Good evening.

Thanks for joining us tonight at the April twenty-third Urban Parks and Forestry Board meeting.

Thanks for joining us.

If you are, before we start the meeting, I'd like to remind folks of a couple of things to make it easier for you to follow along and make public comment.

You can watch us in real time in several different ways.

If you would like to offer public comment this evening, there are three ways you can do that.

You can make your public comment in person here in the commission room.

If you are joining us through the video conference method, you can use the raise your hand feature when it is your turn to comment.

Staff will call you by name.

Remember to go back in and lower your hand when you have finished, please.

You can always provide written public comment before the meeting by sending an email to comments at Bozeman.net or by visiting our public comment page.

Any public comment received by noon today will be distributed and read by the commission by the board.

We will hear in-person public comments first, followed by those joining via video conference to allow time for remote attendees to queue up for comments.

And so thank you.

With that, I would love to start look over the agenda.

First off, well, second off, um, are there any disclosures tonight?

Awesome.

Um are there any changes to the agenda?

No changes already.

Um next up is the approval of the minutes from the March 26th meeting.

Um is there any discussion or I make a motion to then approve the meetings, the minutes from our March 26th meeting?

Second.

Okay.

Um I can't see your name.

If you could turn it to where I can actually see it.

All right, Mr.

Broom.

Yes.

Mr.

Lowry.

Yes, Mr.

Carrright.

Yes.

Mr.

Gordon.

Yes.

Ms.

Shrek.

Yes.

Ms.

Loveliston.

Yes.

So the uh minutes have been approved for March 26th of 2026.

Um I will mention that on the minutes, um, we are missing a two there.

Sorry.

It's we are 206 for the year right there.

Oh, I know.

Anyway, um, sorry, I deal with numbers all day long.

Um are there any public comments on non-agenda items falling within the purview and jurisdiction of the board tonight.

All righty.

Um, how about um anybody online, Alex?

I see no request for public comment online, Chair.

Awesome.

So um then we are in to our first and only action item of the night, the adoption of the 2026-27 Urban Parks and Forestry Board Work Plan.

Okay.

So for the record, my name is Mitch Overton.

I'm the director of the Bozeman Parks and Recreation Department.

So it is time for us to do our two-year work plan.

Um 26 and 27.

And what I've set up for us tonight is a review of our uh focus areas that are uh lie within resolution 5328.

That's the resolution that created uh the Urban Parks and Forestry Board.

And then I have set out a proposed work plan for the board to consider and create an alignment with those focus areas, and then we have a space for a motion and vote.

So a quick review of our focus areas.

Uh there are five primary focus areas for this board.

One is organizing the annual Arbor Day program.

Two is reviewing reports pertaining to activity within Bozeman's urban forests, and three is assessing the equity distribution of access to urban parks and trails with an emphasis on traditionally underserved communities and neighborhoods and address identified issues of disparity.

Four, evaluating the city parks recreation, open space and trails plan from drafting through adoption.

And five, uh providing recommendations when requested about City Sunset Hills Cemetery.

So what I've done here on each of the uh focus areas is kind of pull them out and then identify a work plan item or more within that would fall within that focus area.

So kind of keeping that um alignment to make sure that any of the plan items on within our work plan align with those focus areas.

Excuse me.

So focus area number one uh is the most straightforward, organize the annual orbiter program.

Um and that's just what is in that um uh that work item.

Um so contribute capacity to the to the program, how it aligns with our strategic plan is in sustain sustainable environment.

Typically uh commitment is about three meetings per year plus a volunteer day.

I think we're pretty much on that um system for you know meeting, figuring out where we're going to do the the um Arbor Day program, um approving that and um and then having our volunteer day.

Um and then any budget impacts as far as purchasing trees are our um called for out in our forestry division budget.

And so um, Madam Chair, I think I could just go through all five of these if you want, and then we can go through individual questions or actually um on the last one.

I just wanted to um mention to anybody who didn't know that tomorrow is Arbor Day.

So the park is Laurel Gloral Glenn on Laurel Parkway and Annie.

Great, thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

So I'll go through all five of these, and then if we want to discuss any of them, we can we can do that after I've gone through all five if you like.

Second focus area about reviewing reports pertaining to the activity of bosom's urban forests.

So currently uh we are doing the update to the urban forest management plan.

We'll have a work session here following this action item.

Um so that is where we are with reviewing reports to the urban forest.

Um I called out four meetings per year because that's what we have in the outline for work sessions with the board.

Um again, this could be more, particularly if board members participate in and an online meetings or public meetings uh outside of this.

Um, but minimum board commitment will be our four work sessions.

Uh we do have a substantial amount of staff time commitment um to this.

We should be finished with this part of the urban forest management plan within this first year of this two-year cycle.

So when we review this again, come um early next year for the update to the plan.

If there are any updates, there may be something to update here on this.

So there may be some execution of the plan that we want to look at to tweak this for next year.

Um so it should be done within one year.

And again, this is budgeted within the forestry division budget.

Focus area three in assessing equity distribution uh with parks and trails.

Um what I'm calling out here for the board is implement uh some implementation of the Pratt.

Um primarily on the trails piece is um the anchor routes, and we're working on the the first one of those, which is the Cattail Creek Corridor anchor route.

So that'll be a significant project to come to the board, uh, which will be another master plan, um, approval and implementation uh and execution of that Cattail Creek Corridor.

So that's aligned with trails and access, and then additionally the Cash and Lou uh grant program that we all started on our last work program or work plan and created the program for that, went through all of the work of that doing that and creation the creating the evaluation criteria and how to award those funds, and then um this is an item for us to continue that program of accepting applications and awarding those that align with equity distribution, urban parks and trails, um, and identifying issues of disparity.

This would be over both years.

Focus area four evaluating park recognition open space and trails plan from drafting to through adoption.

That plan became our park recreation and active transportation plan.

It was the PROST, it is now the Pratt.

And the item that we've identified for the board for this work plan is creating a municipal code and unified development code update package from Platin recommendations.

So it aligns with our strategic plan.

So that will be again input with the board, bringing these these recommendations to the board and having discourse on those.

And then item five is the providing recommendations when requested.

What we set out last time we did this plan and utilizing this focus areas was that we would do a biannual staff update at a minimum if we didn't have any other type of plans or projects that we needed to bring to the board.

So I put that down as a recommendation on the work plan, and we continue that biannual staff update about Cincinnati Hill Cemetery and that the board can hear that and provide recommendations.

And that is an overview of the proposed work plan.

Thank you.

So people are aware that we have a full board tonight.

Excellent.

Thank you.

So let's do public comments on that first, please.

Anybody in the room.

Okay, I see no public comments in the room.

How about online?

