Scott.

Hi Scott.

Are you?

Yeah, are we doing it?

Okay.

Because it came over.

I saw the chair.

I saw the camera.

No, no, it was just like I saw myself.

And then you had walked in.

Okay, here we go.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, so that's what that's what people on Zoom should be seeing as well.

And that's why I'm worried.

So that's that's a grand.

So that's like the screen.

But then people on Zoom should also be seeing that same time.

I think this is what happened last time.

I mean, I wasn't here, but Alex.

Started so we can stay on time here.

So um good evening and thanks for joining us.

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

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

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Click the link to register and follow the prompts to enter the meeting.

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

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Any public comment received by noon today will have been distributed and read by the board.

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

So with that, let's start with our agenda.

Do we have any disclosures this evening?

Okay, do we have any changes to the agenda?

No, no changes.

Great, we're off to an awesome start.

Do we have any public service announcements?

All right.

Um how about approval of last month's minutes from the May 28th meeting?

Any questions?

I make a motion to approve the minutes from our May 28th meeting.

I second.

Steve Lowry.

Shall we shrink?

Yes.

Brian Baru.

Yes.

Terry Lumson.

Yes.

Matthew Curtan.

Yes.

Joe Carwright.

Yes.

Minutes approved.

Thank you.

Great.

Um, we are now on consent items.

Without anything under it.

So I am going to move on to public comments on non-agenda items falling within the purview of and jurisdiction of this board.

This is the time to comment on any non-agenda matter falling within the scope of the urban parks and forestry board.

There will also be time in conjunction with each agenda item for public comment relating to that item, but which you but you may only speak once per topic.

Please note the board cannot take action on any item which does not appear on the agenda.

All persons addressing the board shall speak in a civil and courteous manner, and members of the audience shall be respectful to others.

Please state your name and state whether you are a resident of the city or a property only owner within the city in an audible tone of voice for the record and limit your comments to three minutes.

General public comments that have been mailed to the board can be found on the city's laser fish repository page.

So do we have any public comments in the room that are non-agenda items?

Do we have any on video conference?

No online public comments.

This is the biannual Sunset Hills Report.

And Madam Chair, I'll tee this up.

And just for the record, too, before we move on, we did receive one written public comment that um before noon today that was shared online with the board, and then um it just will enter that into the minutes for the meeting.

Um so as a part of our um work plan, we have um uh two reports to the to the board about the cemetery um at a minimum, and then when we need um advice from the board from the advisory board, we we request that as well.

But tonight's the first of the two that we've set forth.

Um Shane Serber, our cemetery coordinator is going to run through presentation um for you here this evening.

So Shane, we're ready for you whenever you're ready.

Um if you wouldn't mind, Shane, that's probably off script.

But um, since you haven't met the board, if you could do just a quick little intro of your background with the cemetery, and then before you jump in, a little overview and before I let Shane go.

Um I'll say uh a lot of great work goes on at the cemetery.

If you don't go up there and think about visiting, please do.

Remember, no dogs are allowed.

Um, but it it it makes you think about cemeteries in kind of a different way.

And I'm won't be surprised if, like some of us, you go on vacation and you see a cemetery, and you think, oh, I want to check this out because it's sort of on your mind because of of what we do.

Um and in my opinion, biased, yes, but I still think it's true.

I think we have the nicest cemetery in the state of Montana for sure.

So get a look at it at that.

So Shane Serber.

I agree.

Uh, welcome.

Uh yeah, I I guess a little history, all right.

I started with a city in 1989 as a part-time employee.

Back then you worked as a seasonal, and of course, out of high school, I was starting college, and so I worked summers for the city of Bozeman while I was going to college.

Um gained my experience, and at that time, her after I graduated from uh MSU, uh a position came open, and so in that time or where I was at in my life and my wife and kids and everything.

I mean, it just it made sense.

It kind of fell in line to apply for that full-time position, and the rest is history, I guess.

I mean, but it's been 34 years full-time and as of April, and there's about two and a half years of part-time.

So I've been there a while.

Um, but it's like Mitch said, it's I think it's the most beautiful cemetery in the state, or if not in the nation.

I just I really enjoy working there, obviously, for as long as I've been there.

I mean, it kind of indicates that that I haven't just retired, but so I mean it it is, it's a very nice place.

It's kind of different from any of the other departments within the city.

I'm kind of biased.

I mean, I'm not out in traffic and doing water stuff that you can only imagine.

But uh yeah, it's it's a very enjoyable environment and very, very nice place to work.

Um, so I guess just kick it off.

Just kind of gonna give you a background, and like we I this is the first one I we used to have cemetery board meetings.

We do them every kind of every month, and we'd kind of just sit around and it kind of got repetitious.

I mean, there wasn't a lot of change outside of the amount of burials we were doing, maybe some new projects and stuff like that.

Um, so this is kind of this is kind of neat to step back into it.

Um just I don't know how much you know about the cemetery or so I'm just gonna as an overview, just kind of go across or go through a few things uh that we do and what makes Sunset Hills Cemetery tick.

So um with that said, if I can do this right, I already forgot.

Oh, there we go.

So I okay, I already kind of listed the overview, put a few slides together here talking about a few points throughout my presentation.

Um Sunset Hills Cemetery is we have 73 acres of ground in use at this time.

Um we get have almost again as much usable land available to us, you know, but it has to be developed.

Water has to be put in and roads and etc.

But at this time we have 73 acres of ground in use.

Um we have designated areas within the Sunset Hills Cemetery.

We have our Catholic section or Masonic section or Jewish section, veterans, odd fellow, and our infants section.

Um in the center of the cemetery, we have kind of a park feature.

Um here we have show you a picture.

We have five columbariums right now.

They're for anybody that just you can buy a niche.

They are 80 niche columbariums, they're 40 per side.

Um the first one was installed in 1999.

And we in the one right now, the fourth one I should say, we have like 10 left.

And so we usually wait till we have two or three left um to open up the next one.

But we do have the one in the foreground there is the newest one, it hasn't been opened yet, but that has become um quite lucrative.

I mean, people it's it's a great option for people versus in ground ash.

And I mean, and it and if you follow the trends and whether you're not or have or not, but when I started, like full casket burial versus ashes cremation was probably 80-20, and it's almost completely flipped right now.

So cremation is a very, I mean, that's what people are leaning towards for various reasons.

Um we had a well, this is our memorial garden.

Uh, it was a old, it was our our nursery, um, and some of the most of the trees got overgrown, too big to move.

Uh, we utilized this space for like storage areas for our irrigation pipe or dirt piles or rock piles, and we pretty much just thought, you know, let's clean this thing up, make it something useful, make it uh, so we made a memorial garden out.

We put trails in it, we put uh irrigation into it, and we do sell a two inch by one inch plaque.

Um, so generate a little revenue, and but yet on another side of it, we uh give somebody give the give people another way to memorialize their loved ones without having to do the burial or buy the headstone, or it's just it's a great way to give them another option.

Uh probably our our biggest project that's going on at this time and has been going on for six years or so is the Southwest Montana Veterans Cemetery, which I'm very proud of.

I mean, it's something that's began with myself and my predecessor that just retired here in March.

I mean, this is kind of our it's kind of our baby.

We just is really take pride in this.

Um it's just taking a long time, but through donations and through the aid and with city, we have place two uh 240 niche columbariums.

Um we did a Veterans Day on Veterans Day, we did a uh opening and did our first committal.

Um, and to up to today we have 34 spaces filled.

So I mean, so and it's for the veteran and their spouse only.

Um actually, this week we broke ground in the lower area tiered areas.

Um we're gonna do for in ground ash.

Uh there'll be four foot by four foot lots, and uh, so that's in the works, and hopefully by late uh late summer, early fall, we can open that up and uh give them another option as well versus being in a column barrier and being able to be buried in in ground burial.

Um, like I say, uh, could go, you know, the future is is to have six of these up on top with like a committal shelter and uh bathroom and restroom, you know, and flag poles, and but um that's probably down the road a couple years, but right now our our emphasis is on getting that option for the veteran and their spouse to be buried in ground.

This is the picture of this is Columbarium one, it's a south face.

We've got them all the way across, and they and they get the next one available.

It's not like they can pick and choose.

And so just kind of keep it consistent, keep it uniform and looking nice.

We've gone with this plaque, um, and it's a benefit to the veteran.

They get actually $100 towards install.

So, and the whole idea and concept of this deal was to make this process or this burial, this whole process free or little expense at all to the veteran and their in their family.

So we're trying to kind of stay on that same road and doing it with the in ground and being able to utilize this same plaque and be able to have it mounted on maybe like a runner, but um, I could go into it.

I'm sorry.

So anyway, uh yeah, so we have 34 as of now.

And like I say, some year down the road, I mean, hopefully, that does happen, and we get all six um with the in ground and some sod and some boulders and trees, and it'll be just a very beautiful place, I believe.

Uh, this slide indicate we have a all veterans wall.

