Bob pink do you want to introduce yourself uh am I off meute yeah okay excellent uh John um I'm here as a John Q citizen I live in Frey Haven uh I share um what I believe is a broader concern about uh climate resiliency on the municipal level uh but I'm here unofficially because I'm just exploring this uh through my work as a Committee Member on the Marine Resources Commission so and I met U John at the rising seas and Coastal impacts event and that followed me here to the Westport resilience committee and I love the model of it so I'm just going to be an observer and uh thanks for the opportunity toh kind of watch what you're all doing well uh thanks Bob very much for uh attending we're glad you're here yeah well I may reach back out because I do believe that you know Community by Community is important but you know this is a regional issue and you know we get uh individual communities to work together we have more strength so that's great uh thanks for joining us um and if um if people ask questions as you uh as as we go along I hit the raiseed hand and I will try and keep my eye out so uh we have circulated uh an agenda Amy thank you for that uh the first item is uh uh minutes I I read through them and uh found one typo which I sent to Amy uh but I do want to because the last meeting was really complicated there a lot of votes a lot of discussion and uh so I want to do a couple of thank yous one I want to thank everyone at the meeting because there were a lot of complicated votes there was a lot of discussion the the discussion was uh really uh uh civilized everyone was very respectful of everyone else's points of view and and so I want to thank everyone you know that meeting could have gone on for four days and instead it went on for about an hour and a half and I want to thank everyone for uh that constructive meeting and Amy uh are we recording by the way Amy yes we are okay uh and so we record so that Amy can do the minutes uh Amy reduced all of that meeting into those minutes and it it was from all those votes we took that were captured in the minutes uh and the planning board that uh uh Michael and I uh were able to send a report to the select board about uh recommendations for E speech that was kind of the the point of everything it and I hope you all found uh that that was an accurate reflection um of the the deliberations of that meeting we had a couple of months ago but Amy thank you so much for uh capturing uh a really complex uh meeting uh if people uh have found any errors or omissions uh please uh let us know now otherwise I'd appreciate a motion to approve the minutes I move to approve the minutes thanks Phil is there a second second thanks Mike seconded by Mike yagman any discussion all in favor say I opposed I okay thanks the minutes are uh approved uh Michael do you want to give a quick report um think we can pass over to Michael yogman okay right let's pass that over uh What uh what we're going to do tonight is have uh we have had a presentation of you know our idea is to give a uh report to the select board and uh to to give a report to the people of Westport uh probably uh report to the people before we report uh to the select board so we can get some feedback and before doing that we want to give kind of a first draft of each committee's uh thinking uh we have done uh Mike Sullivan who can't be with us tonight uh the water subcommittee first draft I did a first draft of a preface tonight we are going to get the first draft reports from health I'm going to take this out of order because Mikey ogan's got to leave and uh Agriculture and uh Joseph engelby has sent out uh that report so you've all had an opportunity to look at it and then at our uh July meeting uh Bob dalers uh who chairs the infrastructure committee uh says that he he will be ready with the first draft of uh infrastructure and Public Safety and Wendy Nicholas who chairs the historic structure says that she might be ready with that chapter if she is and we present those at the July meeting then we will have looked at the first draft of all of the uh substance reports and then we can uh dump them in Jeff's uh lap of public engagement and say Jeff we have five chapters that are all written differently organized differently different kind of tone any ideas with you and the depart and the depart planning department staff how we start to make this look like it's a report from one uh committee that uses is the same statistics the same organizational framework the same tone all of that kind of stuff so when citizens read it it looks like it comes from one one committee and so but but the big work will have been done that is a complete first draft uh and we can start to think about how how this looks like a one committee report that we might uh take for feedback to to the community so that's the way I'm thinking about how this progresses step by step uh now I I don't want to eat into the time of the health um committee so Phil are you gonna walk us through the slides uh yes um and just to say hopefully this will work this I think this is my first time of Ever presenting slides remotely but I've had some advice from Amy so um we'll give it a shot okay you're on okay all right um yeah so uh here's the front page um so not yet we gotta make sure everyone can see it okay is it up not yet well did you hit the present now um button at the bottom of your screen I did I think I did so that was the that was the so let me uh let me exit from here okay so and go back to here no um so you it should it should ask you um select a tab to share after you hit share screen and then just click on the PowerPoint presentation tab that's what I thought I did um okay and now I'm talking to you but I don't see the icon for um the Google oh there you are okay all right uh oh do you want Oh soone was asking me questions invitation okay what do I want to share select a tab to share is that what I should be doing yeah it your your PowerPoint presentation should okay so let me start back here okay so how do I so what I did is I went to you know my task bar and I hit the the PowerPoint presentation link and my PowerPoint came up but it's not showing to you so does it have to do with let me see if I can find your PowerPoint presentation and then I can just do it for my computer okay all right let's see do you guys all see the presentation yes okay okay so um okay so um so go to the next slide okay um okay so yep um just tell me what when to switch slides and I'll do that for you okay or should I do it I mean but yeah go to the next slide Amy please are we on slide three now uh mine hasn't changed it still has the cover you know the cover page really yeah is everyone else seeing slide three not yet really okay did you download it and try to it's open in the brow it looks like it's in the browser and not in the PowerPoint there you go better yeah but now you're not yeah but now you are on page three I think you're on page three but not in presentation mode so we need to go back at least one page okay perfect let me just go back here you go okay so so the report starts off um by focusing on what the scope of the health risk analysis is because health risks are going to or adverse Health impacts are going to cross almost every type of uh potential uh you know climate uh situation and so the Health Report really focuses on the physical and mental health aspects of extreme heat events and I've essentially deferred what I've characterized as collateral how health impacts to other to the other um reports um so the water Committee in terms of storm surge and flood and infrastructure um and agriculture I think we'll probably all talk about um the disruption that will result within their um topic areas to um