Chair, I see no request for public comment online.

Okay, thank you.

It's discussion and questions, discussion time.

Does anybody have any questions?

Yeah, I'd like to address.

We got a lot of public comments at the last meeting.

Um because this was supposed to be on the agenda then.

Yes.

Um about public gardens specifically, collaboratively, collaboratively run ones like in the model of Story Mill.

Yes.

Um and yeah, like in the vein of those comments, and like as someone who spent a lot of time there myself, um, I think there's a lot of value in those and addressing like food security, um, accessibility, um, yeah, sustainability, all those things.

And I do think it would maybe fit under like I don't know if we're able to recommend like adding work plan items or if this is something that would already be built into like Pratt implementation.

But I think like expanding that model or at least fortifying what we have at Story Mill is something that would be worth exploring.

Um happened there last fall, our last growing season in the spring and summer and into the fall was um I believe HRDC ran it actually.

It was before I worked there, so I don't know.

But um I believe they ran it through like a lot of grant funding and um a lot of that got cut through Doge and stuff, and the uh management of the garden just kind of fell through the cracks.

And luckily we had a lot of community volunteers who stepped in to like maintain it and keep it going.

Um I think just reading what's in focus area three of like emphasizing traditionally underserved communities and neighborhoods and all that stuff.

Um I think that's one avenue that would be worth exploring in more depth.

So um a little bit of response that I would to give to that is in our cash and loo grant program last year.

We had an application and awarded some funds for to HRDC to assist with the management of that garden at Story Mill.

And I think that's probably the best update that I have for it at this point.

But I wanted to just lay out that we we have already set a precedent of utilizing the program uh that falls within this focus area to support community gardens in that way financially.

Awesome.

So Mitch, I think my only undeveloped question is the area, I think it was number four.

It's the UDC.

Yep, that one right there.

Um so at this point I'm under the when I think of UDC code, I think of like hundreds of pages of type, which um I like numbers, I don't like type.

Um how do you do you anticipate like wrapping um kind of that that very in-depth concept into a nice, easy, manageable um informational sequence for us um so we don't get lost.

Good.

Thank you.

And or just because of how big it is in my head, I am a little concerned that four meetings are not enough.

Okay, because unfortunately, you're gonna have to tell me more than once.

Okay.

Um so that's just my thought there.

Yeah, I think it's a a very good question.

And the the clarity I would offer here is that A, we're only focusing on the section of the code that has to do with parkland, period.

B we have already gone through extensive public engagement to create that plan.

And again, this board was uh was a part of that um from the very beginning.

We literally created new methods of public engagement in that in that plan that has now become commonplace in the city.

Um so we should not be going back and rehashing all of that.

The plan that's done.

The plan that the community engagement piece, now we still have public meetings here, obviously, and that's um uh that's worth it and valid.

Um, but this is not about rehashing those and going through the recommendations came from uh that exhaustive uh effort.

Um we take those and try to package them up into a neat concise package that says, hey, this is what the current code says, this is what our plan recommends.

We've reviewed it, and here's our recommendation to the city commission to alter and update the park section of the code.

Mitch, could we please go back to focus area three?

Um what so with the Cash and Lou grant program, what is year two look like for us?

Is it a repeat of year one with presentations and new proposals, or is it a more simplified version of what we did the first year?

You know, I'm open to the us um changing it from the board if we wanted to.

I thought it went well with the presentations.

I think there's always a room for us to discuss a you know slight improvements.

Um that was our first time doing it.

I mean, we had created that program from nothing.

Um so we don't have to do that part, right?

Evaluation criteria is done, scoring criteria.

Um that's all done, thankfully.

Um but I haven't, I haven't, I don't have an immediate change at the top of my mind for it.

Uh yeah, perfect.

I wasn't suggesting a change.

I was just because last year it it felt like it was heavier than three meetings.

But I I don't know if if the process will be any different as a result of it being year two of the yeah, yeah.

We do need to um retain the you know, it's it's possible we go a little over some of the the recommended meetings, but again, we don't have to create the program this year.

And that's the idea of a reduction in the number of meetings because we spent a lot of time just creating that.

Yeah, right.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Yes.

Hey Paige, do you have any questions or comments?

No, I don't.

Great.

Any other discussion or questions?

Alrighty.

Then I would well move to um I move to adopt the 2026, 27 Urban Parks and Forestry Board Work Plan.

Second.

Alex, can the board chair make the motion?

Yeah, normally I think that somebody else besides the board chair needs to make the motion.

I move to adopt the 20 the work plan.

I was reading the script, he took it away.

I moved to adopt the 2026, 2027 urban parks and forestry work plan.

I second the motion.

So you guys are done with discussion, so you want me to go ahead and go around the room.

Okay.

Mr.

Corton.

Yes.

And oh, by the way, how do you pronounce your last name?

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Brewby.

Yes.

Mr.

Lowry.

Yes.

Mr.

Cartwright.

Yes.

Ms.

Shrank.

Yes.

Chair Livingston.

Oh.

Miss Sowski.

Yeah.

Chair Limpson.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Unanimously.

So.

Well, great.

Um, let me call the agenda back up here.

I apologize to everybody who uh aren't like waiting.

Um, I believe um, since I'm not finding it, it is the work session to review the and discuss the urban forestry forest management plan.

Yes.

That's Alex.

Terry, the next item is one of our work sessions to review the outline of what the plan might look like.

So for the board to look at this and say, hey, do we have the right structure for this?

We're really really not in the um in the meat of the document yet, but really looking at it holistically.

Do we have the right structure here?

Um Alex NordQuest is here to to lead this with our consultants, and they'll be joining us online.

Yeah, good evening, board.

And just a note here, um, when we pull up the cult consultants, I'm gonna have to stop the Zoom video here.

So some of you are not gonna be able to see.

I don't know if our presenters will be able to see.

They may not be able to, but we can see you and we can hear you.

Yeah, I think well let's see what we can do to get through technical hurdles.

We do have their presentation as a backup, but I'm hoping we transfer over to them and are all set.

And I don't know that I have too much more to add except maybe just a brief kind of recap as Mitch mentioned.

Uh we're in the midst of this project um throughout the remainder of 2026, um, progressing towards finalizing the plan.

Uh the work sessions here are are to cover key components.

And I think it's it's a valid bit of perspective and context that going through this project.

We're looking to board member feedback.

We're also heavily reliant on public input with a series of public meetings, public comment at these meetings, a surveys coming out.

Um that also includes a series of meetings with internal city staff.

So I'm trying to remind myself of that perspective throughout the process and to just keep everyone on the same page.

That um all that input together and and of course uh professional analysis from our consultant group helps really form that plan up.

Um so that's a little bit of background.