It's on each side of the flag poles.

Um, this is tiles that are sold by the chamber of commerce.

And once uh the monument company gets about 10 of them, they come up and install them.

You can kind of see them on that west side of the Montana flag there.

Um in the foreground is the Gold Star Memorial.

This is a the newest memorial that we uh have had the pleasure of being able to have added to Sunset Hill Cemetery.

And I might be wrong, but I think I've heard through the grapevine that Montana was the last state in the United States to receive this, you know, get this memorial erected in in their state.

So I'm again don't quote me on that, but I think we are the only one that has the gold star memorial in the state of Montana.

This uh is the Vietnam wall.

Um, it sits to the north of the all veterans wall.

This was a traveling wall.

Um, it's a replica of the one in Washington DC.

Um we uh again through donations and the local veterans, American Legion Post 14 and other various veterans group and the city all combined, we're able to purchase this and erect it, and then it's just been a it's been a really great feature for Sunset Hill Cemetery.

The monument there in the foreground is the Civil War Monument.

It used to sit in Lindley Park right off of Main Street up on the first little hull by the horseback rider there, Malcolm or sorry.

Um I'm gonna say this wrong.

I said Malcolm's story, but the the statue.

Anyway, so but anyway, we got it moved up to Sunset Hill Cemetery.

Okay, this uh is a picture of our interactive map.

Um we do have a kiosk to the west of the Vietnam wall right there on site.

It's another way people can look up anybody that's buried in Sunset Hill Cemetery.

Also, with that said, they can look up anybody that's on the Vietnam wall or where they're at, which row they're in, which column, which panel they're on.

Um we have a sims program is cemetery integrated management system program that finance our Secretary Joanne all red here at City Hall, utilizes when she takes the information, creates a burial permit, and then sends it up to us.

It talks to through GIS and IT department.

This is the interactive map that is also available on the city's website under cemetery department, and there's a click for interactive map.

People can click on that and again find anybody that's buried in here, plus the availability of of uh available lots.

On to irrigation.

This is uh since I started, we've always used city water, treated water, and we've always been wanting to get off of treated, you know, using treated water to irrigate with.

Well, this about so for four years now, we uh got a pump station that's at the base of Pete's Hill, and we use a surface right out of Bozeman Creek, and we irrigate with that surface right.

It is pumped up Pete's Hill into the cemetery, and as of this year, it was really flawless.

We had a few minor problems, but the turbidity we in Bozeman Creek plugged our filters.

I mean, it's a work in progress, and it's working and had a main break this last week and finally got it tied up today.

But I think tomorrow morning we're 100% again off and running.

So cemetery staff, myself and two others.

So there's three full-time staff.

Um, in the summertime, we utilize one seasonal that is a six-month uh individual, and then along with that, we have four short-term workers.

They're a 90-day worker.

So, and most times we get uh, you know, college students that help us out there, and it would usually great people, but they usually leave us like mid-August.

So this seasonal that we can keep now into September, October ish is gonna be very beneficial to my crew, my two full-time guys.

Um, my full-time guys utilize these individuals throughout the summer to maintain Sunset Hills, everything from burials to watering to mowing to trimming to raking, you can imagine, just to keep it beautiful and looking to making it as pristine as we can, and then also to provide the the non-complete of the burial service that uh we do provide.

And I I kind of really uh take uh great pride and joy that they do a great job.

I got two really really good guys.

Also under staff, we do uh like I mentioned Joanne already, she's our secretary, but she's with the finance department.

She's a very she's new, she's a very awesome individual, very very good to work with.

A little uh background about we do approximately 145 burials a year.

Um that includes ash and and full, but it is pretty much kind of held right there.

I mean, we might have a year that we got 160, but then we might have a low year, but it seems to stay right there at that 145 burials a year.

Um, some of the events we throughout the year, Memorial Day obviously, again with the American Legion in the post-14, they put out approximately 2,700 flags starting on Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day, and with the help of many, very, very many volunteers.

I mean, it's just it gets done pretty flawlessly.

And then on Tuesday after Memorial Day, they come and pick all those flags up.

Um we also have a veterans day ceremony up at the Vietnam Wall.

Um, again, American Legion Post 14, they just seem to be the state.

I mean, they're they're there all the time.

Every but it's great.

Um, something fairly new is reads across America that we're getting involved with.

Uh, this is the third year.

The first year we had like 120 reeds, and then they brought 220.

This year we had about 500.

And I mean, and they I think they want to get to where they're close to like being able to recognize every veteran.

And this is in December, so this year we didn't have any snow as all we all know.

So, I mean, it was kind of nice for them to put it out plus pick them up.

We kind of still got to figure out how to make that happen.

I mean, that's that's a lot of reeds.

I mean, to dispose of, and we kind of just slowly did it and kind of incurred that cost and put it in the roll off, and then but we're gonna get there working with again patriot guard riders, American Legion, and various veterans groups that all help us out with that process.

Um, future developments.

As I said, we had probably another 55 plus acres.

This last uh this last summer, we opened four more burial blocks, um, kind of on the southeast side of the cemetery.

One of the blocks is a new ashes only um burial block that created 224 more usable ash lots.

The other three, approximately 450.

We did down in the uh the northeast corner of 78, um, dedicated or designated two more rows to the Jewish faith.

We had probably 12 years ago in a block just kind of adjacent to that.

Had done that again, and they'd run out of room and and we can't really sell them like 50 lots and then let them disperse it just because of our policies and rules and stuff.

So we did we designated two more rows for the Jewish faith in that block itself.

So, but again, that was about 600 total uh new lots.

We do have in the Catholic section, we have two more blocks that we're kind of kicking around where we're gonna open pretty soon because there's only a handful left, and that's probably gonna happen this summer, and that will be another you know, 420 lots.

Give or take a few.

Um as far as like the open space at Sunset Hills.

I mean, we're there's we got three user groups that I can think of.

We got BSF, the uh Bozeman use cycling, which is up there tonight, a lot of kids, great, and cyclocross.

Um, these all these groups have been very good to work with, um, and uh very enjoyable to work with.

Sorry, um, that's kind of all I got.

Uh, any questions?

I want to thank you for letting me come and tell you about our beautiful cemetery, and probably see you again in the fall.

So I again I would open up to any questions.

Shane, thank you.

Um, I do have one question at this moment.

Um, do you have an estimate as to when you might run out of space?

Or um my own thing, I don't I don't think well, in any of our lifetimes.

I'm just because of trends.

Again, we have are you familiar with?

I mean, so south of the veteran section, and then there's the kind of a row of bushes, and there's a gas line, but then we have the field to the south of that that runs way up against the hospital.

So I'm thinking that's probably 25 acres.

But our biggest downfall is we need to have, you know, big water, like six-inch mains.

We have to have water and roads and stuff installed.

And then, I mean, that's kind of our only you know, thing that's kind of holding us back.

I but I mean that's all done with planning, you know, and CIP, and we just now we've you know created another 600 and close to 800 new lots, you know.

So that's gonna hold for probably I'm gonna I'm in another 20 years, I mean just in trends.

And so I mean, not that you we don't need to keep thinking about you know future and future.

So that's what I kind of installed in my guys.

I mean, it's like you got to be thinking of ahead of time because for the people that come behind you and you know, so they're not left, you know, dug in a hole.

But yes, I to answer your question.

I think there's plenty of land.

Then actually the the field out there that runs along Highland, the BSF skis on in the winter time, that's all future cemetery land as well.

I mean, it does have a line dug in that they use their snow guns on.

So potentially we have a well and a pump house there.

Um, so five hundred years.

I don't I don't know how I don't even know if you could put a number on it.

I mean, it's just you know, and then the trend with burial has gone from when I started.

I mean, like I say, a lot of caskets to more cremation people are keeping their ashes.

I mean, there's they're spreading them.

State of Montana, it's still legal to scatter ashes.

Only problem, like if they do it up there, there's no records.

So somebody you're 10 years down the road comes looks for John Smith, and or that's just and we don't have record of him, we can't locate him for them.

So, thank you.

It was um delicate topic, but um, I'm always curious.

Oh yeah, thank you.

And a little fun fact I'd add to that for as part of our planning for that.

We have what's called a crew, we've created what's called a perpetual care fund.

So a portion of all of the lot sales go into a fund that stays and builds over time for the future for if we and when we do run out of space.

Because you know, you you never know way on down the future what happens to some of this undeveloped spaces as well.

It may get utilized for something else, some other purposes, and so that perpetual care fund is there and continues to build for every lot that we sell for when we are not generating revenue by selling lots, and how do we continue to maintain the facility by not when we're not bringing anything in and not just be completely a drain on the general fund?

I have a couple of questions.

Uh, first is how much do the lots cost?

Um a full-size lots just a little more than $1,800.

I uh it's just like $1,865 for a full-size lot.

Um approximately eleven hundred and fifty for an ash's lot.

Now, Nash's lot is a five foot by five foot lot, so it's a little bit smaller.

