want to make sure that we're continuing to evaluate the benefits a lot of that comes down to communication and education and why and it helps us um help people understand why trees are really important uh create yearly wood utilization targets to maximize carbon storage benefits and I would say I would expand this to even just more uh being more sustainable so reducing uh you know uh greenhouse gas outputs from you know chipping of trees and and mulching and and what kind of goes into that but really it's about sustainability and reuse and the importance and benefits to the community and to mitigating clim change and being a more resilient community and then ensure forestry staff stay current with research and technology so making sure cannibal is going to the conferences and trainings he and his staff need to make sure that they're keeping a breast of Industry standards and science did you have a question yeah um can you elaborate a little more on the wood utilization targets for maximizing car is it what does that actually mean that's a good question so um think of so wood itself is a carbon what we call a carbon sink it it trees take in carbon dioxide and they fix carbon and they hold it and so there's a lot of carbon stored in that wood so what hap what you do with that wood uh matters in terms of uh emitting carbon dioxide back into the air so if you take a mulch or a tree and you burn it you're actually releasing carbon back into the atmosphere um and so the utilization you know right now we chip a lot of the material you've seen the brush piles I'm sure you've seen those um and a lot of that gets chipped a lot of it actually does get used turned into energy so it gets burned um so there are climate considerations related to that if we can find ways to actually keep the wood and use it and reuse it for you know building material and and other you know signposts or fencing that just makes that what that means is that we're actually keeping that source of carbon out of the atmosphere creating mulch doesn't release carbon that's a question well the Machinery it to do it yeah but the the wood the wood ship is there still there keeps the car but once if that's getting burned for energy then you're releasing that carbon back into the environment right once it decomposes into soil isn't is the carbon released I'm I'm not sure what were you saying so yeah some of the carbon does get released through decomposition but some of it also is incorporated uh into the soil and stored I'm mulching a lot so I want to make sure I'm not no the mulching the mulching is good mulching has a lot of benefits if you burn the mulch in a big wood pile of fire bonfire that would be a different situation so this is so again this is related to assessments uh inventory Technology Innovation so are there any questions conc concerns gaps anything missing okay two more uh this is related to planting preservation and resilience so this is our the replanting efforts tree species things like that so so this is about planting new trees to ensure a resilient and sustainable Community forest and preserve mature trees to protect their vital green infrastructure benefits and so this is um so there's a number of things here so focusing on expanding planting efforts in defined Urban heat island areas and so this is we talked about Urban heat island mitigation so planting to ensure that we're um helping to reduce heat island create a unified policy for selecting climate adapted not invasive trees to plant in defined zones so that's where we talked about the urban zones the natural areas the more traditional mod of maintained areas and so when you probably hear terms like assisted migration range expansion species expansion recognize our climate's changing our planting zones are changing um the this what this is saying is one of our next steps coming out of this plan is to create a policy around that this plan itself won't have that policy but we recognize an important need to have that policy and including things like planting lists um that we can make available to you know residents um or that you know we're using ourselves so that would that's that's what this all encompasses um plant to diversify the genus species age and size um in traditionally landscaped areas so think of trees that are planted in in these Moda maintained or or you know maintained areas of our Parks um they they're there because we plant them and we care for them they're not naturally growing there because we're mowing um you you can't have regeneration happening so we want to make sure we don't plant all the same species or all the same age class because if you get an emerald ashb coming through it will wipe everything out and you're left with nothing so you know having biodiversity is really important uh ensure that the number of trees being planted in the community forestry program is greater than the number of trees being removed over a rolling average um so this is identifying a goal of really trying to replant more than what we're actively removing doesn't mean we're we're replacing every tree lost in the community it's just that what we are involved in removing and and we know that we're taking out we want to try to be replacing and then some um and that's really to help create that more a stable uh canopy and then perform that it tree analysis once every five years so um yeah that shows up twice I think you pointed that out to me but it's it's appropriate in in that activity will be appropriate in in multiple Focus areas all right anything any questions here thoughts concerns okay one more perhaps so education Outreach assistance uh public engagement U lots of different terms there um so promote Community forestry