Uh we do have our first public meeting coming up next week on the 28th, and that's virtual around the noon hour.

So we're looking forward to that next and keeping on those steps moving along.

I'm sure uh Josh and team will uh have a uh more concise reminder of the schedule and perhaps a visual tonight.

And yeah, I think aside from that, we we are moving ahead with Harbor Day tomorrow, regardless of the weather.

So if there are quorum concerns with the board members, of course, um I think we are splitting in two different parts.

That's that's one way to address it.

Uh we have some other opportunities on the way too.

So we're looking at additional volunteer tree planting events in May and June with the Gallatin Watershed Council.

So it's not the only tree planting event we have, and it's certainly going to be the coldest one.

So yeah, exactly.

So I'm gonna kick it over to our clerk here, Mr.

Newby, and and transition over to our consultant team that's attending virtually.

All right, we'll do a little mic check.

Can you hear me there?

We certainly can, Josh.

Okay, I'm gonna try to share my screen, and that'll be the next test here.

Okay, are you seeing my screen yet?

We sure are.

Perfect.

Okay.

Well, I've got a couple other team members who are going to join me, and they're supposed to be on at 6 30, so I think we will see them very soon, but I'll go ahead and get us started.

Um so thanks again for the opportunity to be here.

Um Mitch and Alex did a great job of introducing what we're aiming for here.

And just as a quick reminder, in our last meeting, we went over our community engagement plan, and and then ultimately there was uh a vote to approve that with amendments.

And so we've we're moving forward with that plan as amended.

Um and just so you all know ahead of time before we start getting into details here, um, we are not asking for any any sort of vote.

This is just a work session.

We want to kind of get input on the outline, just so that we keep the board uh informed throughout the process at key stages, and there's no no surprises at the end, um, and that we're all just on the same page as we progress through this process.

Um I'm gonna kind of breeze over these introductions since we're the three of us, uh uh myself, Hannah, and Matt from Planet Geo.

Um we're all here last time.

So you've met us all before.

And I mean before I keep going, I expected Hannah and Matt to be here by now.

I'm wondering if they might not have gotten the right way.

They're here.

And we can see them.

Um if they need to say something, I'll I'll have to promote them so that they can speak.

Actually, we could hear we can hear them, so forget that.

I think that they're here and now Yeah, I just I didn't see them, so I thought they weren't here.

But great.

Okay.

Um so yeah, we're gonna go over the outline, which you should have received about a week ago, but the the main categories or or you know, sections of this document are the the introduction, uh section on the organization of the document, the the goals of the plan, uh discussion of why urban trees are important, um, and then some details about the existing urban forest uh there in Bozeman and you know all going go into quite a bit of detail about the management of the urban forest, the future vision for the forest, and then implementation of this plan.

So in the coming slides, um after I say a little bit more, uh Hannah and Matt are going to go over all of those sections in some more detail.

And I'll kind of skim over this too.

We showed you this last time, the same slide, but um at that point we were transitioning between phase one and phase two, and now we are squarely kind of in the middle of phase two, working on several of these tests.

And as Alex mentioned, we've got our first public meeting uh next Tuesday.

All right, I will turn it over to Hannah to take it from there.

Thanks, Josh.

I'm gonna be talking about the first half of the outline for the urban forest management plan.

Um, the first section being the introduction.

This will mirror the subsections that exist in the 2016 plan and review the history of Bozeman and its people, the process and development for the plan, um, and that section will include the vision and mission statements for the plan.

Um, there will be discussion of climate and environment as well as population dynamics specific to Bozeman.

And then we'll start to get into the value of the urban forest as well as identify some challenges facing Bozeman's urban forest specifically.

Um all of these sections will be updated from the 2016 plan with current and up-to-date data and statistics.

Um and these sections in the introduction are gonna set the stage for the updates, priorities and recommendations that exist and will exist throughout the rest of the plan.

Next slide.

So the next two sections will cover the organization of the plan and the goals of the plan.

Um the organization of the plan is driven by this outline that we're presenting on today, but um it will remain a little bit flexible as the data continues to be analyzed and recommendations are identified.

But generally, this section is gonna include a review of changes from the 2016 plan, identify additional resources for folks to use, as well as discuss management objectives that were identified during the planning update.

Um the goal section will review the 2016 goals and what accomplishments have been made and achieved in the past 10 years based on those goals.

Um and it will then also outline the goals for this updated 2026 plan, as well as establish some objectives that will help reach those goals.

Um and these goals are going to be developed throughout the update process.

It's very much a work in progress, um, and they will be supported by the most current available data as well as staff input and public engagement.

Next slide.

And then we will also have a section talking about why urban trees um, what's their importance.

This section will build on some of the information that was shared in the introduction with specific focus on summarizing the value and benefits of urban trees as it relates to quality of life, environmental benefits, and economic value.

And these are gonna be focused on Bozeman specific statistics so we can really understand how urban trees are benefiting the Bozeman urban area.

Um and I'll hand it over to Matt to discuss the rest of the outline.

Next slide.

Awesome.

Thanks, Hannah.

Um, let me get this drawn up.

As part of the urban forest measurement plan project, uh we conduct a detailed analysis of the tree inventory, and this establishes a baseline of what Bozeman has today, while also showing us how the urban forest has evolved since 2016.

Um the elements shown on the slides like species diversity, size distribution, condition, uh canopy cover.

It helps us understand the structure of the urban forest and develop meaningful data-driven recommendations and goals that we've we'll discuss a bit later and have kind of touched on now.

Um but a few things are standing out already in the inventory analysis, um, some successes from 2016 when ash trees made up about 47% of the public trees and now only make up about 22%.

Um showing a lot of hard work that is then put in.

Um and it also shows kind of how the urban forest uh how old it is.

It's showing a young forest, which if you're replacing that many ash trees, you would expect to have a lot of newer young trees.

And it shows us that um a lot of those benefits that the canopy provide are still ahead of us.

They're not fully realized today and can help us understand some goals to make to really um realize those benefits as we move forward.

Um next slide, please.

So with that baseline in mind, the next question is how the city manages this resource today and what's working against it.

Um already has a solid program in place with most of their maintenance work being proactive and it's a really positive indicator.

And the city is also generally working on a seven-year pruning cycle, which aligns with industry standards.

Well, what we're seeing is the challenge of scale, and we'll be addressing that in the UFMP through our goals and our recommendations and how to to really scale up the management levels from what they are to create a very resilient and sustainable urban forest.

At the same time, uh we're we're dealing with some threats, you know, rapid growth and development, which increases pressures on trees through construction, space constraints, and infrastructure conflicts, and then there's also pests like Emerald Ash bor, and then there's climate stress, especially heat and drought, wildfire risk at the wildland urban interface, and storm damage, which drives emergency response work.