Um, on an ash's lot, you can put up to four sets of cremanes on each five foot by five foot lot.

Now on a full-size lot, um, they're five foot by ten foot.

You can put one casket and up to four sets on top of that casket of cremains.

I mean, or you can do six sets on a full-size lot.

We do have the columbarium, which is a little cheaper.

I mean, like around 900 but you can pay for a second urn which cheapens it to where you wouldn't have to buy two niches and then you can put that second urn we we're now getting columbariums where they're 16 inches deep and so it accommodates a lot of urns being bought you know at this time so does the revenue fund the operation the uh the maintenance we're we're still subsidized and we're pretty I mean I think it's a little better because we we do have the memorial garden it doesn't make a lot of money I mean as you can see there was probably only about 13 of those plaques on there um the sales I mean the the columbariums are a pretty good revenue source because of what we're getting them for versus what you know we're selling and they go our prices go up every July one so at three per two to three percent every July one so um yeah that I mean the Sunset Hills is is pretty heavily subsidized but it always has been I mean and then you know whether the city of Bozeman wants to continue to have a you know provide that service to families and I guess that's kind of where it lies.

And one final question is what's the nature of the use of Bridger Ski Foundation and biking and so forth on the vacant land.

At this time I mean what BSF, I mean they're they're building features which I mean they're hills for you know steeper terrain and stuff like that I know you know and I don't know what those features what effect they would have like if they we decided okay we're gonna take this away from you and we're gonna make burial lots out of it we probably have to work around it um a lot of different surveying techniques I suppose but impact on the land um it it's very it is it's minimal I I would say we we were kind of unfortunate we had a farmer that took the crop the hay crop off of our land and uh he passed and then his son in law I mean and with the gross the growth of Bozeman it's just hard to get equipment in here and get trucks in here and get the hay I mean and it was a process that took probably about a week and a half I mean from cutting to bail into stacking to getting it out of here.

Now it's it's another cost we're gonna have to we have to budget for that and contracted services right now we've already had a mowed once it took minimal spraying this year because the past farmer they did spray last year for Canada thistle which is pretty much the the main culprit out there right now within the field within the boundary.

She did do some border spraying for us but then she will again I'm saying she the the company will mow it one more time probably late August so just so we don't build up a thatch problem and you know just unsightly and and then for use for BSF because then the park department does come in and mow a trail system for the ski skiers a little tighter to the ground.

At this time it hasn't affected the growth of the grass um it may I mean at some point I mean through the years many years that I've worked here we've been we've had a weed crop we've had a barley crop and then they it's been reseeded a couple times just to establish a good hay stand or grass stand just so it was usable and beneficial for the farmer to do that but it was a huge benefit for us to have him do that because when I like when I first started that used to be nothing but thistle up there and when it went to bloom it just looked like it was snowing across the south end of the cemetery.

And when then so we have that weed problem within the burial blocks and it was just so it was a it was a very win-win situation for us um as far as utilizing the marks family and doing that but they decided to break contract this year and so we're just got to move forward with the change and hopefully we can continue to keep it as beautiful as we can.

And the user groups don't pay a fee of any sort they do go ahead and those yeah I'll add in here the user groups that we have up there do they enter into a seasonal user group agreement and they're there it is a contract and there's a fee associated with that.

It has to do with the number of times that they're utilizing it and how often and the length of times of each of those uses.

As Shane had mentioned, primary contracts right now up there are the British Key Foundation um cyclocross, and then youth cycling.

Now it should, and so A, yes, they do pay a little bit of money for those.

There's also particularly with the British Ski Foundation, there's community benefit, but for free and accessible in town Nordic Trails that we recognize and work with them on that.

But the last thing I would say is that that use still aligns with the original intent of our acquisition of that property when we purchased it in the late 60s, which was for uh park recreation and cemetery purposes.

Um that was we utilized the federal federal grant at that time.

Um that was the Elks golf course back then.

So the old Lindley Center was the clubhouse, and that golf course ran span that entire area, and then of course Highland Boulevard wasn't there, so went in over to where to the softball complex is a softball complex was a part of that property that we acquired.

And so that became fully recreational use um property.

And so now uh what we uh really endeavor to do is to keep it to more of this passive recreational use in that area to where it's doesn't have the permanent infrastructure that the softball complex does, and that that's sort of the the kind of the medium happy medium we've been working with there.

So it's still used, it's not just out there uh and nobody's using it.

It's well utilized.

Um, but yet we still retain it if we do need it to expand cemetery into it.

Good history lesson and good use.

Comment, not a question.

Really cool what you guys are doing with the or what you did with the memorial garden.

I think that's a great use of when a tree gets too big, just plant it.

I love that.

Yeah, you know, because they they did two, we we moved as many of them as we could, and then of course it was taking tree spades, and then nobody has a tree spade ever.

You shouldn't move a tree that big.

I mean, unless you have the proper equipment, right?

So and what a better way to uh utilize the memorialization for people to go and it's got it's an almost an acre, so they can just get in there and there's a trail system through it, and you know, it was it was an eye sore for a long time because we did store it was our all of our storage, you know.

We just put everything or waste pile and our gravel that we put on our roads and our above ground our hand line irrigation pipe.

You know, it was just it was just a it was a great way to clean that up and get it out of the public's eye.

Does anybody else have any questions or comments?

Okay, thank you very much.

Well, thank you.

We'll see you this winter or away this fall, maybe.

All right, thank you.

Thank you for the work you do.

I just went to the next slide.

All righty, we are um jumping over action items and we're two FYI discussion and a work session on the 2026 urban forest management plan and review of the public survey results in preliminary tree data.

Um, I will put in very quickly to our presenters a personal comment.

Um, if you see me yawn, it is not you, it's a little bit of jet lag.

So I apologize.

I am paying attention.

Excellent, thank you.

Uh while uh Jess pulls up our consultants.

Um I'll introduce this item.

Uh it's our urban forest management plan work session.

Uh Madam Chair, as you'd mentioned we're going to review the key takeaways from our public survey uh and look at also some of our reviews from preliminary data.

Um, we do have one of our um members from the consultant team, Mila Kelly in the in the room.

Uh Mila is a Bozeman resident and uh a part of um this DJ team.

Um, however, uh Josh Elliott, the project manager uh who's joining us online uh with some other members of the team is going to pick it up and lead us through the presentation.

All right, thanks for that introduction, Mitch.

And it's good to be back for our third work session.

I'll go ahead and just get to it here.

Um we'll do this real briefly because we've met before, but I'm Josh Elliott with DJA.

I'm the project manager for the consultant team, and I've got Hannah Coons and Matt Ermson here with me, and Matt's with Planet Geo.

And as Mitch mentioned, Milo's in the room there.

And I think Mitch, who kind of also covered this slide for me, so thanks.

Yeah, the main topics for tonight are to review the key takeaways from the public survey that we just wrapped up and review the preliminary data that Planet Geo's been largely responsible for organizing.

And then kind of wrap up with just a summary of kind of the next steps and where we're going next with this plan update.

And so we've shown this, I think in both of our previous meetings, but just to reiterate, we are in phase two here, and we're about midway through where we've conducted that public survey, and we're in the process of developing that draft document, which I think in just a couple of weeks or so we'll we'll have that pretty much done.

And then the plan for that will be for the board and then internal city staff to have a chance to review that preliminary draft before we we then call it a draft that we present to the public and and we'll present that in uh in some additional public meetings.

Um yeah, so that's where we are in the process now.

And with that, I will turn it over to Hannah who will discuss the public survey.

Great.

Thank you, Josh.

So we recently completed the public survey period, which was open for three weeks.

The survey was hosted on the project's engage Bozeman page, and notifications for that survey participation were posted on social media and also sent via email.

Um a final push notification was sent out in the last week of the survey to try to capture as many responses as possible, and I think we got a pretty good turnout.

Um we had a total of 38 questions in the survey with either multiple choice or ranking responses, and overall we received input from 137 individuals, with each question being answered by an average of 117 people.

So there were some participation demographics that stood out, which we think will be important to consider as we continue plan development and outreach for the community.

Um, first, the majority of respondents have lived in Bozeman for over 20 years.

Secondly, over 70% of the respondents are homeowners, and third, the majority of respondents are 55 or older.

So these together highlight the need to continue outreach efforts to potentially reach and include demographics that were not substantially present in the survey respondents and keep those folks in mind throughout the remainder of the update process and you know what we're including in the plan as well.

So we summarized four key takeaways from the public survey results, all of which tie directly to items that will be addressed in the updated urban forest management plan.

Next slide.

So first, for the management of public trees, respondents were and are most interested in maintaining the existing tree population while also increasing new tree plantings.

Some additional concerns or comments under this overarching topic include concern about the removal of mature trees and what that means for canopy cover in Bozeman, as well as the acknowledgement that planting one tree alone does not immediately equate to the benefits of a removed mature tree and what was provided by that mature tree.

Next slide.