individuals um and so um that's how the this report is focused and second part of the introduction has to do with identifying the data sources and it was actually the biggest change between my my original draft report because it really reflects the um conclusions of the state's 2022 climate assessment report and 2023 resilient um Massachusetts plan um which I recommend I mean both both are very big but for reasons that I'll go into in a minute I recommend if um you know for if you haven't looked at them um they are definitely worth taking a look at and then I also Incorporated a lot of or you know what was available of demographic data and Health Data from uh the Health and Human Services um Department next slide please so the focus is um on Rising heat projections it kind of shows where we were 10 years ago and U what's projected Statewide of an average temperature of 94 going up to 97 by 2070 but what is important about the state plans is that they regionalize um temperature as well as um precipitation impacts and so um each so we are in the cape islands and south coast region and so the data that I'm going to show um is uh reflects the analysis that was done that um you know brings down impacts to not a Westport level but at least a a Coastal Community level and um and so that's the link to uh uh you know to the overview of um the top impacts in our region and I linked the other one there to the dashboard which uh uh in which you can call up you know Westport and it will um show you on the dashboard um through the next each of the next uh four decades um what the increase in temperature and and precipitation will be um in the area so next slide so here what it looks like uh uh along what our Max maximum temperature the days above 90 the days above 95 and the days above 100 over the next four decades um and uh you can draw your own conclusions from it you know my own my own conclusion was you know that U there's going to be some fairly incremental um increases um you know over the next into the next day deade and then things you know start to you know start to increase but still if you looked at the days above 95 those numbers are probably smaller than I anticipated when I started looking into this next slide so um the second uh piece of the work was looking at a piece that I think all of us have done which is how do you do a risk priority assessment so what are the most significant things um and uh and list them in some in some time of order um that you want to address and um how the state did this is um they looked at the level of consequence um you know there how big an impact is going to have the disproportionality of the impact particularly focusing on environmental justice areas is and then what they call the adaptation gap which is well looking at the current situation how far do we have to go in order to um achieve the resilience level that we would that we want to achieve in order to protect the interests um you know that uh are being threatened by the risk and so when I initially wrote the report I um assumed it was going to be the physical impact um on on uh on us you know that extreme heat was going to affect us and will affect us but that that was going to be the primary um impact and that was at the Statewide level um the conclusion that extreme heat and its impact on health and cognitive um conditions was going to be the top priority but for our region its Vector born diseases and bacterial um contamination and one of the reason reasons for that and this you know um relates back to the regionalization impact uh analysis is that the coastline is 20 to as I say 25 to 30% fewer extreme heat dates uh heat events than Inland areas and part of that is because um there is the insignificant heat island effect which I think most people are familiar with but as it sounds you know where you have you know lots of roadways lots of buildings a lack of of um shade from trees um and so in in cities um like that you're going to have um very high levels of heat and when you put that into the average you're going to get you know uh Statewide numbers that are going to show that that should be the highest uh priority and we also um benefit from the fact and I think this is reflected in detail in Joseph's report of how high a percentage of of uh Westport land is surface water Forest recreational Agricultural and so we're at the opposite end of the Spectrum in terms of uh uh Urban heat island effect and so we take um a large advantage of that but then our Open Spaces also increase um certain vectors I mean I don't think tick exposure is a big problem um you know in Boston and other major cities and it is the primary um uh threat that the state views that Westport and South Coast communities will you know be facing going forward so let's go to the next slide so here's some data that had that we have about Lyme disease there's 460 cases currently and you can see how quickly those numbers jump up um I they don't I have to say they're they don't really explain analytically how they come to that number um but that's uh what we're looking at if um uh if the conditions continue an increase in terms of health in terms of heat um one thing um not in the report but which is in the news um is that uh that there's a vaccine that's being developed and so and it's at the human trial phase right now or there uh and so maybe that is an off-ramp to this problem but um we've seen in this area um incidents of e of e you know Triple E and West of virus West Nile It should read instead of West West Nile Virus and so um again uh those are things that from a physical um health impact we're going to need to be deing dealing with um this bacterial infection in shellfish and drinking water um is um very deadly when um it occurs I don't think we've had any of that here here but it's something um that is um noted in the reports next okay so let's talk about the physiological impact of extreme heat event um Michael can certainly weigh in on that from a medical um perspective than I can but I think um you know so when it gets too hot it triggers stroke exhaustion um also um if you have certain chronic illnesses it'll also EXA exacerbate that causing internal organ damage um you know cardiovascular um and um and respiratory problems and then as Michael pointed out to me there's also adverse um side effects from medications and many of them are over the counter medications that are heat sensitive and cause um your body reacts in way to the medication that uh interferes with its ability to manage heat um and and so from the um but from the report here's the increase in additional premature deaths um related to um extreme heat events the uh people that are most at risk are the elderly and particularly uh because of the temperature differential in Northwest port with more black top um and uh infants and young children so uh um there's some differential vulnerability here the other thing I would point out about tickborne diseases is we're not only talking about deer ticks but anaplasma brilia there a host of other uh tick born diseases that we won't have vaccines for at least in the imminent future I had one of those next slide yeah so as Michael pointed out um uh there uh the criter you know it's particularly sensitive to vulnerable vulnerable populations um here's a list of the criteria um uh some of which Michael mentioned um uh pregnancy outdoor work and inadequate income to afford air conditioners you know is Al can also be a factor um so 25% of our population is 65 years or older 7% live alone and uh compared to the state average we we have um uh you know a substantial um you know disproportionate number of men have been um hospitalized for heart attacks in Westport as compared to the