So to help us understand how the city manages the urban forest and the programs in place.

We're also running an urban forest audit based on the U.S.

Forest Service and Clark model, which reviews city ordinances, planning documents, budgets.

So far, about 23 documents have been reviewed as part of the audit, and early results are showing that Bozin has strong individual policies.

And that's really good.

Takeaway here is that Bozeman has a strong program but needs more capacity and coordination to help with keep up with the demand.

Uh next slide, please.

And that brings us to the final section of the UFMP, where the city is going and how to get there.

This section translates everything from the inventory analysis and management review into a 10-year roadmap.

It's organized around a few core pieces, guiding principles that anchor the plan, the canopy government, and a goal framework that structures the specific strategies and actions the city will use to move forward while grounding them in the Bozeman's context.

So they actually work here.

A key feature of this section is adaptive management.

So rather than locking the city into a fixed path, the plan is designed to be revisited and adjusted as conditions change, whether that's budget shifts, new pest pressures, development patterns, or climate impacts.

Implementation depends on organization, monitoring, and reporting so the city can track what's working and course correct where needed.

The section or this section also lays out challenges and recommendations and a framework for assessing progress over time.

So the plan functions as a living document rather than a one-time deliverable.

And we'll walk through specific goals and recommendations at a later date as we continue to develop the UFMP.

But today's focus is really on the structure and approach of the plan.

And the goal of this section is to give Bozeman a clear, flexible roadmap that keeps the urban forest program moving forward strategically over the next decade.

And I'll let Josh take over.

I'll take the next slide slide.

Yeah, I'll get the next slide.

Thank you.

So that concludes the high-level outline of the plan that we anticipate.

But we also wanted to remind folks of next steps in the project process.

We're about to initiate our formal public engagement with the first public meeting being next Tuesday, April 28th.

This will be over lunchtime from about noon to 1 p.m.

And it's going to be a virtual meeting, and all of the information can be found on the project's Engage Bozeman page.

And then in terms of what the core internal team has been working on, we're continuing to have coordination meetings and work through the data analysis, which Matt did a great job of presenting some just preliminary findings.

We had a staff survey running with the city staff, which closed this week, and we're gonna use that information to prepare for some internal staff interviews and gain any additional insights that we can to the hands-on management and potential needs that exist for the care of the urban forest.

Um and we've also been reviewing draft benchmarking data and draft tree inventory analysis data.

Next slide.

And so we have three work sessions remaining for this process, and we have a bit of a break between now and our next one, during which time we'll have a lot of public engagement.

Um our next work session will be Thursday, June 25th, and at that time we'll be able to review public survey feedback as well as present some more in-depth but still preliminary data analysis.

For our fourth work session, which will occur in July, we'll get to review board feedback on the preliminary draft urban forest management plan.

And by work session five, we will basically have our final board review of the urban forest management plan after it's been to public comment and we've incorporated those comments as appropriate.

And this will be the final review of the plan prior to presenting it to the commission later in the year.

Next slide okay that's all we have thanks everybody as Josh said before there's no formal decision required at of the board at this time but um we will open the floor up to questions and discussion about the outline thank you all this is really exciting.

One thing that the Bozeman Pratt plan did a really awesome job of was comparative studies whether it be like I think that plan used like Bend Oregon, Missoula, and it was areas that were both either in Montana or had similar growth structures to Montana I think there was a couple Colorado cities as well.

Matt, I imagine with your work with Planet Geo, you have a lot of data on a lot of different cities is that something that could be included in this whether it be like canopy coverage or tree diversity it'd be awesome to just see where Bozeman lands relative to those other comparable cities.

Yeah so that is actually part of our benchmarking that we've done and we have included Boulder, Missoula, Bend, and a few other cities based off of a few metrics that we use proximity population size, program size and with that we look at tree pruning numbers, tree removal planting um funding for the program and then we're also the data's a bit more limited on uh urban forest size and diversity for some of those cities but we are compiling that to compare Bozeman to those cities to see um species diversity or the size of the urban forest managed by the city and so that will be included and has been started um for this project are there any other questions?

Yes in the presentation um first of all it's impressive in the scope I think it's going to be really valuable.

One of the things that you said was that Bozeman was looking good based on your preliminary view of the data but that there would be more capacity and coordination needed.

Could you expand on that a little bit of course um and it's something that we see in every city um as we work through these urban forest management plans and we'll create recommendations for different ways or different approaches to increase capacity whether that's volunteer groups doing pruning or strengthening uh standing tree work contracts it'll be based on what works for Bozeman and we'll need you know the public surveys public engagement staff engagement staff surveys on top of the audit results um to really flesh out what those recommendations will look like and make them Bozeman specific so there's not a lot of detail on where those are going to go right now but it it is showing um basically you know there needs some more capacity to align with the industry recommended seven year pruning cycle for the 28,0450ish trees that the city manages and how that could look and ways to reach that ideal.

So that's kind of where we're going to um out of curiosity when you mentioned like the industry standards for things like the pruning cycle what is the source for that I'm trying to educate myself a bit here.

So that's uh based on the International Society of our uh ISA International Society of Arboriculture and then ANSI standards as well I have another question and that is how you deal with the unknowables namely ground conditions, fire um pests and so forth.

That's the biggest to me the biggest wild card in all of this is how what is what you use to drive your assumptions about the variables in the unknowns.

We will make recommendations.

Uh we also address uh within the implementation framework, there will be considerations with examples of what other cities are doing or what uh sister cities that'll have a similar or projected to have a similar climate to uh Bozeman, you know, in 80 years, how they have approached it, or what grows well there.

Um it's not foolproof and never is, but we try to include as many recommendations and considerations to keep the document a living document so that the city can adjust and use it as a guide, not be committed exactly to one course of action.

Follow-up question, this might include Mitch.

Will there be costs associated with your recommendations?

Yes.

Uh there will be costs, um, but it is up to the city on how they implement them.

Um there will also be options uh kind of you know, if we're recommending that you need to increase capacity to improve pruning, we'll lay out a couple options of you know, this is what it would look like if you were to hire three new full-time staff, or option B of strengthening standing tree work contracts, or option C, which is using volunteer groups or citizen science groups to prune small trees of a six-inch diameter safely from the ground, only using hand tolls.

Um so there are options, and but at the end of the day, it is up to the city to decide how that is implemented and on what time frame as budget allows, or as other resources become available.

Yeah, I would add, Joe, that um in our history of approving these plans, right?

And and this includes the 2016 Urban Forest Management Plan, right?

It's a it it's approved at the city commission with the board and then the city commission, and then we do utilize that plan in our budget presentations and our budget asks.