Second, regarding the management or outreach surrounding private trees, or trees on private land.

Respondents have a split opinion on city and forestry division involvement with private trees.

So some participants are interested in city support, whether it be through a permitting process or otherwise for private trees, while others are opposed to city interference with private trees.

Despite the split opinion, though, there was general agreement about the desire for increased education regarding care for private trees and tree maintenance.

Next slide.

Third, for the health of the urban forest, respondents are interested in species selection considerations for planting options, specifically in regards to species diversity as well as native species selection.

Additionally, a main through line throughout all of the responses for many of the survey questions.

Was that the value and importance of tree species selection, and how that supports and should be maintained to adequately support uh wildlife habitat and pollinators.

Next slide.

Okay, finally, the fourth takeaway from the public survey results, which we already have briefly touched on, is the desire for tree maintenance education.

Respondents are interested in learning about tree pruning and general tree care in order to care for their own trees on their own private land, private property, and this could be accomplished through several options, including volunteer events or education classes, which we'll be certainly considering as we are developing the plan.

There was also general but mild interest in contributing to volunteer activities across Bozeman in general to help maintain a healthy urban forest.

And there was also interest in attending a free education class or classes about tree care.

So these key takeaways from the public survey are going to help us shape recommendations in the urban forest management plan about options for continued public engagement, education, and outreach regarding the health and management of the urban forest for the next 10 years.

And this will be supported by the technical data analysis, which Matt is going to share some preliminary results from now.

Next slide.

And maybe before Matt jumps in, I just wanted to, I meant to say this earlier, but uh just to be clear, this is intended to be an informational session with as much time for discussion and QA afterwards as you would like, but we won't be asking for any formal decisions or a vote or anything.

Okay, go ahead, Matt.

Awesome.

Thanks, Josh.

All right, uh so this first slide here uh establishes what Bozeman is managing today.

So the city has an inventory of about 28,459 publicly managed trees, which is a substantial public asset.

Um and the major takeaway is that boson's public tree population is relatively young.

About 59% of inventory trees are in a zero to six inch diameter at standard height or diameter at breast height class.

And that reflects strong planting and reinvestment, especially in new areas of town, um, but it also means much of the future canopy benefits are still developing.

And condition ratings for the trees are generally positive.

Most trees are rated good, about 44% of the population or fair, which is about 29% of the inventory population, and 2% is uh excellent condition.

So this suggests a functional and maintainable urban forest.

Um, however, there are still important management needs, including those trees that are in poor or very poor condition.

And there were a few trees identified with an unknown condition rating, and it should be updated over time.

And the city team forestry team has been doing a great job since the start of this project updating those unknown condition ratings.

Um so they're already working towards uh success for the recommendations.

Um the primary composition concern here, primary composition concern that's overful, uh, is ash.

Ash represents about 22% of Bozeman's public tree population, and this exceeds the commonly used diversity guideline of 10, 2030.

And what that is is that no species uh should exceed 10%.

So a species would be green ash, and then no genus should exceed 20%.

So ash are in the genus fractionus, and they're 22%, and then no family should exceed 30%.

And so no species, uh the only species that does exceed that really is green ash, which exceeds the 10% and the 20%, uh 22% of the public tree population, and no family exceeds the 30%.

Excuse me.

So if Emerald Adore reaches Montana, this is kind of a big vulnerability, a big issue.

And the inventory shows both a strong foundation and some clear areas for proactive management.

The next question is how this public inventory fits into Bozeman's broader citywide canopy.

Um next slide.

Alright.

So for our canopy assessment, we use multiple two tools because each model um reads canopy slightly differently based on the imagery, resolution, city boundaries, and classification methods, classification methods address types of ground cover.

So is it asphalt, water, tree, grass, dirt, those all kind of vary across tools.

So across those tools that we use, Bozeman's Canopy Falls in a range of about seven to thirteen percent, which is not very helpful for planning purposes.

We are recommending using 9.8% as the technical baseline for future tracking of canopy growth and to guide canopy goals and the number of trees to be planted.

But for um planning purposes, a approximate estimate of 10 to 12 percent is what the city can use in press releases and work.

So this number should be interpreted in Bozeman's local context.

Uh the Gatlin Valley is historically had limited native tree cover outside of our area and corridors.

So Bozeman's urban forest is largely an intentionally planted and maintained asset.

And it's not the same context as a wetter or naturally forested city.

Um industry guidelines for setting canopy goals typically recommend a canopy cover of 12 to 15 percent for desert cities, eighteen to twenty percent for grassland cities, and thirty to forty percent in forested areas like the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast or the Southeast.

So we looked at that in terms of Bozeman and Bozeman's climate and ecosystem.

Uh the assessment shows there's also a lot of physical room to grow canopy.

About sixty-two percent of the area is potential planting area.

Um so available space is not really a constraint.

Long-term canopy growth will depend on water availability, soil volume, site design, development patterns, staffing, funding, and maintenance capacity.

So, in order to inform our canopy goal, we ran multiple models showing increases ranging from 1% to 5% canopy growth.

And these models included assumptions for natural canopy growth, natural mortality, canopy loss to development, and losses due to EAB.

So these models provided us with the number of trees that would need to be planted per year to reach the canopy goals, and which we then compare to canopy coverage of the other benchmark cities that we've been benchmarking Bozeman against throughout the project.

Uh no city has reached that 18% that is recommended for grassland cities in Montana.

Um we then also compared those numbers to uh the number of trees and capacity that the city currently has.

Um, so how many trees the city is planting each year, how many trees are removed each year, uh to see if you know the projected numbers would fall within the ability or be realistic for the city to implement.

So, based on all that modeling, a 12% canopy goal over 20 years is what we have recommended.

And that's not to say that Bozeman can't eventually, you know, aspire for a higher canopy goal of 18 to 20 percent, which uh we mentioned is where most grassland cities strive for.

It just means for this first phase, you know, we're gonna grow by two percent as the program itself grows.

Um and it's ambitious enough to represent progress, but still realistic given Bozeman's climate growth pressure, pest risk, and uh current planting capacity.

And to get to 12% canopy, that would be about 871 new trees planted per year.

Um, we also are recommending support from the community to help get those trees planted.

So getting to that goal depends not only on planting more trees, but on maintaining and protecting the trees Bozeman already has.

Next slide.

So the maintenance recommendations are focused on building from an already strong operational foundation.

Uh Bozeman already does a significant amount of proactive work, including neighborhood prunings, plantings, removals, and response work to storms.

The inventory analysis recommends aligning operations with the industry standard of a seven-year pruning cycle for larger trees and a three-year structural pruning cycle for smaller trees or young trees under 10 inches in diameter at standard height.

So that young tree pruning piece is especially important because the inventory is so young.

And early structural pruning is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce future defects and long-term maintenance needs.

The report also identifies a gap between recommended pruning cycles and current production.

Uh, the recommended annual pruning need is roughly about 7,200 trees per year, while recent Tree City USA reporting for Bozeman shows an average of about 1,988 trees pruned per year from 2022 through 2024.

So this doesn't mean that the city has to close that gap immediately, but it does show the scale of the long-term workload, and the updated UFMP will provide recommendations on how to get there over time.

Plantings and removals are currently balanced over the most recent three-year reporting period, with about 908 trees planted and 908 removed.

It varies a little bit each year, but balances out to those and that 908, which is always good.

We want to see a bit of a no net loss there.

But future canopy goals and potential eBay EAV losses will require continued tracking and likely expanded planting over time.

The main recommendation here is to formalize a risk-based maintenance system, improve inventory data, and use that information for work planning, budgeting, and prioritization.

And one reason this proactive structure matters is that Bozeman is facing several emerging and long-term risks.

Uh next slide.

So we ran uh uh vulnerability assessment to identify a number of risks uh from pest disease, climate change, wildfire.

Um the highest consequence threat, consequence threat for Bozeman is emerald ash border at this time.

Though EAB has not been confirmed in Montana, it has been detected in nearby states, uh North Dakota, Oregon, Colorado, and Bozeman has a large ash population.

So with that 22% of the public tree inventory being ash, EAB could create a significant canopy budget and workload issue if it becomes established.

And within 10 years of becoming established, all ash trees uh usually suffer mortality.

So the re recommendations we're working towards are not to remove all ash immediately, and on the screen you can see a potential goal.

Um, this is one goal we are uh working through uh based off the data and industry standards to uh to fine-tune.

This is not necessarily we're not necessarily gonna have the city removed this many trees, um, but it will be uh possibility, something you might see in the plan.

Um so because the AB is not currently in boson, the strategy should be more phased and targeted.

We're kind of recommending poor and very poor condition ash trees should be prioritized for removal and replacement over time, while fair conditioned trees should be evaluated and where possible worked to improve their condition to good or excellent, and then healthy high value ash trees are candidates for preservation depending on location, condition, size, and long-term value.

And so the EAB plan that's being updated along with the UFMP kind of provides guidance on determining what high value ash are and the conditions for uh preserving them over time.