Statewide average which would also make them more vulnerable okay uh you know real life uh real life experiences that of a link between um extreme heat and suicide um and some of those factors uh are uh you know it gets hot and people start drinking more alcohol um to quench their thirst but it also has uh you know mental health impacts and then you know a kind of more deeper analysis showing that heat triggers extreme heat triggers neurological and physiological changes which are linked to impulsivity and aggression and then I think you know generally you know it's been reported and and Michael again has has been talking about this at the school level of this rise of Eco anxiety among middle and high school school students um and again Mike if you want to say anything about this please do well just that uh uh some of it stems from their feeling that uh people aren't providing kind of positive interventions and so uh I think the more we can encourage uh them to be active participants in uh in solving problems that that can help so next slide um so the third level of risk that was uh discussed was it's the impact on excess heat on air quality and um the and it has kind of multiple um impacts um it increases ground level contaminants um then uh you know the the extreme re heat which I think we got a little bit of but the Northeast experience from wildfires um in Canada which are have just again started off on the west coast and are predicted for our area wildfires to increase in frequency um and then uh and also where you get stagnant air you also get increased uh pollutant exposure um the Char heart reflects um increases in uh pediatric asthma cases and the number of uh premature deaths uh uh okay moving on okay so now uh shifting gears um this is a section about what are we doing now about extreme heat um and there are three things that we already have in place and this is actually a topic which um I think that every that all of the committee reports should reflect which is you know what are we doing now um and the three things that we're doing now around heat is um the Council on Aging um operates a cooling center and also participates in Grant program for um air conditioner distribution uh for um individuals that cannot afford an air conditioner um there is um the r program uh where the police um call in to what I've called a curated list I think this is probably also done through the Council on Aging um to check in um on uh uh you know folks who have conditions uh you know where um they need to make sure that um you know they're they're functioning okay and then of course there's our um Department emergency response program and they certainly um have been responding in increasing frequency to um heat related um calls for uh you know for medical attention all right next slide I think this is the last slide so these are my um near-term planning recommendations um one is you know more coordination um around you know among uh you know town offices and uh and departments um and particularly around emergency response plan I don't believe I understood that there was a possibility that we would be getting funding to update our emergency response plan but I don't believe the one that exists now has um you know kind of climate change related and particularly heat related um emergency response planning um second under the category of Outreach education and intervention um I think our committee the Board of Health the Council on Aging and schools and libraries just by way of examples um can do uh a lot to make people people aware of um uh how they should be conducting themselves um in extreme uh heat situations um the example that we were talking about about the kind of medications um that you know people should be aware of um so all that stuff um data collection um I would you know just kind of personally be interested to see if we could even localize the our situ our heat exposure more by starting now to you know set up um thermometers that would record heat in various uh parts of town to see whether or not there are um you know kind of uh hotspots um that we should focus on um and maybe trying to also get a better handle of what is the number of um heat related exposures um and and incidents that are uh require medical attention and um uh the last part is looking at expanding our infrastructure one of the things um in my conversation with the um the Council on Aging uh director was that some people um just don't want to are not able don't have transportation to come to the Council on Aging um when the heat is Extreme and so being able to locate centers um more close to neighborhoods which we have determined have a higher potential for um extreme heat exposure um could be something that could be looked into also um to expand um air conditioning distribution in situations uh where it makes sense um you know to do that because a cooling center is not available for example and that's what that's the end of the report so um Phil and Mike thank you very much uh for that uh summary which is uh really excellent and I have uh some comments of my own but I see a couple of hands up already uh Dave you're up first John can I uh make a couple of com oh yeah go ahead Phil It's a Wonderful report and uh I just want point out for people that don't have access to air conditioning I learned the other day that using a fan with ice next to the fan can be a a lowcost substitute U but for when we identify hotspots things like uh uh creating tree canopies putting uh uh Reflections on roofs and uh uh there are some ways of painting black top with white uh paint that reflects heat so there are uh you know more uh significant adaptations well it was wonderful and sorry to have to jump off but uh thank you for uh wonderful report Phil thk thanks Mike thanks Phil uh Dave uh you've got your hand up yeah I thanks John and and thank you Phil for for your thoughtful report um you um you you started out with some tables of temperature rise and I appreciate that they came from a website um but um um and there should be no surprise coming from me I'd love to know what RCP you were using uh in order to forecast those temperatures uh coming up um because um it matters and you may recall from the presentation that I gave on RCP that uh RCP 9 was incredibly unlikely um so in that context can you share you know uh what RCP was used for those projections uh yes I can um and so it's RCP 8.5 and I would um I I didn't want to uh what's the right metaphor kick the Hornets Nest again on that but if you go to the dashboard um the dashboard has um a box that explains how um the temperature projections were connected to the RCP 8.5 and it can lead you into a fast store of information about how um the experts that were involved um you know picked uh picked that um you know pick that standard and so this is the state standard which has been adopted you know by the secretary's office um for heat right appreciate that um as you may recall um my recommendation was that we as an organization pick a much lower RCP because of course there are many experts who are um of a different opinion and even if you if if if the report that you've given uses the higher RCP at least I think uh that we should acknowledge that not all experts agree on RCP 8.5 okay can I I want to have this discussion at every single meeting but I do think uh when we combine all of these reports one of the things we have to do before we publish it is to make sure we are consistent I think we had uh I I'll have to go back through the minutes but I I think we had decided to adopt uh the state decision making on this but let's Mo move on for now Jake you're next I just want to point out Phil that was a quite an extensive report and actually touched on