##VIDEO ID:h8CoK8ZDYec## e e e e e e e e e e e already good afternoon we'll call to order the tree advisory Commission meeting on Thursday September 5th 2024 and we'll begin with roll call so welcome and for our guests and everyone Joel city engineer leof Greg deerson commissioner Paul Leland commissioner Joey shugal Park and Recreation director Jeff huffin Public Works superintendent Donita Trish Park and wreck Administrative Assistant we've got one guest Jordy V will be up at the mic in a little bit hopefully I seek approval of the agenda for our September 5th meeting I move that it be approved I'll second Motion in second all in favor say I I the agenda is approved uh then seeking approval of minutes from the May 2nd 2024 meeting I'll make a motion to approve and I'll second it Motion in a second to approve those minutes all in favor say I I I uh any post say same but motion passes so we'll get into our old business item number five City reimbursement programs and budget update Joe all right thank you Mr chair and commission members um in short uh we've used up all the funds that had were budgeted for 24 um as part of the reimbursement program and uh whatnot so our leftover monies is none um all the funds are used um yeah the bulk of that went to EAB reimbursement for removals so um it's kind of where we're at with the funds at this moment we have a sort of a clerical question on that where do those requests just stay in the queue until no they so anything that comes or if people are calling we just let them know we don't have any funds available but um the funds for 2025 have to occur in 25 so any removals that happen now we just funds will be unavailable for those removals now so Y is that uh so when people call and ask about removing you give that advice and say maybe wait until if you can wait yeah if you are wanting to apply for the reimbursement otherwise a lot of people are just doing it regardless so yeah if if we were to allow reimbursements in the past calendar year I think our funds would be gone the first week in January so that's any questions [Applause] uh 52 is the Pu update but derck Nelson's not here so 5.3 Park and wreck department update John thank you Mr chair Commissioners uh so um to stick on the EAB topic for a little bit our staff internally has removed a number of trees uh 23 additional EAB trees in uh throughout different Parks throughout our system these are um some of the smaller uh infected trees that are were already showing um signs of of uh that the infestation has been progressing in those so uh we removed 23 of those um we are planting 43 new trees throughout our Park system yet this fall uh in anticipation well two twofold in to replace some of the removals already but also in anticipation of future removals so picking those locations so the locations that that at the moment that we have chose for those 43 trees Highland Park's going to get five North Park is going to get four Lincoln Park eight Washington Park 10 if you've been around Washington Park there's going to be some significant removals in the future with uh eabb there uh Nells Park 10 we've already replaced uh over over 20 trees in that Park as well and there's a a number to go and then South Park will also be getting six so that's kind of those uh 43 will be kind of Diversified throughout the system that's something that uh the city has looked at for your budget now in 2025 yes so so uh um our normal tree replacement I guess over the last few years has been about $5,000 so you know between $5 and $8,000 of what we look to for tree Replacements um we're recommending and in the preliminary budget at the moment is 30,000 for replacement so um we know that won't um be enough to do all in one year to replace what we're going to lose but uh looking at more of a three to five year plan there any other questions for Joey thank you and we'll I think you'll have more on the work session update but uh we'll get to that one 5.4 is Public Works update Jeff yes thank you Mr chair and Commissioners um as of now we've cut uh 75 stumps out already for the EAB EAB trees and we're going to start our fall stump counting up in the next couple weeks we're going to start up cutting them again so that'll be starting up and we got a long list of trees of stumps to do so we'll be busy with that um cemetery is still working on removing some more trees up there that are eabs and it's about all I got otherwise I just wanted to commend my guys to on last week's storm we had quite a few trees went down and they took quick action and got the streets cleaned up and trees removed so I want to commend them on that too so yeah that was uh there were quite a few a Baro or two here and there that quite a bit of damage thank you Jeff 5 five is private tree services Tony's not here today and then 5.6 uh EAB update Joe did you have anything more um Mr chair commission members nothing new at this time but we are awaiting the our grant release applications and things of that nature but nothing to date did they cycle through another round yep so yeah we unfortunately weren't recipient this last go around so we will certainly um try again with this next round anticipated over the fall winter um when they release that Grant opportunity so any Rumblings or information from them that they might increase the amounts we haven't heard anything yet so to be determined on that so more to come then 5. 