And the plan also identifies some other pests and disease of uncertain, including Dutch elm disease, spruce beetle, western spruce budworm, and large asphen tortrix.

These do not all pose the same level of risk as the EAB, but they do enforce the need for continued monitoring of pests, species diversity and planting, and climate adaptive planting.

And the big takeaway here is that pest preparedness should be integrated with routine maintenance, tree planting, canopy goals, and public communications rather than handled as a separate emergency response.

And the city has already doing been doing a really good job of this as evidenced uh by all the progress that's been made since the 2016 UFMP and EAB plan.

But we want to keep that progress going, keep building.

Uh and these findings give us the foundation for the draft UFMP recommendations.

Uh, we know what boson has today, we know what best practices and vulnerability findings suggest the city should be working towards, and now we can identify practical steps to close those gaps over time.

And I will pass it on to Josh.

Okay, and Matt, just to provide a little bit of added context, and I because I don't remember the exact number, but 10 years ago when they they drafted the initial plan, what was the ash population then?

47% in 2016.

So we've dropped from 47% ash to 22%, which is really good.

Um, like that's that's really impressive work.

Yeah, so just to acknowledge that that was acknowledged 10 years ago, and and the city's made great strides in that direction, and we're gonna plan to keep it going for a little bit.

Okay.

Um, so yeah, here we're here in work session three.

We have two more planned for the rest of this process.

Um and the next one will be in about a month, and the purpose of that will be um we should get you that the the draft uh plan about two weeks prior to that meeting, so you'll have time to review it.

And uh and then we can yeah, have a discussion uh about uh your your comments on the draft plan.

And then the the fifth meeting won't be until after we've received public comment and had a public comment period and incorporated those into the final plan, and then you've had a chance to review that and we can discuss that final version before we take it to the commission for approval.

And this is just a quick glance at our public engagement process.

We're we're halfway through that.

We've completed these first two meetings and the public survey period, and then these these next two meetings which will incorporate that comment period on the draft document.

And so the next steps, I think we've covered a lot of this already.

Um but we we do have a mid-process update for the city commission scheduled for the end of July.

Um the idea there being that we'll we'll keep them informed and there won't hopefully be any big surprises when they uh get to look at this final document.

Um then we'll yeah, I mentioned that meeting our next meeting with you all and our public meetings in August and then that finalization process, which will involve board uh review and approval and then and then commission approval.

And that is all we have.

So yeah, we can open it up for questions, and Mitch, I trust that you'll you'll maybe handle the ones that are related to you know city specific questions, and then we we can handle the rest.

Okay.

Great.

Um I'll open the set for questions from the board.

Um one thing that's really cool to see, and I think this exemplifies the city's efforts is um it's hard to wrap your head around the concept of species diversity is really beneficial beyond just native species, and I think that the city has done a good job of I mean, you can't plant a spruce tree in a boulevard as an example, and so diversity is important beyond just our native species.

So seeing that there was a really positive public impression on that is cool to see because I think that's something that Alex has expressed in the past of being a bit of a roadblock with our development of trees.

So progress is being made, which is really cool.

Um, I do have a question related to the ash tree number.

Um, I'm curious if 22% is high relative to other cities.

Um like off the top of my head, 22% doesn't seem horrible.

Like it's great that our goal is to be better, but 22% seems to be within a good margin, especially when I hear that it was 47% 10 years ago.

So I'm curious, Matt, maybe you'd have others that you can at least anecdotally reference in terms of where their numbers were.

Um yeah, so I'm trying to remember a few of the projects I've worked on off the top of my head, but 22% is not high compared to other cities.

Uh green ash and ash trees were planted widely after Dutch elm disease came in and wiped out the American elm in our cities.

Um so we just replaced one monoculture with another.

So a lot of cities I think have uh let me if I can pull this up, but usually what I've seen is about 20 to 30% canopy cover um in Colorado, uh where I first started working as an urban forester, back east.

Um I don't know if Josh is in the room, but uh he could probably tell you about back east, uh where it was planted excessively.

No worries on hard numbers.

I was just curious if we're within the ballpark, and it's it's cool to see that we're making progress and that our goals are still higher than where we currently stand.

And Matt, you mentioned, excuse me, the industry standards for recommendations for percentages to for targets to hit of any species, not just um ash.

You may remind us of that again.

Yeah, so for um the 102030 rule is that no uh species should exceed 10%, and no genus should exceed 20%.

And how this really works here for ash, um, you know, you guys brought fraxiness down from 47%, which is the genus for ash, and you brought it down to 20%, 22%, which is right where those genus guidelines are, you know, 20%, which is still a lot of canopy to lose.

The problem with the ash trees in Bozeman, um, so if it was 20% of fraxinous, but then you had say five percent were white ash and ten percent were green ash, and another five percent were a mix of purple ash and uh autumn blaze ash, that would be the kind of diversity we would want to see.

But we're seeing 22, basically all of the ash are one species.

So we've we're exceeding the species of 10% and the genus at 22%.

Um, and since it's all one species, it's more risky than if we had a breakdown of three or five ash species within that 20%.

What are the most successful ways of limiting that?

I I just picture when you go to a consumer greenhouse.

I think every nursery in town still sells ash trees, and I imagine that it's it's relatively profitable for them because aside from EAB, ash trees do demonstrate success, but it's it's a looming success.

Um, is there like any way to to get private nurseries to step back or is that a is that a pretty hard barrier to cross and there's better ways of of going about it?

Um, I mean, we typically recommend uh partnerships with your private nurseries.

Uh so working with them to provide species that will thrive in the climate in the city to not sell restricted or undesirables like green ash.

Um so we have some language that and recommendations on how to create those partnerships.

But at the end of the day, uh, you know, there are private business, they will want to sell what makes them money.

Um so the next best thing is to just educate the city, educate residents um so that they know not to buy ash, and then it will no longer be profitable for those nurseries necessarily to sell them.

Um so kind of a two-prong approach.

Thank you.

Um just looking at the the reduction target numbers.

Um I was just kind of curious around the math behind it.

Um, you know, if we're looking at the last 10 years and going from 47% down to 22, and now we're looking at the next 10 years trying to reduce that just by 10%.

Is this a bit of a conservative estimate on how long it will take?

I mean, the math is showing the the removal um gets us down to the 10%, but I would imagine that additional tree plantings will also help speed up that diversification.

Um, am I right in that line of thought?

Yes.

Yeah, if we were just focusing solely on ash, but we are um, you know, the EAB plan and this ash target is actually just a part of uh part of the whole picture.

So we're also looking at canopy increase, canopy goal.

We're also looking at increasing um the proactive maintenance cycle of seven and three years, which and doing that will also include mitigations and removals and plantings.

Um, so we're trying to work on a balancing act uh to not necessarily wipe out too many trees at once, stay within capacity or just a little beyond what current capacity is so the program grows.

Um if that answers the question, um if it was just if we were just focusing on ash, we could get rid of, you know, get it down to 10% a lot faster.

Um, but we have to take into consideration all of the other tree prunings, tree removals, tree plantings uh that the team works on.

Matt, maybe something else that it'd be help helpful for everyone to understand too is that you've written that much more detailed EAB plan.

Um and that includes a lot of details and it goes into you know which trees might be removed first.

Like you're not gonna go after the biggest healthiest ones first, right?

And and so it gets into a lot a lot more detail that we didn't share here, and I don't know if you want to say anything more about that now, Matt.

Yeah, that's uh that's pretty spot on.

Um and then also to consider just how many trees um the tree city USA and the benchmarking shows that Bozeman removes around 350 trees a year, 300 to 350.

So just in the ash reduction goal or type of draft goal, um, we're kind of at that capacity.

So that's part of the balancing act we're we're trying to work on.

I have a question about um the green ash canopy versus as a percentage as opposed to the number of trees.

So essentially if they if they make up 22% of the trees, did they also make up 22% of the canopy, or is that number different?

Is that kind of what you're getting at?

Yes.

Okay.

Um not necessarily.

Uh let me based on the age and size classes of the ash trees, the ash population.

Uh-oh.

They are not necessarily 22% of the existing canopy.

Um, I'm guessing that that number is a lot higher.

Many of the certain trees.

And there's also ash trees on private property that are not considered.

So the uh citywide canopy also takes into account all of those trees on private property, not just the um in public inventory trees.

Still trying to pull this up so I could get a number.

We don't necessarily have the exact number um of ash trees per canopy.

Matt, maybe one thing that could be helpful is if if you have that, I know you have a graph that kind of shows the age or size class of the ash trees.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to document.

I didn't have to do that.

And I don't I don't need that now, but if that could be part of your report, I think that would be helpful to find the uh what I consider to be the true impact of the ash on the urban forest because of the canopy coverage as opposed to just simply number of trees.

Mm-hmm.

Um we've also we have broken it down by um ecosystem benefits by the top ten tree species.