a lot of issues that um you know I I didn't actually think about I think the the tickborne diseases as much as I was a little bit of a smaller segment this is more of a comment I I think it's pretty um prevalent in for and I think it's to a point that you know people don't aren't been aware of it to to the point but I think with the climate change in milder Winters you're going to have less of the tick population being uh you know killed off and you're going to have the the lime I probably know five or six individuals very close individuals that have been battling lime or other tickborne viruses so um I didn't think about it in that context but I appreciate you pointing that out thank you thanks Jeff you're next thanks Phil great summary um as you know I've read your draft of the report and give you giving you some comments um a few things popped into my head as you were presenting and I appreciate the fact that you um kind of Define the scope for your report and deferred to the other subcommittees on other health related impacts I just wanted to uh ask if you've uh checked with those subcommittee authors or or leads on some of the impacts that um you know may be health related but may may not have hit their radar yet and I'm I'm just thinking about you know as uh as people respond to extreme storm events they may go you know out to check on a boat and be exposed to U you know injury or or or drowning risks uh through that activity or they may be clearing trees you know using power tools they're not familiar with or or exposed to Falling Limbs and branches um those are those are also health effects associated with climate CL climatic change uh that may or may not be addressed in those other reports so I just wanted to put those on somebody's radar um the other thing was um what about vegetation changes with climate change and increasing prevalence of you know exposure to nox noxious plants poison iy Etc um has that come up well it it wasn't mentioned um in in the in the state reports um you know as a priority and what um so they identified um uh say their top three or four um highest risks and um and then there was a large number that were all kind of lumped together um and for the and so I just chose for this to kind of focus on the three highest priority ones but a lot of the you know a number of the ones that um I don't remember that that the particular one that you mentioned was um you know was was in that was in that group and um so I think it was so I think I'm the only um you know uh committee our committee is the only committee who um went back and uh just picked up from where the state reports were in terms there for example risk priority analysis and part of that was timing um and so maybe it is a question of kind of going back and seeing how much we want to rely on this but just to say as it relates to David's comments and and Jake's the thing that the the um state reports does is that it actually gives very concrete data to a very narrow region of the state and once you move out of whatever other RCP you might prefer you I think you're going to lose all that because none of the rcps you can't say well the RCP is X and so now it's not 8.5 it's something else and so now we're going to translate that back down to Westport level and so we have to make a choice as to whether or not what we're looking at is what is projected to happen in Westport or that we're back into Statewide or um you know Northeast averages so uh and tick happen to rise to the top of the pile so that's why I picked tick bill um these These are good questions the comment I had have is what I think you demonstrate that is so important for all of us and all of the Committees is uh uh relative risk or threat assessment you said at the outset that you went into this thinking uh well of course heat is the thing we're most worried about and as you got into it uh you looked and said well no it doesn't look like heat is the most important thing it looks like disease vectors are the most important thing now now the reason I think that's so important is that climate change is this humongous issue uh that has a million dimensions and that can be seen as overwhelming and and you talked about the mental health issues of kids in schools you know if you get overwhelmed by an issue a couple of things happen you feel powerless well I can't do anything about it and and you can also start to have mental health issues uh and so it's really important for us to identify the most important threats uh because we can't attack all of them we have to understand which are the key ones for us to focus on and so choices have to be made and so as you look at the issue and say it may be uh you know that disease vectors ticks lime disease are going to have more important uh impacts on Westport you know because of of uh green coverage we're close to the ocean than heat that is really important information for people like Shauna who have to think about limited resources what do we do with limited resources so I think um that's very important uh lesson for all of the uh committee threats threat assessment and how we make choices really really important the other thing to get back to Dave is that when you look at well what do you do with the issue of heat for example well cooling centers and uh AC well you know that's a good idea it doesn't really matter what the RCP is you know you want give elderly people some air conditioning does it really matter what the RCP is if you've got a program to give people air conditioning uh you know every listen to the news every month is the warmest month that's ever been in history I mean that's just we need to get people ways to cool off let's not spend a lot of time arguing about what the RCP is we all know it's getting hotter and harder every month and so when you get to the programmatic what's the way to deal with this those kind of arguments kind of Fade Into the background for the Practical arguments about how to you help people so anyway I think this is a really good example and to get to the next task you know of of the Jeff's committee is here's a format of PowerPoint slides bullet issues and uh the next presentation we're going to have Joseph englesby is 28 page paper uh lot of text you know how how do we uh start to put this together into something that looks like one report from one committee so uh I don't see any other questions so let's go Joseph great report everyone was sent that I don't know three or four or five days ago I hope people took an opportunity to read it because there's an awful lot of uh meat in there um we do have beef cattle in the a committee so we should enjoy the beef uh Joseph you're on no you're on mute though Joseph still on mute okay sorry there he is here I am uh the agricultural committee uh defined agriculture in a very broad way uh we looked not only at agriculture as crops but we also looked at forestry we expanded it to Shell fishing aquaculture and fishing and we're looking at the impacts and adaptation of of climate change in a changing world and uh to do this we we uh developed a set of risk drivers which are global warming phenomena risk drivers and uh the risk drivers for agriculture and Fisheries included uh the localized climate change which uh broke down into temperature and precipitation as being the most important then we looked at number two was the increased storm severity and frequency three was sea level rise four warming oceans five ocean acidification and then changes to the Gulf Stream with number six and then locally uh we looked at drought flooding soil erosion prop failures Landscapes livestock stress pollinator decline disease and pest vectors food insecurity zonal Forest changes invasive species and Aquatic