7 uh Buckthorn update Jord VES here tell us about the you of Minnesota all right yes Jordy Vite um me one second here I just have my regular fall update for you and just as a reminder we did collect data a little differently this year um so that's where you kind of see some information for every month um but there isn't anything too exciting so I guess I'll just jump in um this semester or this year we did observations starting in May and we were keeping track of the flowers that were blooming in each of the six different plots throughout the summer and then also estimating about how much space that they were taking up um May it was just garlic mustard probably not a big surprise with that um it was just in three of the plots plots one two and five um if you are curious this was at the start of the year what some of the plots looked like um so there's not a whole lot of growth in them yet um compared to the end of the year uh I think the rain this year really helped the various plants grow in there because it's really hard to get in there and see much of anything now um June Dame's rocket so the first two of the year was invasives um that had been found in all of the plots um that was very dense it was actually probably more dense than the garlic mustard was so I put in a couple pictures this is in the plot here so back here is where the plots are um and then if you did not get the chance to see it or were curious this is a couple pictures of it all the way down that section of the bike trail um I think I got one more in there um so there was quite a bit of that just in that whole whole area this year um July there was actually no flowering plants so we had no observations to cement August we got the White Snake root um that was found in almost all the plots except for plot number five and we had one of these annual fan and plot Number Four so a little bit more variety um and for comparison this is the amount of vegetative growth there is in there later in the year with it um that was another one from August and then September which I just completed here um observations were actually at the end of August um but they were for September again it's just the White Snake route in there um quite a bit more than there was in August so that was still in full full Bloom um couple other things as far as if you're wondering about the Buckthorn cuz the Buckthorn that we had in the test plots is still there it is um kind of hard to find at this point so I did put some examples in there um none of it has growing very big it's mostly smaller smaller plants at this point um in this year towards the end it has definitely gotten shaded out you have to move a lot of vegetation to dig down there in find them out so this was in plot one which we had the native seed mix in um you can just see some of the Buckthorn plants that are there um plot two you can see there is some Buckthorn in here as well this was one of the plots that was just left as is there was no native seed mix put down there um here a couple more examples yeah plot Number Three again this is just kind of example you can kind of see the flags are hard to see with the all the vegetation but that's the outline of our plots in there um so you can kind of get an example of that um plot Number Four again there was some Buckthorn found in there as well plot Number Five there was very little um there was a couple really small Buckthorn in that plot again this is one of the plots that was seated with it um in plot Number Six is the last example I have and there was some little bit taller Buckthorn in this one which does this plot in general has not had as much ve vegetative cover for some reason as the other ones um so with that that is actually the end of their data collection for this project um I have not heard anything yet but I'm assuming at some point it will be site cleanup either later this fall or next spring um that might probably be more dependent on what the weather does the rest of this year um if that happens this fall or not but getting the um the buck thorn out the flags all that stuff cleaned up out of there guess any questions or are you happy with what's happening it's been interesting to see yeah I would have liked to have seen um some more of the Native stuff come up but it's it's been a few of the years we had really dry weather in there um and then I've had a couple trees not overly Big Trees but trees not necessarily in those plots but around there that have kind of come down or branches have broken off just with age and that stuff so it's kind of changed the Dynamics of it with the lighting and that stuff um they're still working on the data but looking at the sites across the state it is very clear that if they find the right seed mix it is kind of dampering the Buckthorn from coming in um but it also has been kind of very clear that you take the buck Thord out and if you don't have something that you can get in there soon enough the garlic mustard the Dam's rocket will kind of come come through as well so I think it's going to come down to um it does work but to what extent is going to depend on the Dynamics of the site especially the amount of sunlight um and what kind of other plants you can put in there cuz if you can put plants in there that will germinate and grow faster than what the Buckthorn does it doesn't seem to completely stop the Buckthorn but it's slowing the growth down which over time could possibly you know prevent it keep it smaller plants or stop growth that type of thing so but I'm sure they'll be more they'll release more once they get all their data was the snake root in the seed mix or is that no can you tell us about that no snake root was not in the mix