So we do we can show how um that adds up, you know, with that many ash trees, what the dollar amount of ecosystem benefits gained is and as part of the EAB management plan, we are recommending uh, you know, to retain high value ash trees, and high value ash trees are large mature trees in good condition.

Um but part of it is also for EAB management, trees typically under 10 to 8 inches in diameter are basically recommended to be removed immediately if EAB has been in town.

Um but because EAB is not yet in Montana, the EAB plan is recommending that those smaller trees that would typically get cut down first to help prevent the spread, that those can actually be maintained to continue providing canopy benefits, continue providing shade, um, and you know, growing mechanically.

They don't need to necessarily be removed immediately because these ash trees are a valuable part of the community.

Uh we just we want to protect the community from the negative effects of ash or emerald ash borer.

My next question.

Go ahead, Joe.

My next question is why if Bozeman is considered grassland, why not go for 18% coverage?

As opposed to 12%?

And we did we modeled the 18% to see what that would look like.

Uh, but based on, as I said, the the climate vulnerability assessment, the EAB management plan goals, and then current capacity of the city, 18% would not be attainable or necessarily realistic.

Why wouldn't you?

I was gonna say it's not a long-term goal, right?

That's the near-term, I think, 20-year goal.

Is that what we we have it as, Matt?

Um, yeah, and so you know, and in the next plan that when you update this 10 years from now, that that number might look different, and maybe the the city has increased capacity, and and the what's realistic might might increase along with that.

And the city um is also going to be doing more regular canopy assessment updates, uh so they'll be able to track that more.

So by the time in 10 years when this updated UFMP is ready to be updated again, you'll be able to reassess that canopy a goal and you know, tweak it, adjust it, and go from there.

When you say that the 18% is not realistic, is that a function of climate and pests and so forth for money?

Uh, it is a combination of the pest risk, the current maintenance needs of the urban forest, uh current capacity based off of the reporting numbers, and so yeah, it's a it's a combination of most of those um also we have to take into account the tree retention.

You know, not every tree that is planted as part of this canopy goal will survive in the first year or the first three years.

Um, so we account account for mortality in those models.

Um, but we think as consultants who have done um canopy goals for multiple municipalities across the country that 12% is attainable and realistic um for the city of Bozeman at this time.

And one one other thing I would reiterate there is that keep in mind these the canopy numbers are citywide, and the species numbers that we're reporting are are just for city maintained trees.

And so we're kind of comparing apples and oranges when we're looking at those numbers, and when we're talking about trying to increase the canopy, right?

The city can only do so much on city property, but but that that's affecting the overall percentage for the entire city and including private land.

Yeah, and that's where the outreach and education component of the plan and this process is coming in.

Um, you know, the more residents are um educated about how to care for their own trees on their private property, the better that will continue to help support the canopy goals across Bozeman as a whole.

Will the draft report address future development?

Yes, we'll have recommendations um discussing future development and possible uh mitigation plantings for development.

Uh we're still working on those with the city and uh based on the survey results.

But yeah, we'll be addressing development.

Thanks.

I would have a broader question about canopy cover.

Um I I know the benefits of canopy cover, but if you change the priorities related to canopy cover, the reasoning you want canopy cover, does it change that percentage that you want?

So if you know the goal is just for shading and cooling, 12% is great, but if the goal is for uh keeping more water in the basin, you would want a higher percentage.

I I just was curious how much strategy there is in those priorities of why we're increasing canopy cover.

That is a great question.

Uh for the most part, it wouldn't change the uh percent increase of canopy, um more so where those trees are planted and the new canopy is um kind of grown.

If you're trying to uh work on fish habitat, then you're gonna want to plant most of your canopy along streams in the river and the tributaries.

If you're trying to work on um urban heat island effect, then you're gonna want to plant them around all the parking lots or in neighborhoods identified through the tree equity score with higher heat island or lower canopy equity.

Um not so much, it wouldn't necessarily increase the percentage of canopy you aim for.

So this this plan will just have the core scale of canopy cover and and not get into those details.

Is that right?

Uh we do address tree equity, um, prioritizing planting locations of the new trees for the canopy goal in neighborhoods that have heat islands or health burdens or um equitable access to green space based off of our research.

Um but again their recommendations, it doesn't lock the city into only planting trees in this one neighborhood.

Um they're just recommendations, guidance.

Okay, and then my broader question is a little bit, I think what Joe was trying to get at.

Um the ash removal goal is not at odds with the canopy goal.

Is that is that broad enough to answer without having the data in front of you?

Correct, it's not at odds.

So as part of the modeling uh the canopy goal modeling, we did run an EAB or we included EAB as an assumption.

Part of that was if EAB were to enter the city within the next year or two, how much canopy would be lost and how many trees would need to be replanted to offset that loss due to EAB?

And then the other was um calculating the removal of trees for EAB prevention as part of the canopy goal, which is offset by the 871 trees that would be needed each year for the uh 12% increase over 20 years.

Okay, thanks.

Matt, let me add something here.

I think to what Sally is saying that that sounds like it would be important for the plan.

And that's when you're talking about canopy coverage, the why.

Um why are we doing this?

What are the benefits?

Why set a canopy coverage goal and increase goal, right?

You know, um, I I think it's not gonna just be one or the other, right?

It's not only shade, it's not only uh stormwater retention, but again, it's it's important for us to list that that why.

What what you know why are we measuring it, um, and what the what benefits does it provide.

Yeah, of course.

I'm curious if the draft is going to include um, I guess just like something along the lines of comparing different costs and benefits um beyond what the recommended goal is.

Uh, because I would be curious to see in terms of like how many more trees per year, what the added cost would be of maybe shooting for like 13 or 14 percent even um canopy cover in the next 20 years.

So I'm wondering if your report is gonna include anything along those lines.

Um, so I actually haven't gotten to that section yet, but in other UFMPs that I've written, I usually uh include a graphic showing the four or five canopy goals that we've modeled and showing kind of a bar chart of showing how many trees are required for those goals and kind of cost, resources, um, and what the models kind of look like.

So is it growing and dropping or is it um shooting up exponentially?

Um so I typically include that.

Uh, we haven't drafted that section yet, and I think it will be up to the city what goes into the final UFMP.

But yeah, that is something we typically discuss.

Thank you.

Um, and then I'm also curious about kind of the public survey aspect side of this.

Um, so going forward, is there gonna be more of an effort or a push to reach kind of those younger renter populations?

Because it seems like you know, there was definitely uh heavy favoring in the not favoring, but more, you know, older and owner homeowners and whatnot were responding.

So I wonder if you know if there is more of a push as well to reach younger and renter populations, um, do you also expect that those results would be significantly different than what we saw in this public survey?

I don't know if I want to speak to the last part, but we'll definitely, as we continue in the update process, continue to expand um the way we're notifying the public of when we have these engagement opportunities.

But I think the main area where we will try to address reaching potentially a younger demographic or a more age diverse demographic will be recommendations in the plan for different types of outreach and education that and partnerships, you know, that the can the city can be maintaining or creating.

We talked about partnerships with nurseries earlier.

Um there's partnerships discussed in the 2016 plan with local colleges and schools.

So there's a lot of different and volunteer programs that already exist.

How can we expand on what's there, but also you know, focus on including everybody and making sure everybody is educated about trees in the urban forest.

And as far as including like a younger demographic in the rest of this planning process, we did discuss trying to reach out directly to a few um relevant university programs there, and I can't remember off the top of my head which ones those were, Mitch, you might.

Um as well.

Um so we have to get into that environmental sciences area.

Cool, thanks.

And then the last thing I have for right now is I'm looking at kind of this uh the split opinion on city involvement with private trees.

So I'm wondering if briefly you could just talk about um, you know, you mentioned you had other cities that you were kind of comparing Bozeman against, and um, what kind of some of those cities, what their approaches were to dealing with trees on private land and how that kind of affected uh their canopy cover goals and whatnot going forward.

Um yeah.

So that is actually one of the pieces we are still working on is the ordinance benchmarking between those communities in Montana.

Um, we are finding that the Montana State Constitution makes it a bit difficult in cases to uh kind of regulate trees on private property.

Um, but that will be something to come out in the next update and is part of the draft.

Thank you guys.

Do you have a number of kind of who's opposed, who's in support to kind of have an idea of how much pushback we'd get if we wanted to be more involved in private trees?

Yeah, let me find which question, which number question that is.

Um, and I will say this high level split opinion is covering answers from several different questions.

So let me get to that section.

And actually, this brings up uh something that I wrote down to ask for was um when might we expect an update to the engage page and will we be posting the raw survey data.

Um because as a commission, that's something we've started asking for a little more often.

So then we can go through and read like what are people saying is their objection and that sort of thing.

Yeah, I think we'll probably have an update for the engage page um here in the next month as we prepare for upcoming public engagement to give everybody plenty of time to be notified about it.

Um I think we've discussed appending um the report that we put together with the plan potentially, but um, yeah, we can discuss with Mitch and Alex if we want to get that data um published on the project page as well.