species Decline and migration um now we developed a report over a series of iterations and uh that was presented at the uh Westport Grange recently as a PowerPoint presentation which I believe the town had filmed and uh so you have access to that as well I believe it's on YouTube um and uh and I'm I unfortunately am not presenting the report to you tonight uh that took about 45 minutes or so to present now what do you do about all of this uh we developed eight key strategies for agriculture um we focused on the soil Health uh to manage water resources and risks to utilize integrated Pest Management diversify Farm Enterprises which means species crop varieties and and breeds and so we looked at livestock stress from extreme temperatures we engaged in farm planning and adaptive management public education and individual and Community agriculture now you can break that down from the the meeting that we we had at the at the Westport Grange uh people raised a number of interesting um issues and and made some interesting comments uh one was being that perhaps um education is sort of critical to uh presenting and promoting climate change to to the public and one way of doing that is to take a look at the stresses on agriculture and the local farmers uh adaptation to that and what local people can do so we looked at the idea of um an expanded U uh program of of planting that's similar to what was used in World War II uh because in Massachusetts unfortunately only 5% of the uh food that is consumed uh is actually grown or raised in Massachusetts and would' like to see that raised up to 30% in the state whereas during World War II with a victory garden movement uh it was up to 40% nationally so I think it's important with climate change or we agree that to support with climate change uh impacts to both the economics of agriculture culture as well as the um the U impacts to agriculture through drought and and flooding and uh industrialized agriculture that you have to bring agriculture back to the local community and since Westport is a right to farm community it sort of makes sense to uh try and do that locally so one way of doing that is to um is to interest the public and I believe that the uh the food pantry is doing that about to do that at the former so-called poror Farm uh on drift road which is a Trustees of reservation property where they want to develop agriculture for um uh for food insecurity and so that's one aspect one one possibility and and uh there are other options that you can see or rather Victory Gardens that are forming are being proposed for New Bedford for Paul River uh for Dartmouth and so on uh so that is a possibility I think one one of the pluses for agriculture on what could be done another aspect that came up at the meeting was we really have to improve soil Health um in uh for agriculture you know in the midwest in the the sort of the um Farm heart or heart of the farming agricultural farming or industrial farming for this country uh soil is unfortunately being damaged by erosion and not cover cropping and and it's just more more and more fertilizers so they talked about trying to bring about cover crops that would help to maintain uh the soil as well as hold the soil with the increased flooding and rainfall that that we are having I believe that we had five to seven inches of rain just in the past two days here um according to the weather reports that I I hear um so that sort of of impact washes away bare soil so the idea is to have cover crops and a mention was made at the meeting that the uh uh local Watershed is developing a program to have a u I guess to giveway seed uh for cover crops uh but that uh there hasn't been a followup with me as yet on that so it's not included in the report um we also looked at um the key strategies for forestry uh because um it's important to maintain the windbreaks the forested wildlands and farms and to protect the old growth forest so that's being done through uh through some of the conservation programs as well as the trusts who are who are purchasing and maintaining um these fields but also education is critical and what was pointed out in some of the G mapping that I reviewed was that you have a lot of independent uh owners for sort of critical Forest land and if you wanted to create like a buyer Reserve or areas that are going to be uh uh retaining um and uh helping with climate change impacts you may want to try and coordinate U with these people to protect these lands which are really undevelopable um but to actually link them all together you can get a nonr fragmented open space Network which would be um I I think important and uh you could tie that in as well with some of the the drainage corridors that we have in Tong that would protect the Fisheries for example these Salters trout U which gets into the shellfish and Fisheries aspect so on the shellfish and Fisheries uh we looked at restoring shellfish habitat restoring receding expanding the bay scalop CW and oyster beds then using the oysters for Reef building and to mitigate storm damage um for anous fish which are those fish that are live their lives in the ocean but return to their Nal natal freshwater streams and ponds topa um we're reviewing the dam closures impacts and nadrous fish runs retrofitting the dams with fish ladders or improve the dams to accommodate fish runs in Upstream spawning and then create a non-fragmented open space network of wildlands surounding the vulnerable fish migration routs and this is quite important because they for example the Salter trout are temperature sensitive so over a certain degree temperature uh within their their streams uh will either send them back out to the into the ocean which is why they're called Salters um uh or will kill them so you have to um shade those uh migration rots which is and and uh these natal streams uh to protect them and so I think that if you were to look at planning as long-term planning strategy uh for both climate change not only for humans for with biodiversity which you really want to to um uh maintain and enhance uh you would want to develop an open space Network that's going to be nonfragmented and I I think the town is beginning to work on that um and then if also with the U with the shellfish and Fisheries um I don't know if the if the Board of Health considered but you know we're having some real real issues these days with um septic and sewage overflow uh from the combined sewage treatment plants in St badford and but also some of the septic systems in in Westport for example that are impacting the shellfish beds and uh causing closures now this happened uh at the what is it the West Branch of the Westport River U not that long ago and it turned out that the land trust uh who's been very very helpful in uh with this report um developed a a strategy of creating a sort of a biological way of treating the the manures ETC coming off of this slope property and U actually help to improve Pro and saw to my knowledge the um the impact of nitrogen flow um and pollutants into the West Branch of the river and so the the beds were reopened I believe the shellfish beds were reopened after that work was done the water was was much cleaner than it had been before so that's those sorts of biological strategies I think can be used for the Fisheries um now with a pelagic fish what's interesting and and tragic is that the Gulf of Maine is currently has the fastest warming it's the B fastest body warming of water in the world today uh now that seems sort of impossible but it's actually part of the reports that I've been reading and the see there's a real real sea surface anomaly that's that's happening in the Gulf of Maine in comparison to global average um and that's also