programs and initiatives educate the public on forestry best practices for their own property and measure progress on a yearly basis so I'll point out this isn't necessarily Park related but it's important to have this in here I wanted you to see it because um you know you also obviously people use our park so we want to make sure we're including um education and Outreach as one of the items you looking at here tonight um provide clear guidance and resources on what trees to plant depending on habitat type so that gets into the spe species selection natives versus non-natives or climate adaptive species connect with residents on a neighborhood basis um in at least three to five neighborhoods that would be the goal at least once per year so this is just really getting out in the community getting our staff out in the community uh working with land owners who have uh trees on their own property and and maybe dealing with you know disease or species selection questions and trying to really connect with the community so what what sort of an example of what how would that work it be a a meeting or is this just randomly chatting with people who are out working in their yards well this would be a more uh uh um planned effort to uh work with the community maybe there's a community that is you know has has been really hit hard by emerald ashor and we want to focus on working with everybody to try to you know encourage replanting for what was lost I guess I'm I that's a great example but this would be a more planned effort not just chatting randomly with particular land owners but maybe having a neighbor neighborhood meeting maybe walking through a neighborhood and talking about trees and tree loss and and and what could be planted there okay I don't know if you have any specific examples that you can think about that I guess just one thing that we had been discussing before is how to better reach out to local businesses in promoting more uh canopy in those on their on their properties as well be good um so also promote Community forestry programs so they're accessible to more people using a variety of communication methods one thing we heard loud and clear in the survey work in our focus group is that while we think everybody knows what we do a lot of people don't know what we do and don't know what we have to offer um we have some Grant programs we have technical assistance so just finding ways to really uh communicate in uh with with with audiences that we maybe aren't reaching as well as we should be uh implementing a relief Grant funded private property tree removal and replacement program so um one thing I don't know if you've heard the city received over $300,000 from the DNR um through this program called the relief program at the uh the DMR State the state funding program not know it's Federal funding but it's through the state um anyway the purpose of it is to assist private property owners with uh EAB so uh and they have to actually meet an income eligibility requirement so this is really identified for more lower income uh or in there's it's income based uh need program so that's something that will we have funding through the next two years or three two three years so three years so that's a you know that's an assistant assistance program we haven't had in the past for private property owners to do removal on private property and it also requires replanting so if they lose five trees they have to plant at least five trees and we'll we'll assist with that but that's a pretty big program and so it'll be happening for the next three years at least um and so that we want to make sure that's incorporated into this plan and then prioritize and create a scope of work around private property site visits and assistance so as I mentioned we get a lot of calls of for you staff gets a lot of calls um and so we want to make sure we're properly planning for and managing the volume especially now with EAB um and so that's just we want to provide assistance to people we necessarily can't provide assistance to everybody so we want to make sure we're prioritizing where we're putting our time towards so so with that are there any questions on this um I had never thought about the fact that I should be pruning all my trees every 10 years and I'm worried about that um so some it maybe some City training on what the hell I some of the trees are big I don't want to be climbing up in there with a harness or is I would suggest don't do that there there is rental equipment as well okay um there contractors do do it too so is this something normal people do on their property is have a tree guy come in and tree person sorry come in and prune yeah yeah I think I mean there's you know contractors I know are going around neighor neighborhoods all the time and asking if you need tree trees pruned or examined or removed so but I what I hear you're saying is we could do more education and help the public if if presumably it helps I never I don't know whether it's a just a scam for them to be busy while they're driving by or is it something that needs really needs to be done and it's going to make a difference to my trees this is a we're going to be working neighborhood exactly we stopped by we just finished somewhere down the street yeah and we're here we've got time the truck's empty blah blah so you would like to hear more from the city about the benefits of approving yeah okay so that I can um understand whether it's really time for this tree to be pruned or not okay would would the city ever have an approved list of providers or well sure enough we already do we do we have we do have one though it's on the website wow um can you send us a link to that thank you Kelly will put that