I don't see any reason why not.

There's a lot of good information in there.

We had probably about 30% of the questions had options for write-in answers, in addition to just answering the questions.

So there's a lot of good um input provided in those sections as well.

And actually I want to compliment you guys on the survey because it was a great survey.

It was structured really well.

I always love a good text box.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I will say um in addition, some of the split opinion, it's not a 50 50.

Um there's definitely some there is the most answers, the most respondents were replying unsure in this um section regarding private trees and city involvement.

Um, so that's a component too where I think we can continue to look at and figure out ways to educate people as well.

Okay, we had about so do you support requiring a permit for removing trees of certain sizes or species on private property?

Um 33% strongly supported and 18 strongly opposed.

But if you combine support strongly support, oppose strongly oppose, um, it's about even at um 40% each, with some people in the middle of neutral unsure.

Or also people that skipped the question as well.

So that's where this kind of high level takeaway is coming from, um, and then other questions kind of get into why people think the city should not implement um specifically a tree removal permit.

Um the major the majority of respondents would support the permit if there were exemptions for hazard trees or other situations.

So yeah, there Josh is showing the the graph associated with that.

But yeah, close behind is that 31% that the city should not determine what property owners can do with their trees on their private property.

So those are the two main um responses kind of driving that takeaway.

Great.

Thank you.

Um does anybody have any other questions?

I have like six more.

Okay.

Um we talked about one-to-one replacements of old trees and new trees, and somebody mentioned that not all of the trees we plant will survive.

Do we think that we're gonna plant more like one point five to two trees per tree removal or will it just be based on our progress towards our percentage goals?

Yeah, um, so for regular mitigation plantings, um, which is what we call them for um, you know, just removals that occur during routine pruning, routine work, uh those are recommended at a one-to-one uh replanting rate.

Um, but in as part of that replanting rate, we've calculated for about a one percent mortality of those new trees that are planted every year.

So um it takes into account that those will die.

Or the canopy goals specifically.

Um honestly think when you when the we run the models, um, those assumptions for natural mortality and uh loss to development, loss to EAB, I think it stacks them so that the canopy coal is basically planting two trees for every okay.

I'm mixing these up, but two trees for every hectare lost to one of those assumptions of mortality.

But within our recommendations in the UFMP, we typically recommend uh mitigation planting overall of two to one.

So planting two trees for every one tree lost.

So one of my questions will team very nicely after Page's question.

Um I heard that the goal was 871 new trees a year to reach the goal.

Um and then I also heard that there were 350 approximate that were removed every year.

So is that 250?

Um inside that eight seventy-one, so it's really like 521 new trees or planet, or are we talking a goal should be 1,221 to accommodate that 350 that will die and be removed that year?

Um so that is actually covered under a different um so as part of the tree inventory summary and analysis, we ran these models and did the calculations on um tree removals and uh prunings, plantings for basically uh, you know, your annual proactive maintenance cycle.

So under that, um we have how many trees will be needing you'll need to plant each year for mitigation plantings based on the pruning and removals of the inventory as it existed in January 2026 when we ran the analysis.

The canopy goal should while it's taking into account the EAB and ash, it's not really addressing um those mitigation plantings from routine maintenance, those are addressed elsewhere, and we'll be discussing the plan kind of separately.

So the canopy goal at 871 you can think of it as being higher because there will be other city-led plantings for mitigations, um, so I guess that answers your question that no, they're they're kind of different.

Um you mentioned the importance of species diversity, and also the public is pretty in support of that.

When thinking about the species we're going to plant to get that diversity, are we considering things like drought and pest resistance pests beyond just the emerald ash bore?

Yeah.

Yeah, so we are taking into account um as part of the vulnerability assessment we ran, uh, we did a sister city climate study analysis, um, kind of showing what Bozeman's predicted or projected climate and water patterns, rain precipitation patterns will be in 50 to 80 years.

Um, and that is showing that Bozeman is going to be a lot like Boise City, Oklahoma, which is down in the panhandle, very hot grasslands.

So we are making recommendations on tree species based on that uh that climate study we did, based on all of the pests we've identified, um, and also knowing you know there are native and natural tree pests and disease within Montana, they exist out in the mountains, and sometimes they come in through the wildland urban interface and get into your city.

So we consider some of those that aren't necessarily a huge threat right now based on the analysis.

Um, and then we also are taking into consideration wildfire, um, you know, less flammable tree species, planting locations, pruning, um, so yeah, the divide diversity and uh recommended tree lists take all that into account, the shifting uh hardiness zones and winter over, you know, cold temperatures, what that's gonna look like as well.

You mentioned when talking about the condition of the trees around the city that 75% were I think was fair to good condition, but then only two percent were in excellent condition.

What qualifies a tree as in excellent condition, and why don't we have more of them?

Um so that that does technically that comes down more to the city's standard.

Um so what they uh assign excellent, good, fair, poor, very poor, and dead.

Um in within the industry, we use very similar, you know, the same, they're dead poor, fair, good and excellent.

Um, but it really it there's not a hundred percent a standardized way to assign these uh these condition classes.

We have recommendations within the industry, but it really comes down to each city.

Um excellent would be a tree that's in perfect condition, has 0% crown dieback, no dead wood, no poor structure or defects, um basically like a champion tree, and but maybe Mitch and Josh can talk about how they rank their conditions.

Yeah, I don't have that off the top of my head, but it's um I would need Alex to help me out with the condition rankings, but it's f done physically on site, right?

From condition of the trees and um uh their health assessment of how it's doing for its space, its age, right?

Um, and so I'd need help him to help us a little bit on what that qualification is for good, uh excellent or poor.

Yeah, but it's a it's uh you know, it's pretty broad, it's a pretty you know broader rating, you know, and uh um I think it for the broad rating category and it can also it varies depending on who's assessing it.

Um, each person they go up to a tree, they assess the bark, the roots, the branches, the leaves, um, they look for any defects, different things.

Uh, one arborist may rank something as good while another ranks it as excellent or fair versus good.

Um so it can be very uh really determined by the individual at times, um, while there are standards and percentages that we're s we try to follow.

Um again, not to belabor this point, but as I think about it once when you ask it page, it's it does make sense to me that most of our books would would be reluctant to rate anything as excellent.

It'd have to be really superior.

Additionally, I'd add if they rank it poor, I would trust it's extremely poor.

Um yeah, uh we talked about having some ongoing opportunities to increase engagement in demographics that we had some low responses to, and um there was some ideas about reaching out to some university groups, but when thinking about what I see a lot of young people spending their time on or where they get information about their community or current events is social media with something like a social media ad campaign be available as an option.

Yeah, definitely, and that's part of um the notifications that are being sent out.

And I think for the survey specifically, I know we did an extra push on social media um to notify people about the survey, um, but there are different ways that that can be um, you know, managed to varying degrees, and so I think we'll continue using that during the update process and maybe identify some ways that could be expanded on um like you're saying to reach people since they do spend time on their phone and on social media um to see those things, whether it's notifications about education opportunities, um, making little you know, block graphics that maybe get put out as flyers regularly that the city already does some of condensing those into posts.

Um, there's a couple different um things that we can go over for sure.

One clarification on your question there.

Like, like so we are posting to like the city's accounts for on different social media, but are you asking about like an actual ad campaign where you like pay for Instagram advertisements?

Yeah, I don't know that many young people are maybe even aware that the city has an Instagram page that puts out information and so forcing it on them, and they don't have to seek it out by paying for it to show up in front of their eyeballs.

Yeah, well, we'll make a note of that and Mitch, we can talk about that with Alex when we meet next.

And to follow up on that, did anybody reach out to the tenants union?

Or the local chapter of the sunrise organization.

Because those could be, you know, you make contact to give them some content and they can proliferate it.

Could be a low-cost way to reach some more young people, renters, ecologically minded folks.

I don't think we have when you you said tenants union, and what was the other one?

The sunrise organization.

Um I think they're a climate change organization.

All right, yeah, thanks for that.

Um I think it'll be easy enough to reach out to them and and try to get the word out there.

Sorry, I was looking up sunrise um on my computer.

Um, so I have been caught.

Um so thank you.

Um, I have one thought and then a question, which I do not want the question to take us off topic.

So I'll do the recommendation first.

Um as I was listening to the education component, it made me think of Arbor Day, and I know the city traditionally just plants trees, and that's the event, but it might be very easy to throw some tree education into the Arbor Day activities.

So just maybe process through because that's already a staged and marketed event.

Um my question, I know there's a lot of conversations ongoing right now about carbon sequestration and those activities.

Um I don't know if that's even something to put in this management plan.

So I guess my question is more: is that a consideration that may factor into what is planted and or what trees are removed that are on the lower end, because I know older trees sequester less carbon than younger growing vegetation.

Take it away, Matt.

Sorry, I muted myself.

Um yeah, so we have looked into that uh as I mentioned earlier, the ecosystem benefits um for the inventory trees.