combined with the sea surface temperature uh where they're having a series of of um what you call them I suppose warm warm spells uh where there is a a real increase that's been showing um between 1981 and 2013 and Beyond it just keeps on the temperatures keep on going up and up and up and up um and I have the uh yeah there's an increase of sea surface temperature by 3.6 degrees fah between 2004 and 2013 and that's causing a migration of of of cold water fish from our Waters uh northward seeking uh seeking uh uh cooler temperatures and bringing in a a range of other species so strip pass um is may be replaced by the the black seab bass um and you have a whole listing of of species that are changing um so what do you do about all of this there's going to have to be an adaptation to the change by by the the fishermen for example um uh to take to adapt to the non-native fish species or they have to travel northward to follow follow the fish another uh issue is um over fishing and uh you find that there are a lot of factory fishing operations that are taking out perhaps the uh they're actually able to use spotter planes and uh um to see migrating schools that say man haen well with the man hayen are the the Herring and other fish that that sort of swim within the schools so they the spotter planes um locate this these massive schools of fish what they do is they then tell the Mother Ship where where they are the Mother Ship then sends out uh other U boats to encircle them and they vacuum the up so you've got that's another impact to the uh to the anris fish population as well as to the pic fish operation there there are changes that are taking place and you can sort of review that in in fail if you want to look the report um now here what we've done is we there's already been a change of temperature here we're now in a different climate a different temperature zone than we had been um because the temperature as of 2023 is up by 2.5 degrees over the warmer than the 2012 mapping the contiguous United States so right now Westport is designated Zone 7A which is 0 to 5 degrees fah um at the uh uh average uh annual extreme minimum temperature for 2023 so so I've tried to be fairly thorough and I've tried to get the best data I could um in terms of everything from the farming statistics of how how much how many acres of the field CRS and truck props you Orchards pastures and so on um productive forestry productive woodlands so on looked at open space uh of Farmland soils uh which I think the planning will be very helpful to the planning board and others um to plan for the future and um uh that was all outlined and mapped uh within the report we have key messages on temperature precipitation SE level rise and um you know one thing that I've noticed U and also we looked at the clate Smart farming for the Northeast eight key strategies so I sort of briefly outlined for you uh but part of it and one of the issues in Westport is a complete lack of communication between various boards committees and so so one of the issues is that uh you find people sort of working in similar similar tracks but they don't know what the other's doing so what I've tried to do is is to reach out which I did I sent out surveys even at this meeting that we had the range try to make connections to um get additional data find out what the concerns are and so on but uh there's sort of a lack of communication here and I'm not certain why but um um there are exceptions uh to that but I think has to be worked on if this is to be successful and not just an academic exercise so um what do you suggest Joseph I think thank you for that summary and if people have not read Joseph report I really encourage you uh to do it I think it is a a model for o other reports and there is a lot of information in there I I would add just a couple of things uh one uh the meeting at the gra had I think about uh 30 folks there from our own committee we had had um Ray Raposa Ry Elias and other members of the a uh subcommittee uh there were representatives of cmap there were representatives of the Little Compton uh uh Farm Coast uh group so the there was real expansion into the region of other uh farming interests uh and so it was a very good way uh to um explain to other folks in the in the farming Community uh what we were doing in Westport and uh what was in this report and uh and you know Joseph went through in a detailed way as he said it took 45 minutes what's in the report so we could start to uh uh kind of begin the feedback process so I I congratulate you on that Joseph one uh quick thing on on the fishing part of that from my experience uh Jose if I would uh Delete the part on the Gulf of Maine uh we are a different ecosystem than the Gulf of Maine we uh Cape Cod served as a barrier of between two ecosystems so you get the Gulf of Maine with the southern boundary being Cape Cod and and the northern boundary being uh Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and that's a kind of body of water influenced by the the U uh Labrador current and you get south of Cape Cod influenced by the Gulf Stream it's really really two very different uh ecosystems so I think that discussions of what takes place in the Gulf of Maine aren't really Germain to Southern New England waters are very very different Fisheries uh so I I think that it would be uh shorter and it it really is a it's a it's a different place uh ecologically so Jeff you've got your hand up yeah John thanks Joseph again um for your report and I I'd hope to be at that meeting um but I was unfortunately out of town I want to stay in touch on future events like that um just thinking about boundaries of these reports again uh I think one thing that we could probably touch on a little bit in your report uh without a lot of work is uh the health benefits of a a diet that's um high in local fresh produce and and seafood I think that's well recognized and if if climatic change is going to impact the ability of people locally to have access to those types of foods uh that uh you know their their health through their diet could could be impacted um you know it's not probably a major point of emphasis but it's something that we could we could also add in thank you thanks Jeff uh Phil you got your hand up yeah just to say I thought it was um an extremely educational report for me and all the Baseline information that you had I thought you know that was really great you know kind of following up on Jeff's comment I was struck with this somewhat dystopian idea that um you know we should plan for self-sufficiency for food in Westport you know because you don't know what will happen with Supply chains and as you look out um you know you know into the future you know we have the potential uh you know the risk but also the potential to be you know feeding ourselves a lot more um so I think planning for that is is um great um two things one is that you mentioned the precipitation um numbers and again I think it gets to the question of you know do we want to use the numbers in the state reports which are uh you know which are more localized and the other thing is the number and you touched on you know a number of this which is kind of what are we doing now piece of it I was going to bring up uh you know the land trust uh uh Watershed Alliance program um to deal with soil or to help you know uh conserve soil there are two other things um that uh uh related that are agriculturally related um uh one is something is a report that came out um and I can give you the details but there was this project by the um Massachusetts Association of conservation districts which organized a program among six Westport Farmers to do manure management and um through that program which went