on the person we use is okay so not the person who just so related to this goal area are there any questions or gaps or things that you I think I'm really missing or shouldn't be here all right I know it's a lot to digest okay so that's the heart of the goals and strategies so just in terms of Next Step so I said you this will be the last time you see this um so we're Gathering some input from you which which we've done tonight and then we are that your input as long as as well as the input we've gotten from internal staff and public engagement piece that will that is being used to develop a draft plan so that draft plan um our goal is to make that available to the public anyone who wants to look at it provide feedback on it on the metat Tonka matters website I I should have mentioned there is a minetonka matters website um and the goal is to have that probably in July July we would make that available for feedback and then it would come back to you as a draft plan probably in September now that's the joint meeting right that is okay I have to think about August or September yeah um but it will come back to you and so the the goal is to get some public feedback and um before it comes to you so you can sort of hear some of the feedback we've received and then have another opportunity for the park board to review and comment and then at that time as well if if if it's ready then um the park board would make a recommendation to send it to the council for formal adoption so we envision that happening probably October November is there a way I'm going talk of matters where where you can see things like this that will be coming up that are not they're not a survey yet but it's coming I I find Minot tanka matters sort of opaque at times okay so so there is if you go to minaka matters there is a community Forest management plan page um if you go there it gives sort of an update of where we're at um it does have the survey from the past that we used in the past and that's where we would put the document and we'd create a new feedback tool to get feedback so I saw some surveys that it says this is closed and so you can't even see what the question questions were right and that was the survey that we used as far as as part of our public engagement effort so that's that part is done so when we put it on the minaka matters page we would have a new way to get feedback on the actual plan itself okay so is there a way maybe it's not of our business but can we see what survey information you got last time oh well yes that will be actually in the plan okay so there will be a public engagement uh summary of um and if you'd like to see all of the responses I'm happy to put those in there as well maybe but the summary will be in the um in the in the draft plan okay there is a there will be a chapter on on public engagement um well I I guess my my comment about minetonka matters stands that it would be helpful to know I think what things are coming people must know departments must know in advance that they're going to have a survey or are going to be gathering input and so you're saying there should be something on there saying a survey will upcoming upcoming and then a way to subscribe I'm thinking about all of the people who stood in that room and screamed at us because they didn't get to have feedback on the dog issue of course they saw sign saying we're going to do stuff in the park tell us about how you feel about the park not realizing that that also meant there might be issues with dogs um so there's some of that's lack of imagination but just I don't know I'm trying to make it easier so make sure that we get the feedback from everybody who actually has an opinion and I yeah and I hear you so when we have the plan ready and it's on the metaton maners website and we have a mechanism for people to actually give us feedback we would advertise it through our minaka natural resources ebl probably through a volunteer program because we met a lot of people interested in from the volunteer program we have contact information from all of the people who took the survey so we would include those people as a we can we can include those people as a distribution list and and like anything we would work with our communication staff so if it goes on social media um this probably wouldn't be in a minetonka memo type thing um just because that's a different type of tool for communication um um but we they are we work closely with our communication staff and how we get the word out on things like this yeah some they do a ton of tactics but somehow it's still not challenge them on what other options do we have for outreach because there's still a lot of feedback that people aren't seeing and you know I think I get five copies of every survey because I sign up for everything but I'm overly involved compared to the the average citizen perennial challenge is that we can communicate and communicate and then we'll still hear people who said I don't I didn't see that and I I completely am sympathetic to the idea of how do you tell 50 50,000 people that something's happening that they should listen to right well if if it matters in our focus group where we talked a lot about communication um some people were said we want to see it in the memo we want to see more in the memo that's where we get our information and then other people said well I don't read the memo I want to get an a direct email or you know so one size certainly does not fit all no it's the challenge of our Communications in general but I hear what you're saying so I and I I'm not saying you I'm not trying to shade what you're doing I'm think everybody's working really hard and really effectively I just trying to think of more