So, and that's that's um really the the backing that we have for those justifications, and we bring the plan back and say, hey, we're asking for this, this was called for in the adopted plan to try to implement um those pieces.

How would that work mechanically?

So let's say the expectation is to lose just hypothetically 2,000 ashes, yes, and what would be the mechanism that you would use to budget that, and would that just all be internal or would it come to the board?

So the mechanism, the execution would be internal because that's operations.

So how we execute it now, as Matt's alluding to, right?

They could lay out options on how we did that.

Did we do it internally?

Did we contract that out?

We did have, and he had mentioned this, we had this recommendation in the 2016 plan.

At that time, uh we had over 40% ash.

The recommendation was to get it down to 20%.

Um as you heard him say, we're down to 23.

So we've done a pretty darn good job.

Now, what that means, we have to increase our pruning um and removal and maintenance budget.

Uh we also increased contracting budget um to take care of some of that as well.

We also implemented a plan of uh prioritizing those removals of ashtries that were diseased, dying in uh site triangles, so they weren't in a proper place to begin with.

And right, um, and so it helped us to prioritize those those removals.

Um that helped us to kind of get there.

Um there's all types of recommendations that come through with these plans that we have to try to prioritize and the budget for.

And for example, I'll use what I think is a is an awesome but yet fun example.

That plan in 2016 called to hire a forestry, a forest division manager.

Didn't have one at the time.

It's myself and a four-person, okay.

We put it in the budget.

We do a recruitment, national recruitment.

We hired Alex Northwest, right?

These are how these are right.

This is how this happens.

As again, as Matt alluded to, there was a recommendation if we wanted to increase pruning to do uh meet the needs that we had.

We could I I I can't remember, I think it was two additional full-time, it may have been three, or to increase our budget uh by a certain amount uh for contracting.

We did the we did the latter on that one.

So we sort of we we kind of picked and choose some in the budgetary components, right?

Um we hired the the the manager position for the division, um, and then we decided to contract out more to increase more pruning, as well as increasing our own budget for that.

Um yeah, so I I hope that that helps.

It's not super clear cut, but we use it to say, hey, we're asking for this because it's in our plan.

Commission, you approved it.

This is why we're asking for it.

That we do need more money to execute this if we're gonna stay on track.

And I'm hoping, I think I I know pretty much so um when the the analysis comes back here uh from DJ and and and and and and uh Planet Geo that they'll see good, they'll show good progress from our 2016 plan.

I think we've worked real hard to execute that.

If if I could chime in with it, maybe a brief example.

We push as an operation staff-wise and myself to do as much as we can internally and efficiently, and maybe a quick example is uh everyone pulls out a phone in the field to run the inventory system.

So we add a dot when we plant a tree, we remove a dot when we remove a tree, and we update everything in the middle for maintenance.

So with myself and four full-time employees, we feel that currently we're able to keep up.

If a new subdivision comes in, we go drive down each street and add those new trees.

Um so we feel that we're keeping up with the maintenance of the inventory.

So Matt mentioned it's about 28,500.

We know exactly what it is after we plant 15 trees tomorrow at Arbor Day.

And so we feel that accuracy is there currently, and that's maybe a question on our minds.

How long does that work with five people?

How long are we able to keep up?

Because to initially get to that system, we had to contract out services to complete about half of an unmapped city.

So currently, tree inventory is maintained at a high level of accuracy with our staff operating budget, and someday it'll hit a level where it may not.

And we need to address that.

And so I'm gonna add on to that again, and I want to try to keep this at the high outline level.

But we need to be we we go into this really open it uh to what the community, you know, community's input and the contractors um analysis and and input here.

So we need to be open to that there is a better way to do it than what we're doing it right now.

And that we and that we need to um look at a system that might be a uh work better for us as we grow as a city.

It might uh it might be a different type of software than what we're using um to do uh our inventory.

Um I would expect that we would hear something in here, and then uh that something that we weren't doing in 2016 and have not been doing, which would be really analyzing things like canopy coverage, not just the trees and their conditions, but again, this kind of gets in then setting goals for those, right?

These are things that we don't currently do, um, but it could be right.

I don't want to create the plan now, but could be uh come out in the through the analysis from um the contractors that hey this could this is a a way to do it into the future, and those things that to implement that takes resources, um and that's why it's a 10-year plan.

One more one final comment, and it's just a comment is that I think for me the hardest thing is to deal with the catastrophic unknowns, and you know that um I I think the city does a great job now, and I think incrementally as we grow and so forth, you know, those things are manageable and they can be titrated to be be remain effective, but any catastrophic event, and you know that it can be a real unknown.

But any catastrophic event, and you know, that it can be a real unknown.

Um how do you deal with that?

Is it just hope for the best?

I don't know.

And that's just a rhetorical question.

And to the extent that the consultants can do what's possible to apply probabilities to various outcomes and contingencies.

I think that would be very helpful to use as a guide.

So one very small piece to that that I will add here to it is that that's part of the reason why we have a recommendation to lower some of our species down to 20% because the industry standard is not to have anything more than 20% of a particular species, because when you do get a pest or a disease, now you're looking at it something that is catastrophic to not only the environment and the community, but to our city budgets uh to take care of all of that.

Um and then that's not even factoring in things other losses of uh the carbon sequestration or the stormwater uh absorption, that's not even factoring in those environmental losses.

Um that's one small piece of that recommendation to lower that.

So and that gets into diversity of the urban forest to make it more resilient.

So you have a more diverse urban forest.

And currently the that 20% has an outsized outsized impact um visually for the city.

If you look at some of the major roadways with, I mean, they're mostly ashtries, so we're down to that 20% where if they all go away on you know any particular street, it it's gonna have a big impact.

So I'll show that.

No, I I laugh because the 20% does it, you're right in the sense that it doesn't completely paint the whole picture, because if you really wanted to look at it between mature and then younger trees and look at that analysis, now it's a it's still a higher percentage rather than looking at overall species diversities.

But if you looked at age distribution, you're still going to end up seeing that a higher uh percentage of your mature trees are ash.

Hey Paige, do you have any questions or comments?

Not right now.

Um I did have a quick question on um, you know, I see that there's in the outline listed tree management prioritization framework, and Mitch you mentioned um some criteria around tree removal.

Is that worth calling out specifically in the outline, or does that fall under something like that point on tree management?

I'm not sure I completely have that.

I'm gonna let Matt or Josh pick that up and make sure that it's in the where it lies in the outline.

Um so yeah, tree removal and prioritizing tree removal based on risk and tree condition, that will fall under the tree management as part of the outline.

When discussing uh prioritizing removal of invasive species or ash trees, that'll be a separate recommendation uh that the city will need to integrate.