for a couple of years the report just came out in 2022 they reduced an enormous amount of nitrogen going into the river and um and the significance of nitrogen in the river is that is that it interferes with Eel Grass and eelgrass is essential for shellfish and and so and we've seen the fact that when nitrogen uh went down to the acceptable water quality level um that the state is established um 300 acres of Eel Grass have you know have have propagated in the West Branch and so um so there's this direct link between uh and and Farmers uh have a significant through their activities you know have a significant impact on nitrogen in the river even more than septic systems um so there's an aspect of that um and then the last thing is that um the um uh the department of conservation and Recreation um came before the um Conservation Commission and they're piloting a planting Eel Grass at a test site off of East Beach um to see whether or not they can um you know uh expand uh the restoration of Eel Grass um you know which you know happens big time uh you know down in uh you know in the Chesapeake Bay Area they have an enormous program and um and you can get a lot of people involved in ill grass restoration but to me it just goes back to the idea of of being part of the our each of reports talking about positive stories that are going on and how they can be built on yeah I think that's critically important because the uh these positive stories are actually talking about the visioning for the future and that's something that Can U it it uh engages people's imagination and uh involvement so I think that these are are stories that we should tell and should be in the report and uh maybe I could get information more more information about these reports and the outcomes that that could be added to this as I as a I can send you yeah I can send you the uh Conservation Commission report because I have that electronically and uh I have a u uh I have the presentation that uh DCR made to the Conservation Commission on their uh restoration so uh I'll I'll get that into your hands thank you uh Joseph I have a couple of other comments I think Phil's comments were really good uh and I think that that uh Phil you know on the precipitation numbers this is going to be again one of the things that Jeff's committee looks at is how do we make sure we use consistent numbers in terms of precipitation temperature rise and everything else from one chapter to the next so again it's a coherent report but um I think that one of the things that Joseph has done that I think is uh a good model for all all of the committee reports is that there are a lot of references uh to people in Westport he's interviewed a lot of people in Westport for information and I think maybe it was in the presentation you gave at the gra I remember it more in that presentation Joseph than in uh what's before this committee there were lots of ill illustrations of people in Westport doing the kinds of things that you're advocating be done cover crops and other things local farmers and uh and so the more that we show uh either by uh illustrations of photographs or by the way you reference you know uh that you talk to the um uh Port person the more that we have people of Westport referenced in the report the more this becomes the uh Westport climate resilience committee report because it's got citizens of Westport in it and they are doing what we're suggesting testing be done and and the report you had at the Grange was filled with stories of people doing things like that and I think that is a really good model for all the reports we are recommending that people do what's already being done uh because that means it must be possible to do it these people are already doing it so so I think you you are have really uh shown you can do that in the report and I I just think that's a great model uh uh of a way to relate to more and more people in Westport hey we're not asking the impossible this is already being done just go down the street talk to your neighbor um and the last point I'd make is that some of the recommendations you know no tillage uh things like that are um going to be difficult it's not the way we've done things uh it's more expensive and so we're going to have to have a uh a part of that recommendation of we're gonna have to find ways that help you as a farmer make this worth your while you know whether it's going to the legislature or whether it's some other way that's going to help you uh uh do this because if it made Financial sense for you to do it you'd be doing it and so uh as you translate these into recommendations we're going to have to realize what's the resistance now to it and how do we overcome that resistance but anyway I think that that's a great report I urge if you haven't read it please read it um and thank you Joseph uh and and your uh Team um well John before before before we sign off on that um the reason that the Gulf of Maine was included is that a lot of the fishermen are not staying local um the actual commercial fishermen are traveling out into the Gulf of Maine Waters you see for the fish IES and um and also the um both the fish and lobsters are migrating um with them so you've got sort of a transferral from from local Waters so further and further okay fair enough I I know they fish uh the offshore lobstermen are going east because lobsters need colder Waters and you can't find any lobsters south of the cape so if you want to talk about how far they have to go to Chase Lobster okay Constance you got a question or comment yes I was just wondering about the process here uh since we're getting close to getting a final report together will we be able to see the final report read through it and make recommendations um questions before it goes to the board of Selectmen oh yeah so uh that's a good uh question to uh kind of where we go from here um what I uh we're gonna have a July meeting I want to get that date and at the July meeting uh we're GNA get the first draft of uh the infrastructure is that correct Bob daylor is Bob still with us I with you yes yeah so we'll get your uh first draft report correct and um then uh we may get uh historic structures and that'll be constants uh we will have seen you're on Mike Sullivan's committee they were the first committee to do the the draft report so we will have had all of the reports give us their first drafts by July and then it's a question of knitting them all together so they look like a coherent hole and uh that's going to take some time and I think it's going to take work by the planning staff and Jeff canton's uh committee as to what does this look like how much text how much pictures what format and uh then it's going going to take some discussion between Jeff's committee and also the whole committee constants about uh how do we want to present this uh you know what do we think of it first of all what kind of comments do we have feedback on E on the report as a whole and then how do we want to engage the community uh do we want uh to have some public meetings with the community uh go present the whole first draft of the report get their comments like Joseph did with a at the grain do we want to do that for the whole committee Report with some meetings like that but I think we want to engage with the community before and and listen to what they have to say make any comment uh changes based on what we hear and and then uh see if we think uh after those changes we think it's ready to go to the board of Select does that make sense to you Constance well uh yeah yeah that is that's quite a a quite a process um sure I guess I'm concerned about um about the tone of the report and what sort of gets emphasized in terms of a executive summary