ways to right to get it out there Leslie um you guys were saying that this is a management plan so it's like at a 5,000 level how I don't remember if you said how long is this management plan for oh good question um so it would be probably about 20 or plan so similar to the natural resource master plan so those long range planning documents um would be usually about 20 years as the planning Horizon okay I mean it's it's really thorough you got tons of goals my question is just an overarching question is Staffing wise how do you accomplish all of this that's a good question um and and we do a lot now um and so this I think would be kind of similar to the Natural Resources master plan I if you remember me saying this this one this plan is really about prioritizing where we're putting our efforts and making sure what we're doing we're doing the right things um and not that we're doing the wrong things but we want to make sure that this is really sort of is guiding us in our efforts and so we will never be able to do it all and and so that's the reality of plans like this it it will identify we should you know in a perfect world we would be doing X Y and Z but we know we can't do all of that so we want to do the best we can and we want to prioritize that's the really important thing is we want to be able to prioritize what we're doing and so this will help us in our day-to-day operations prioritize what we're doing so this plan will sort of you'll take this and then you'll kind of turn it into like a one year five year 10 year yes and take yeah all right so that is all I had so again the goal tonight was to introduce this to you gather some some general feedback you will be seeing uh a full and formal draft plan uh for comment and uh additional feedback we'll also make it available to the public especially those who've already given us input um and then eventually then um we would be looking for recommendation to the city council for adoption did you guys develop the V your vision statement yeah I mean it was sort of anmin of what we were hearing from staff and from the public yeah and if you have concerns or if you think that doesn't sound right or you're way off the mark feel free to say so all right thank you have thank you okay um reports from staff sounds good thank you chair uh information items we just have the one and that's actually back to it looks like we planted a bunch of trees over at is that correct is that number right yes okay so um so just wanted to kind of highlight a a unique event that took it took place so it's not coming up it actually took place on May 16th um and if you recall back last year you approved the Ford Park um W was a restoration in maintenance plan it was really focused on a woodland restoration so um if you're familiar with for Park it's a relatively small park it has a parking or um a playground but then it has some trails and really mostly a ravine um with a lot of nice Oaks a lot of Buckthorn so it's fairly degraded but it certainly had a a really nice canopy of Oaks that was worth um it's a really nice other than the road noise other than road noise it's right on yes it's right on 169 or no 4949 you're right um so uh so the city um was working in partnership with henip and County and if you're familiar the county uh Commissioners set a a million is it a million million tree goal so planting a million trees so they're looking for places to plant trees um we had this particular project coming up and so our forestry staff worked closely with the County forestry staff in um developing this planting event and so if you went we're at the park you'll know that there was a lot of Forestry mowing that happened to remove all that Buckthorn to prepare for a significant number of seedlings that got planted on May 16th so this was a joint effort between the city staff County forestry staff um the county has something called a productive day crew which is a Workforce training crew um so they had that crew out there um we had our um I can remember institutional Community work crew um out there as well uh including our staff and seasonals and then we had Cargill came with about what 30 30 to 40 roughly 30 yeah 30 uh volunteers and it was a a major event so we planted 10,000 seedlings all provided by the county um and they also provided the pizza um and and so it's just there are some pictures here it is um and it was just a sort of a massive effort and so kudos to our forestry staff um especially Josh oberm who's one of our forestry technicians he organized the whole thing and it really went off without a hitch um and it was a yeah it was very successful so that I just wanted to highlight that um it because it did come out of a plan that you approved uh last year and that's it what's the survival rate good question what's the survival rate Ball Park uh the reason we planted so many uh seedlings is because we are in fact anticipating about 50% uh mortality because mostly of the deer population but also rodent um as well so it was forestry mode and then was there any other maintenance to deal with the buor yes yeah so there was followup Mowing and I think there was some forestry spraying and you probably know more than I do but yes there was it was all prepped and there was definitely followup for the and and seating seating took place too so the buck replacement seating that we've been doing more of we we also did for Park apparently that's really helping cut down on the yeah the henen County's productive day crew um they were in Ford Park for months on then over over the winter time and they were cutting and uh then we were coming back and stumpt treating the buck Thorn stumps as well so there's at this point in time there's minimal