And in terms of the ash trees, that will actually be part of the emerald ash borer management plan that we are developing as part of this.

Thanks.

Um I was curious on the heritage tree program.

There's been a lot of local buzz about that lately.

Um and I was wondering specifically on the point of like getting buy-in from private landowners if you've looked at comparative studies with that as well from other cities, or if that's something you've considered.

Matt, are you gonna take that one?

Oh, I was I was waiting to see, sorry.

Um for the heritage tree program, we base our recommendations on that from other cities that we have worked on where we make these recommendations.

So we've got a good framework that has worked now is to tailor that to Bozeman.

Um, but we do want buy-in from private property owners.

And there's ways of doing that where the city, some recommendations we've made in the past is creating a public-facing, or we already have the public-facing inventory, but having it so that private property owners can map their trees or their heritage tree to make it more personal to them, more of theirs, more ownership.

But again, we'll need to kind of refine that as we go through the public survey and the public focus group meetings to see what would really work for the city.

Is there any inventory data on our like wild growth trees, particular cottonwoods along waterways?

I know it's maybe difficult to isolate what tree was wild growth or not, but I think it'd be really cool to see which trees are actually here because I mean we we don't live in a tree heavy area naturally, so it'd be cool to see the work that you guys have done relative to to what actually exists.

Yeah, and I think maybe the easiest way to split that is as Mitch mentioned a little bit earlier.

Our park and boulevard trees that are in the inventory are individual trees with a list of characteristics recorded and tracked.

And then I think when we approach things that are a little bit more native, that's more of like a cluster, you know, are we gonna go count each and every willow?

Um we we could get lost in there.

And it's it's easier to cover that under canopy coverage, but you lose detail.

So I I'm sort of two ends of a spectrum, you know.

But if we can say that a water course is covered and we assume that's all native vegetation, then we can measure that with canopy cover.

Um and then we can say, well, there's 10 trees on the on the street nearby, and we know exactly which species each one was and when it was planted and when it was last trimmed.

So it's a level of detail that that ranges.

But that's that's one of the biggest things I think we struggle with, and especially in communicating this overall document, we're talking about the urban forest.

We're talking about folks' backyards don't know what's in there, but we still want to measure the value of it in some way, and that's it's casting shade on homes and our sidewalks and you know the canopy coverage picks that item up without dividing it into individual species.

Yeah, I think that's perfect.

And uh I imagine with the efforts that City of Bozeman has taken in protecting the waterways and how we're cutting back our mowing areas, it'll be cool to see the impact of that canopy changes or direct direct result, hopefully, of those efforts.

Yeah, and I think another quick item to tack on to that is we'll be keeping the consultant team here updated with you know some of our initiatives there, and that's um with our GIS and asset management teams, a leaf on satellite flyover uh on a three-year frequency.

So every three years going forward, um, we'll get a summer picture of an overhead satellite image.

Uh other city departments want the leaf off, so it's clear to see water courses, um infrastructure and things like that.

So we have a specific ask uh to utilize that for canopy coverage.

So even if we don't plant something on a water course, if we stop mowing and cottonwood seeds just naturally come in, that's that's going to be measured in a canopy canopy monitoring.

That's a consistent, you know.

We we want it to be a three-year frequency so that it's it's consistent, not jumping uh between how often are you updating it.

Yeah.

All right, so I'm not certain this is a question.

Or if it's possible.

Wow.

So as I was sitting here, um we just got through um lining out our uh focus areas for this next year or two.

Um I was listening, and I so I guess my question is how or if this should be considered.

Um so I recognize the forest management plan is literally that is like the working plan for the city of Bozeman's trees.

Which is one of our focus areas.

We also have two other focus areas that talk about the Pratt plan and the UDC updates.

And I'm in and their standalone as well but I'm wondering if there's a way that the forest management plan support items in the open trails and the open trails plan can support items somehow in that plan or I don't know how.

Do know I don't know how.

But but as I was looking at these I'm like oh that's talking about trails.

We're talking about trees, how to manage trees.

We're talking about UDC code and um how we're going to deal with trees.

You know it just seems like there's there's hinge points.

So even if it's not possible maybe just a review and I don't know if that's happened in other places with similar types of plans but it's just something I wanted to throw up.

I'll start Terry by saying that first of all a significant part of our urban forest is in parks so that's a part of this plan, right?

Our trees that are within our parks and we maintain those as well when we do that through forestry.

Now I fully expect that we will end up with some recommendations here that we'll want to do something similar to what we're doing with the Pratt as far as making recommendations for code updates.

And but we will do it for forestry.

So I fully expect that we're going to end up with with that in the plan that through the public process through the analysis which is a part of the scope of of DJA of our code and that we have recommendations for updates and changes on those.

And then it will be up to us and what what we'll be doing with the Pratt and the the parks recommendations to take those and um recommend to the commission that we update the code in those areas or about trees.

Can I just ask did did the consultants say did you guys say you reviewed 23 different plans and documents for Bozeman already was that so far that's the number we're at that includes the old parks plan the downtown plan comprehensive plan climate sustainability plan also some county level planning such as the uh community wildfire mitigation plan um budgets from the city for the last three years and then uh some chapters of the city code.

Excellent I'm impressed thank you.

Yeah and that that is one uh to tie back to talking about the Pratt plan is we do recommend that all of these different planning elements of the city do kind of integrate urban forestry into them and some element um so that it's tied together because the urban forest does touch on that you know it's part of trails it's a part of parks cemeteries it's part of street designs um and it should even be part of your emergency planning you know what to do in case of wildfires or severe storms and knowing what trees are along your critical emergency routes.

So that's what part of the audit is looking at is to see how well integrated all of these plans are together primarily through the lines of urban forestry but yeah great thank you um I think the only other question I have is more curiosity because I think it was Alex I heard mention um volunteer group assistance and it may be in reference to um inventory um who were those groups and um do you guys like that their training on or give them the program to use well I believe Matt mentioned some volunteer examples before and I can say what we typically do with volunteers and volunteer events is planting or a little bit of maintenance you know like if we've planted uh willow saplings or plugs and that's a little bit more massing than just an individual tree with a shovel um they might go back and mulch and water items like that that'd be the maintenance and then tree planting uh being the core volunteer event um matt mentioned uh you know popular uh trends across the country would be you know volunteers coming through and pruning up young trees um I'm a little hesitant to do that personally um but I think we need to explore what what that public interest is and to hear success stories from from other communities um we have received public comment in regards to heritage tree program and some citizen science uh programs you know that would be really interesting to see what we could do with our inventory um someone

Um I'm a little hesitant to do that personally.

Um I think we need to explore what that public interest is and to hear success stories from other communities.