because that's really the only thing people will read uh for the most part um and that will probably get published in the local paper and all of that and so yeah I'm just concerned about that um I know that uh your un that your unplanned letter to the editor was a mistake that you didn't expect it to be a letter to the editor Ed piece for shorelines about a oh what a month and a half two months ago but um it was I think it was very alarming um in the tone of it um and some of the the broad statements that it made and um so I just uh I really thought that it would have been a good idea of for you know I don't know for their to be some sort of retraction for that letter because it was just not ready and I know that you didn't intend on it to be used that way but it was that's correct startling um to see it and to read it because I I hope that that's not where we're going with an executive summary for this this threeyear effort yeah he uh no one was more shocked to read that than me that that that was like all these reports a a first draft because there needs to be a a preface and it was a first draft and like everything else it's supposed to be you know one of these things we put together for the committee to look at and so I said well I got to do my job and get a first draft on twoo and then he uh Ted Hayes somehow got his hands on it and I can't believe he printed it without even calling me up I'm just in disbelief that he did that uh but you know I'm sorry did it but he certainly didn't do it with my permission um so at any rate um that's the process you know get all the reports together we take a look at it we make it look like a coherent whole uh we make whatever changes we want to including to the preface if people think it's too hard too soft to whatever and uh then we figure out how do we go to the public with it okay Jeff you're you're the one that's gonna bear a lot of the burden on this what do you have to say well I just think John for for this and and other reasons you know the the way social media takes on a life of its own I think it's real important that we be in front of things um as we start thinking about Outreach and engagement um our sub subcommittee has had a a you know a preliminary Outreach and engagement plan in in the can so to speak for over a year uh I think it's probably a good time for us to recirculate that um to get uh some additional people involved in planning some of that and uh I think uh maybe what I would suggest is that for the July meeting that we put together a little bit of a presentation on um you know what a good Outreach plan might look like and what we need and um and if uh I think we should also have a another meeting of our subcommittee before then and I would invite anybody on this call um who'd want to join in on that uh to to that they'd be welcome to do so okay uh Constance you've still got your hand up but I I think you you still want to talk um sorry um no I'm good okay Joseph well I I just want to make mention that in in past years uh when we were developing something that might have been controversial but didn't necessarily have to be um we were well this is for the Dartmouth 350 and uh we went to the Dartmouth Chronicle and we published uh numbers of essays there's a whole series series of essays that were published with illustrations and that actually helped to sort of prime the public for um sort of thinking about all of this in a very cohesive way um and then we had public meetings as well that were open to the public and these demonstrations and so on so you you could do something because that would have helped you a lot I think with the seore and waterline deal here um where the public didn't know um what was being proposed the vision behind it uh or how it could be helpful for say expanding uh the U the tax base as has been done in Dartmouth and and uh Fair Haven for an example that's a good idea I don't want to get into all all the ideas today but I think that uh Jeff uh will'll put that uh on the agenda for the July meeting before we do the last item on uh tonight's agenda let's while we've still got uh 12 of us here uh the uh third Thursday of July we we go every other month would be July 18th is that how many people could not make July 18th I don't hear any objections to that uh is it okay to set our next meeting for July 18th at five o'clock sure okay so we will set uh July 18th at 5 as the next meeting and and uh what we're gonna have is uh Bob dalor is going to give the infrastructure first draft report I hope Wendy Nicholas will be able to do historic structures and uh Jeff you might uh be able to tell us what you think would be a way that we can start thinking about presenting this to the public does that make sense with with that I want to get to the Third item on the agenda Michael burish you going to talk to us about Hazard mitigation Grant yes we um just got the funds for this grant recently this was a grant that I applied for last year and the funds were just dispersed this year so we've contracted with par engineering to develop a hazard mitigation plan Hazard mitigation plan will identify risks um to property and and life posed by natural disasters and other events that may occur in Westport and come up with strategies to mitigate those those risks and um it'll be presented in a form of policy recommendations um that will be sent to the select board for adoption and will be sent to um FEMA for their acceptance as well um so we as a part of that we have to form a committee um and I would like someone from the climate resilience committee to be on that I I ideally from the infrastructure subcommittee although Bob has jumped off the call um but we will be looking for volunteers to be on that committee uh and the committee would probably meet during work days and would be virtual meetings so uh Bob is uh is chair of our infrastructure committee and he just left the meeting do I hear anyone nomin ating Bob daylor to to be the uh person who would represent us Phil are you nominating Bob no I I I I think that's a chairperson's responsibility you are dirty dog you can also I'd like to hear from Bob whether he wants to be on I was gonna say I'm not gonna I don't want to appoint anyone and get in trouble well why don't Michael why neighbor you know why don't you and I uh talk to Bob and either Bob or I will do it all right yeah that's fine as long as the the committee is is fine with us doing that you know now does this Hazard mitigation Grant affect or assist the work of the CRC in any way I would say that it does because it's you know it's going to identify hazards like stormm surges hurricanes and stuff like that and so as you know climate becomes warmer the the impacts of or the the way those um you know hurricanes and storms will become stronger Storm surges will become more extreme and so I think it will be relevant to the work of the CRC okay all right well Bob and I will figure out with Michael how to get the CRC represented in that in that work and any other business to come before the CRC tonight we have I have one last last thing um next meeting in July we do need to have reappointments of the um leadership we don't have a quorum here so I don't I don't think we should do that without a quorum um but in July we'll have to have a chair and vice chair reappointed okay and we don't have a a quorum right now no okay all right so think about that um and we'll uh Michael you'll make sure that's on the agenda so uh everyone knows that's on the agenda when we send the agenda out so that'll that'll make sure we have a quorum good all right is there a motion to adjourn I move we adjourn is there a second any discussion all in favor say I thank you very much for your attention today