um it's just been I found some over the last few years some plants but nothing like this year um but even though it is kind of the Native it is fairly aggressive in spreading so that's probably why it just hit that point where it had the the space and the time to really grow a lot more this year so but it is not at least at this time is not on any of the states invasive species list or nothing so any other questions otherwise thank you Jordy thank you welcome thank you from buckthorne to to the big tree contest 5.8 there were 10 entries and the winner is Pat donah Uh tree measuring 167.5 in press release will be sent and then letters sent to All participants or people who had trees that were measured so we did that last Tuesday Tom assisted actually I assisted we should say Paul and Tom measured and I watched so I I WR think you helped a lot um but I was uh we had a couple on um most were in private yards but one was in the uh Brown County Fairgrounds MH that somebody had noted and one in a park here and there and I believe the the winning tree was a hybrid Elm that was uh I had talked with a lady years before and she moved it in from the farm where she grew up when she moved to newm and and had it planted in her when she was young in in the yard yeah so it was a hybrid Elm that was a volunteer so it's not a it's not a known variety that's propagated in Nursery it's uh is just uh growing in her yard and we tried with most of the ones that we measured we tried to identify and most of them were hybridized there were a couple American Elms and there was one that was pretty big that was dying that was in the process of dying I'm not sure if it was a hybrid or not but uh anyway Dutch elm disease is still taking out Elm trees so it still is really I think there's a few in flandro that are their bark is just flaking off in that classic way oh yeah yeah so it's there's not as many Elms to die that's the that's the reason you don't see it as much but um and we chose that because that's uh when the Dutch elm disease went through and people largely replanted green ashes so now we're seeing the ash so we're trying to plant more than one species yeah recommendation I I go on walk try about three times a week anyway I go about two miles and I noticed there was on that one route I had which is not necessarily representative but there was like 26 stumps I spotted in the against the parking and there were about 27 standing ash trees that hadn't been taken down but will be um we're right in the thick of it right now I believe there's a lot of Ash dying and a lot have come down already so Jeff probably sees little stumps that's what he sees when he drives it's probably little stumps you you probably see stumps everywhere you go is what I suspect yeah and from uh from one end of town to the other we're really seeing that now that it's in the cemetery that was kind of the the north hold out I think so every Park uh to that end or related to that we had discussed the Broadway that came up the ash trees on Broadway can you speak to that for us joy maybe uh Mr stadim would have a uh Mr chair and commission members so city has been in Communications with the State Department of Transportation concerning Broadway trees along Broadway are State's resp responsibility being at State Highway um the state has come has sent uh Foresters through town a couple times doing assessment um last time they were through town um it sounded like they were planning to at least take care of the median trees sometime this fall um The Hope is they could get a crew from the metro area to come down and take care of everything but um depends on funds and resources but their goal at least shortterm goal is at least get to Med taken care of and then um as time permits to get the remaining Boulevard trees but um it's on their list but them too like everyone else are dealing with it all over the state so the Local District just doesn't have the staff or Personnel to take care of it so they're relying on the Metro Crews and they're busy so it's either that or they need to allocate funds for uh tree company come in and take care of it so okay and those stumps are there too yeah they would you know yeah clear and Grub everything so do they have any guidelines or information on whether they would replant or an intention to replant median yeah at this time they're not um going to be replanting anything but there's always time for future discussions on that and um as time permits but as of right now they won't they'll come in and take everything but they won't be replanting following the removals at this time yeah and those medians are are the cities then to Mo and we're responsible for all maintenance yep yeah any other questions around that otherwise we'll we'll jump to that new business item uh 61 the City Council budget work session update Joy thank you um Mr chair commissioners uh so on August 20th the city council did hold a a work session uh and there were a couple items on the session but one of the items was uh related to EAB and the 2025 budget and um really that that was um that session or that item was on the agenda for to get um City council's outlook on what they'd like to see for EAB um in the in the near future you know we we know we've been very successful with the first two rounds of grant funding we were the First Community in the state for the for the that funding uh we know it's all around the state now so it's even more competitive so we will continue to apply but um potentially you know with the competition there's only so much that