Um we have received public comment in regards to heritage tree program and some citizen science uh programs.

You know, that would be really interesting to see what we could do with our inventory.

Um someone called me just yesterday to request we come look at their boulevard trees in front of their house, and they said I went on the inventory system and I looked at the last time any work was done.

And it's been a while.

So folks are intrigued by that, and and we want that accountability through the inventory system.

We want that public accessible information, and it's I think it's really encouraging when that comes up.

People will say, Oh, I I use the inventory, I I see this tree in front of my house, or I know what my neighbor's tree is, and I want one, the same one, you know.

So there's definitely I think um a lot of runway to expand what the volunteerism is.

And I think another quick side note to that is with Gautam Watershed Council and our initiative of branch outbowsman, that's meant to address areas where we can't go as well.

So um they'll be benefiting from our future canopy mapping and layers to I think highlight areas outside of city maintenance that really show a lack of canopy.

And if we can't come up with a solution, then we have a nonprofit partner that can offer some ideas.

Is there any way that um some of your nonprofit partners could like help support education related to like public, not excuse me, private um landowner planting or or my backyard forest.

I don't quite have one.

I'm working on it.

But um, I know we have a tree guide, which also isn't for private use, but I use it for private use.

But like supporting that education component with that layering for the to just kind of have this big global view and have the plan streamlining everybody towards the same goal.

Sure.

Private public.

Yeah, I think we have something that's maybe a pilot project currently.

We have some grant funding going towards a tree voucher, and that's limited to specific areas of town due to the grant requirements.

Now that voucher, um, again, through branch outbowsman, we developed infographics and a little flyer, and the goal with that is to help support the cost of planting trees on your private property.

So I'm out, right?

Watershed councils in under the Bob umbrella, uh managing that program in that pilot neighborhood.

It's specifically about a few species that we've approved as large growing shade trees, and to have some education element thereof, you know, don't put this five feet from your house.

You know, space it appropriately, focus on the south and west sides of the house for shade, put it in an open area of the yard.

Um it's not for the boulevard.

It's it's for your private space, you know.

Shade your house so you don't need AC or your expanding that canopy so that you don't need to water your lawn as much.

So there is, I think, something brewing, but that's limited right now, and that's a partnership with one particular nursery in town.

And I can tell you that another particular nursery in town is a little bit jealous and wants to expand that program.

So I think we just sort of run with that momentum.

But that that's a small example of it's certainly a component of this plan that we want to come away with educational items.

Um we have free mulch and um anxiously awaiting warm weather, so people start digging into the pile.

It's a little bit large right now, and that's a perfect example.

Uh the mulch disappears.

It's been incredibly popular to just drop off our wood chips.

Um that's going on to private property for sure.

It's a benefit to the community.

And maybe something we think about in the urban forest management plan.

And that is full disclosure, my neighborhood is in the area identified for the branch out Bozeman program.

I think because of some demographic stuff, but also lacking in tree canopy.

But something that I I know of my neighborhood is that it's a majority of renters.

And so how do we reach the property owners who may not care if their renters have a shade tree to reduce their bills and heat and things like that to improve the quality of life of the people who are actually living in the space?

So, you know, as we're talking about like equity in tree canopy cover, you know, maybe we consider some of the barriers to getting that improvement that we're trying to get.

Great.

Um any other questions or discussion or I I have one more.

Um I noticed there's partnerships uh listed in here for Bozeman School District, Montana State University.

Is there uh considerations or recommendations to include in here on how to engage with private businesses and organizations, potentially things like adopting a boulevard, whether that's from a maintenance perspective or financial perspective.

I know we've got the adopt a storm drain um thing.

Is there anything like that that's going to be included?

I think the sky's the limit right now.

We're just gonna uh keep adding work to Matt, Josh, and Hannah's list.

And uh, you know, it's certainly this stage where this is exactly why I'm here, you know, to hear ideas and and we're uh uh considering this with everything else, and I think it's a great idea.

Um I I know that the MSU and the school system, those are existing recommendations in the current plan and uh maybe need some expansion, and then certainly private business avenue is is another route.

Um we've it if if there's one theme, it's that we've done a lot of things a little bit over the last decade.

You know, we've partnered with some businesses, it's filtered out, there was grant money one year, it wasn't there next year, or the business had to pull back resources.

So we've had small examples like that, and I'd say, you know, this plan allows us to uh sort of refine as we move forward.

We of course um a random idea since you said school district.

Um I am assuming that's the um uh like the school administration.

Um but metal schools and the high schools all have some sort of environmental club.

Um, at least the um cheap Joseph and Gallatin High.

Um that's a very large club that they love taking little field trips.

Um I have to believe Bozeman and Sakaja have them as well.

That might be a handy tap in for fun stuff um for our community.

We we had a public comment about vision and mission statement.

I was just curious the process for updating those or if they would be updated and the thoughts from the contractors on how they think about those two.

I would say that they likely will be updated.

Um we haven't quite gotten that far in the process yet, but um, you know, they are similar statements, but you know, different enough that they serve different purposes, and I think if we continue to go through the data analysis and public engagement, we'll be able to likely refine both of those.

Thanks.

All right, any more questions or discussion?

I did want to say tried to go to the um tree inventory viewer and like do a GIS filter for ash trees, because I was like, my whole street's ash.

What are we where are all the ashtrays?

And there isn't one that I could find.

So I'm excited if we get a layer like that.

Well, I can do that.

Can you?

We we have a much more thorough system that's internal.

And so we to just to share, we utilize that all the time with the staff.

Um we have our morning meetings, we pull up the big screen, and then you can filter the data off any criteria listed.

So show me all the green ash trees under 10 inches and trunk diameter.

You can do that.

And um we've used it in a lot of different ways.

And I think a quick story.

Matt was confused about some notes we had when we first presented the tree inventory.

And that was an example of something we did use to filter out trees that were killed by frost, and we had to react, you know, for an extreme uh weather event.

We were able to use that inventory to map things out instead of physically marking all the trees.

And uh that was that was an undertaking that was eased by the inventory system.

Great, thank you.

Um I think the next time this will be a topic is in June, right?

I think that's what I remember.

Okay.

Um great.

Thank you very much for this um work session.

We are on we are on to what is the first time.

I just wanted to say oh, go ahead.

Oh, I just yeah, to close this out, I just wanted to thank everyone.

There's there are some great ideas presented today, and that's uh again why why we're here, and we'll we'll continue to gather input from you all as well as the public.

Um, but just uh to put a bow on this, we will move forward with the um outline, yeah, as as presented.

It sounds like based on the discussion that everything that this group found that should be in there was included in one way or another under one of the headings.

So I think yeah, we will move forward as outlined.

Great.