resprouting of Buckthorn which is kind of nerve-wracking because we know it will it will come at some point in time it will come yeah well there's berries from the neighbor's yard getting pooped out sure if you haven't been to the park it's really pretty it's kind of deceptive from the street it this looks like a playground yeah and then the surrounding neighbors were involved as well so it was a multifaceted effort which is really exciting to see it would be cool to see some program about that over to get some pictures over time about how all of the Sprouts are coming up or not well that's that's a good point so actually we are doing a time-elapsed photography of it oh cool um and then our communication staff I think they did do a video um which hasn't come out yet so I think we just got asked to review it so that will be coming out so there theat first or stream Netflix on your local [Laughter] Netflix okay we'll move on thank you Leslie uh upcoming meeting schedule so we do not have a meeting in July due to the holiday uh so our next scheduled meeting is August and then a reminder our September meeting is that joint meeting in tour with the city council so that's an early start we'll start at 5:30 typically or last year I believe we met probably for about an hour hour and a half here and then went on a tour uh toured three or four different sites so if you have any suggestions for sites that you would like to see uh in that joint tour with the uh city council definitely let us know uh other activities coming up this Saturday Shady Oak Beach opens um yeah next Friday we've got date night at the commons Summerfest is just a little bit over two and a half a little bit over two weeks away uh Saturday the 22nd music in the park starts the 25th and then next Tuesday we'll actually be the first day of the farmers market unfortunately uh we were anticipating strong strong storms that were supposed to hit at like 3:00 yesterday and they they were uh a little bit further back but we had to cancel yesterday so the first day of the market will be next Tuesday that is it chair okay what sort of criteria do you use for what the joint session should go look at good question I think uh you know recommendations first of all from Park Board and city council usually we look at projects that uh we're either thinking about doing projects that are recently completed um you know maybe there's an update to certain amenities within a park uh maybe it's just a followup on on a project that had been done a few years ago so I think we're we're open to suggestions you know I'll check in with Darren to see if there's any updates to Parks I we B you know I we may not just go to a neighborhood park that got a tennis court resurface we may you know we probably look for something maybe a little bigger than that but significant restoration project significant yeah definitely a lot been has been going on in purgatory and Hillway and there's always going to look at where the skate park might go probably will go right those are good suggestions I think you know timing wise it got dark at about 8:15 8:30 last year so I think we have time for probably about three sites so yeah I think those are good recommendations but we have I'll think yeah and and we don't have to finalize this until you know mid August probably so if if at the August meeting you can think of anything we definitely that would be a good time too do you think that the um patory plan I'll come back to the city council before our joint meeting I do okay yes y okay any Park Board member reports what it I don't know that I've ever heard one or remember what what are well Corey talked about the markets but what else Park M reports should we be thinking of something to present uh not necessarily I think if you're ever out in the Parks and see things that you want to report back to us or if you maybe you're at a in a different city and see something unique in a in a park at a different city and and want to tell us or we at an event or enjoyed a City Event we're always willing to take all the wonderful compliments from our event you know anything like that I think or so no not necessarily there isn't anything prescriptive okay well I'll make one yes oh no you go first well just just so we get a report um uh my wife was on on the Lake minaka Trail and there was a tree that fell down on Sunday crossing right before 101 it was or it was hanging over the precipitously hanging over the trail and uh we called 9 911 because the city was closed and I don't know if it was your team or H or three rers but within an hour it was gone so that was really you know encouraging that would that was you you guys probably Daren no unfortunately no that was three that one was Three Rivers was Three Rivers take their credit um I saw a cool example in another city um if we we have more um demand than supply of Community Gardens um I was in where was I Maplewood and they had taken old tennis courts that maybe the community you know neighborhood wasn't using anymore they didn't want to resurface and they built little garden beds throughout the whole um throughout the tennis courts like 20 of them raised bed yeah raised beds this high and it's you know everyone Rents It for 20 bucks or something um but thought that was kind of a cool use of tord space then the animals can't get in right it's protected yeah and you know I thought it was cool if there was a space hockey rinks if we don't use them yes another idea the deer can jump over the hockey rink boards probably but it would keep the rabbits out very cool idea thank you all right we are at that time do I hear a motion to adjourn I would make a motion to adjourn I got a second oh second all in favor [Music]