resources out there so uh the discussion did start with uh $100,000 in the 2025 budget for uh the reimbursement program now the details weren't discussed on how that would shake out that would be something if that stays in the 2025 budget that would come to this Commission on how that would look whether it be up to a certain dollar amount reimbursable which would be more substantial than our current reimbursement program um so um that discussion um and thank you for attending we did have a couple Commissioners there so Greg I don't know if you wanted to talk about your what you heard throughout that discussion um there was a there was the the recognition I I would say of the the depth and the severity of the ashbo across City public and private so but the maybe the 100,000 in 20125 might be too late we've got quite that quite a list of people that have either had their trees gone for 3 or 4 years mine mine have been long gone and people that have tackled him this year that would have liked to seen that earlier action so it would also probably more important to uh to plant it into future trees so maybe that's the angle that we take is to try to reforest as much as we can right yes so as a um advisory commission you know as that item comes through there there will be an opportunity for uh this commission to discuss what that looks like uh really that that could come as soon as our next meeting in November and then chair uh Tom Romain and I discussed the the push or the request uh is there a city Forester on the in the plans or in the works again for the city or how do you how do you manage this because we're in the in the depth of it right now so is that on the city's uh City's plans there there have been really no um discussions on that you know though the process right now is it you know it's kind of a a a group effort between departments engineering's um very much involves Park and wreck with the park system and and the street department uh so uh resources from all three of those departments coming together for um you know our Urban forest and and treatment and um inventory and everything that goes into it and that's an added I mean that's that has been an added layer for all those departments so the other one that the other item that we discussed that following that was and it came up for the council is if somebody's got a diseased tree in their yard what's the timeline for it and ultimately when is it a suggestion when is it an incentive and then who who has to uh direct that removal so I think that's something we need to stay in front of too right and and Mr stadheims office does a lot of that they just unless invited on private property they're not you know you they have some yeah we haven't been granted that permissions yet to be entering private property and telling people you need to take your private tree down um Boulevard trees are different issue um so we have staff in the office that kind of on a caseby casee complaint basis will'll go out and inspect the tree and if it's deemed hazardous then notification letters get sent out to the property owners and things of that nature but as far as private trees as of right now it's you know a private property private issue um until we're directed otherwise and granted that Authority by Council will remain that as for the time being but they'll the ashes that exist are going to none of them are probably going to escape So eventually that's going to be something to look out for unless somebody's treating them you're probably right one way or another somebody's got to do something with them so okay um that budget process is November right so Mr chair Commissioners the final budget will not be approved in November however a recommendation may be coming to this Commission in November that's our last meeting of the year so I would anticipate us having at least a framework of potentially what that could look like and then ultimately city council gets to decide on if that's going to go through or not and the just the number of trees that were in that list upwards of 160 that do we have a number on how many have actually been taken out do we do we tally them in any way other than voluntarily reporting it we have the reimbursement list but um the ones that don't come to our office for a reimbursement we we have no way to track those so and the ones in the boulevard generally we'll have a permit or something to track but private yards we don't necessarily have that ability to track that for what's been taken out we did have an estimate of the number of asteres in town public and private and we're not we're certainly not seeing all of the numbers of those trees come through no not yeah so many people are are just taking care of it taking it out without the reimbursement right and I think uh the discussion at that work session also was this this this isn't a a one-time one-ear process this is this is going to take a number of years to to get through um you know we're seeing a peak but I think we're we're years out of um being done with this issue especially the replanting side I think that's going to take a while any other questions about the that work session there were certainly um again we certainly acknowledged and they realized how many trees especially Parks had lost and boulevards had lost because it's noticeable any other new business all right thank you for your uh reports and time today our date of our next meeting November 7th here city council chambers at 4M please email any agenda items a week early with no further business we are adjourned