So our next discussion is FYI discussion and director updates.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks, Alex.

Yeah, um, the chair and I thought that we would just add a standing agenda item here for for director updates just to update the board on happenings over the last month when we have time on our agendas.

And um again, it's just a nice way to kind of keep the board informed of things that are happening.

Um so in no particular order, I have a list to go through, and then I'm happy to take questions at the end.

Um just so general update for the board.

Um as most of the board knows, but maybe um some may not.

We've been working on the creation of a parks and recreation foundation over the last few years.

We finally got that established um last year officially as a 501c3 nonprofit.

And we've been working on um sort of policies and procedures and building that board.

We um appointed two new members um on Tuesday of this week um to that board.

It's and that makes it five total.

Um it's it's it's all to a to a pretty good start.

Uh I think it's a very good start, actually, I should say, but it's still doing policies and procedures and getting its its feet underneath it.

Um they did file their first tax return this um uh earlier this month, and so it's up and running.

Um we're finishing the seventh field currently, bless you, um, at the Bozeman Sports Park right now.

Um, it is a synthetic turf field.

Um, it's very, very close to being done.

Um lines are in, uh center logo, um, just a couple of things to button up there at the sports park on that field.

Um you'll also notice we jump down to Oak and are in constructing a parking lot and what will be field 13.

So we have field seven, and then we have a a space there.

Um that's with a partnership um with the school district, and it's the reason why it's down there or adjacent to Oak because it's immediately across the street um to Gallatin High.

So they'll be utilizing that, and they're our primary partner in that field.

They'll use it during a um particular season, uh, which is the fall, and then we'll program it outside of that.

Um so it's field seven and field 13.

Um we've got some talks going on right now with a um local developer on a potential of construction of a um uh uh baseball diamond complex um on the northwest end of town.

Um so we're working on that.

We'll see if that really um gets legs and goes, but um our sports parks currently um didn't have any uh master planning for diamond fields when we did that um uh bond for those particular fields, we were really in in uh woefully behind in rectangular pitches uh but not diamonds, and since then diamond sports have picked back up and and it's great that uh we have members that come sometimes and they're in the midst of a development and they say, Hey, um, you know, what could you use?

And how about some diamonds?

And and you're right, and so we're sort of working through that, and then we relate that to the Pratt, and then how does it all work?

Um so we'll see.

That's just sort of forecasting here a little bit, and um you'll hear more about that if anything happens.

Um similar to that, and even sort of further forecasts, we've got another development that's has some property that um has shown some interest in working with us on the potential creation of a community center.

This was a project that we had worked on a few years ago with the board heavily in 22 and 23.

Um, and we're poised to put it on the ballot at 23, but we had um pulled it off at the commission with due to some uh uh activities that had happened with new taxes and things along these lines, so that went on ice.

Um, and so it was sort of refreshing to hear um some people interested in and partnering with us on that.

So both of those would be would be if they go get going, they would be related to the foundation.

Um the ball diamond complex um came to the foundation on Tuesday to talk to to them about potentially utilizing them as uh fundraising in their fundraising capacity as well.

Um we've got special Olympics going on this week, and they were at um the swim center today doing um their uh swimming competitions was was packed, it was really nice um and super sweet.

Um our park superintendent retired last month, that was since our last um meeting, Tom White, um, was 34 years with the city, um was really special.

And um, so we're updating the class specification uh for that.

It's been a little while since we've done that.

So um, and it will be doing a um uh national recruitment for to fill that that position.

Um tomorrow myself and another staff member are doing uh group tours for a uh Idaho Resort Cities Consortium that's in town for a couple of days visiting Bozeman and Big Sky and I'll be touring them at Story Mill Community Park and Bike Fill.

Um so those are a couple of pieces that they're keenly interested in for their communities.

Um looks like what I have on my notes.

Um which while I'm at it, I'm surprised I don't have my notes.

It's just a reminder of the public meeting on Tuesday online.

So, right, if you're just joining us, um Tuesday online, 12 noon, uh Bozeman.net, you can find it or on our engage page and Arbor Day tomorrow at noon.

Um, Laurel Parkway and Annie.

Mitch, will the I I feel like I remember there being an issue with the Cattail Creek Corridor connection around the Baxter area.

I'm just curious with North 27th construction seeming to start.

Does that link the corridor or was or is there still something else that we had to wait for for that corridor to link?

Yes, uh the the corridor is west there of 27th, if I'm thinking of that right in my presenting that right.

Um so it's not in the court, it's not in that corridor.

Um we still have a gap there north of Baxter and connecting into the Catel neighborhood.

So we're still gonna have a a gap there.

Um now we do have some potential development that's coming in, and as that comes in, we we immediately go to them and talk about this potential uh uh you know of reserving space to connect to this.

Uh-huh.

And the school district has a little piece of property in there as well.

There's a little gap there to close.

Yeah.

Um, and regarding school the sports park, whatever happened with the there was talk about water and how to irrigate the additions.

Has there been any firm decisions as to what it's going to be?

Um, so I'm not sure I'm there's a couple of things that would go on there with the water, and I'm not sure I'm completely following you.

We were doing test wells in the area there um a few years back with the water department to potentially utilize to test the um water the aquifer and how much water is there to potentially utilize that for city drinking water and potable water.

Is that where you're at?

Or is it what's a war in location?

I heard it's more of a big memory for me.

So it that sounds great.

Uh I just remember there was I know that there, I think there's a a pump station that's south of there.

Yep, and the re the pump station was how come around the sports park, there was going to be something for water, which makes sense that that's the potable water.

Yes.

Um I think that's it.

So there I do have a slight update there.

That system is is up and running and working, and I think we're look to continue to make improvements to that to that.

And when I say that system, we utilize surface water rights there out of the Maynard border ditch, okay, to assist in our irrigation.

So we have irrigation rights out of that ditch.

Um, and we set up a pump house and a system and a filter system to draw water, utilize those surface rights, so we're not using city potable water to irrigate those fields.

Um however, when we initially master planned that part, we also master planned in a large retention pond down at the very south end to hold water and then to capture it because we didn't have water rights that really ran long enough um late enough into the summer uh to continue to utilize this.

So to capture it to hold some of that.

However, with the construction that we've been doing with synthetic turf fields and some efficiencies that we've gained with the irrigation, um we're all but eliminating that that um irrigation pond.

We still plan on building more grass fields because there's still a desire and a need for that, and they serve a really good purpose.

Um so it's not going completely synthetic turf because it had they had it has its issues as well.

Um but we're all but eliminating that retention pond that was in the master plan.

All right, thank you for those updates.

Um does anybody have anything else?

All right, so I would like to adjourn on the April 23rd, 2026 meeting, goodbye.