We know how many pounds of uh carbon are sequestered yearly, how many pounds of pollutants are estimated to be uh removed from the air and gallons of storm water each year uh that are removed.

And then we did break that down by the top 10 species.

As part of the UFMP, we will address those benefits.

Um, mention them um, you know, in the value of the urban forest section, and this is what Bozeman's publicly managed trees do for the city um and address you know how many pounds of pollutants and such and the dollar values for those.

Uh so we will discuss those.

We can definitely look into making recommendations.

Uh yeah, here's the table.

Um making recommendations uh for diverse plantings based on the uh ecosystem benefits that the species provides.

You know, in the Pacific Northwest, when uh basically all of the rain is happening is in the winter time, which is when the deciduous trees here lose their leaves.

Uh so we have to make recommendations for planting uh coniferous trees or uh evergreen deciduous trees like magnolias because of the ecosystem benefits they provide and the fact that they will have you know green leaves in the winter time in the Pacific Northwest to intercept that rainfall.

Um so we can do the same same for Bozeman, and we will definitely be looking into that if it's an interest from the city and from the community members, which it kind of sounds like it is.

It's it's pretty interesting to see this uh table, Matt.

Now I'm even more concerned about getting rid of all the green ash, quite frankly, with the numbers that they produce.

And that that is a fair concern.

Um it is because they are a deciduous tree, and because there are just so many of them in the inventory compared to everything else.

If you were to increase the maples um or the lindens, you will and elms, you'll see you'll see them producing more too.

Um I think a lot of this is just skewed by how many ash trees make up the population versus the numbers for these others.

I I was I was reading it as this is the impact in ash has, not the 22% ash.

So thank you for that clarification.

Great.

Um so those are my questions.

Um thank you very much, everybody for uh coming and um presenting this draft.

Um, I think we have one more question, so I will pause.

Allison.

Sorry, I always like to wait till the end until the board finishes.

Um don't want to take away time from you guys.

Uh when you were doing your modeling about tree canopy coverage, were you um thinking that the city boundary would remain static, or were you accounting for any growth?

Um that is a great question.

I believe we were accounting for it to remain static.

It was actually my coworker who ran the canopy assessments.

Mitch, do you know?

At least, just gonna say I think we accounted for growth.

Oh, okay.

Let me double check though.

I think we're just reviewing this.

Yeah, we're we're definitely seeing growth slow, but we are a growing city and probably will remain growing.

So if we need to Well, let me let's I think my clarifying question, Alison, for you would be when you say growth, do you mean physical expansion of the boundary of the city or growth in population and right?

Yeah, I think um physical area of the city.

Right.

Yeah.

It it doesn't expand at the same rate as the population growth, but it is expanding.

And our future land use map is three times the area of the current city footprint.

So the plan is to grow.

Over what period of time is that, Allison?

I think the land use map is a 50 year horizon.

I think they maybe that just highlights the importance of updating this on about a 10 year cycle.

Because I think in any any 10-year period, uh I know Bozeman's experienced pretty rapid growth recently, but even typically that 10-year growth won't be so much that it really skews these numbers, I wouldn't think.

Excellent.

And then I did just want to put a little fun fact that I learned recently out into the room in this conversation.

Um, as part of the Montana Land Use and Planning Act, cities subject to that law are required to uh delineate or quantify how much of their city is covered by private covenants, which might restrict development, and the city needs to plan for growth in the other areas, either the future land use map or the areas not covered by private covenants.

73% of Bozeman is covered by private covenants.

So I think, and this is my personal thought on that little fun fact right now, is that the areas covered by private covenants, we could very likely um encourage growth of our urban forest canopy to a great degree.

And the other areas is where we might see that loss due to development.

So just something for everybody to keep in mind.

Yeah, I think some of the promising results of the survey are, you know, and it might be we might only be getting responses from people who are tree tree advocates, but it seems like people will be very susceptible to carrots for private property.

Um just improving the the urban forest situation on private property, and and I don't think we would not not that you even can, as Matt said with the uh constitution in Montana, like have sticks that really, you know, force people to do certain things, but I think people will be susceptible, you know, if we can come up with some good programs that encourage the type of behavior that we want to better the urban forest.

Incentives and education do quite a bit for preserving private canopy.

Alrighty, I just thought of one other zinger of a question.

It's a zinger.

Um, so to our presenters, um, is there an internal question that you have been debating that you would like to ask seven people of the community just to see where we land?

Matt, you look like you're about to come up with something.

I'm trying, I I try to put all of my questions into the public survey.

That's okay.

Just know that um next meeting I'll try to remember to ask the same question.

All right.

I have a question.

Um there's discussion about how the recently um updated development code, the maybe I don't want to say vague, but where is the responsibility for trees placed based on what was put in that code?

Um, and I think we get a lot of input from the public about wanting to see um those responsibilities delineated.

Do you see that as a reasonable what's the word I want to say?

Reasonable path to proceed with to try to um codify some of those tree care responsibilities from a city perspective when it comes to development.

So I will take this.

Anybody else please feel free to disagree with me?

Um my personal beliefs, although a lot of the city code and work that is going on in the city is in our public news and discussed, I don't believe a large portion of our general public are really engaged in that discussion, and so adding that information into a forest management plan where we're focused on the trees, I think it would deflect from the purpose of the forest management plan.

Um, maybe having an appendix or something that maybe goes into that for the people that are really invested in in the code updates, but I would not make it so detailed that you lose your audience.

I would also offer that I think engaging in that way feels more like a stick, and and that that because it because it provides complication, and so I I think going with the carrot method with trees is often a better or more uh amenable to the community.

All righty.

Anyone else?

I think I think to be concise, I think Paige and I both said be conservative with the information that's put out.

Okay.

So I'll try to remember the zinger question next time.

And move on to the director update.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And as I get my computer turned back on.

Thank you all for that great discussion.

That was great input.

And that's exactly what we need to continue to make a better plan.

So I'll keep this quick in our last 10 minutes.

It is our busier than normal time of year.

And I say it like that because it's always busy.

And I know most everybody is that way, but it's even busier than normal.

It's um this time of the year, there's an amazing amount of impact at our facilities and our programs.

Um so all of them, whether it's pools or parks or trails, um, recreation programs, um, and then that means there's a lot more work to do to keep up with that, and this is included in trees because it gets nicer, and then everybody's calling about trees.

It's this time to time to prune and time to remove and time to trim alleys and and um on and on, and and it becomes difficult sometimes to prioritize.

There's so much happening, and you don't want to not do the smaller things, but you can prioritize um some of the things that are more you know important to life safety, for example.

But anywho, it's the busier time um than normal the season.

Multiple large construction projects um happening right now, uh Westlake BMX, um sports park, um, a lot of construction over at the sports park right now.

Um bike fill is getting really broke ground.

Um, we're trying to finalize the bid for the road adjacent to that, um, and then get approval to go in and actually start start building trails.

So that's all it's all a big push between consultants and planning um and contractors.

Um splash pad is is uh consuming an enormous amount of our time and energy right now to do the final push for this and to get it right.

It's um it's it's just to be quite frank, it's just it's just one thing after another and and constant.

It's it's a very complicated system.

Um it's a capture and treat and reuse on-site system rather than a flow through.

So it's a it's a very water smart type of system, which is appropriate for us, but it is still it's it's much more complicated than people would think.

And so to initially kind of get this going and get it up and running, um, it's it's very touch and go.

It's been texts this evening with running tests, etc.

We're hoping and really planning on opening this at uh one o'clock tomorrow.

And that's right, and so it really is one of those, and so you can sense my my trepidation on this.

Everybody is pushing extremely hard, it's an amazing amenity for the community, free for everyone, no ticket, right?

Um, fully accessible, no stairs.

Um, it's really important, and and um it's all hands on deck to to kind of get that done.

Um, so let me see here.

What else would I have here?

Next, and then speaking of construction, next month we'll be letting uh the contract for bogert renovations.

Um so once we close Bogart at the end of the season, we'll be doing significant renovations to that pool.

Um so bogert's great.

It's awesome.

And it's gonna live on, you know, it's our 1936.

Public swimming pool is just unheard of, and it's fantastic.

And so we'll get that going.

And I don't know.

I just I think all in all it's it's um as I mentioned.

When it is that busier than normal time, we have to watch for uh burnout and staff burnout this time of the year.

Um people really uh and make sure that uh frankly that people are taking care of themselves too.

It's it's uh it's very fortunate what we do and what we get to do and the team.

We're fortunate that we have such a dedicated team.

Um, but people need to you know remember it's a it's a long season, okay.

Uh let's not get burnt out in June.

Okay.

So um that's that's my update.

But I don't know how you cut the grass, let alone do everything else.

Right.

It's just amazing.

Well good work.

Thank you, Joe.

Thank you for that.

Appreciate it.

There was a park ribbon cutting ceremony as well, right?

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

So we we did um cut the ribbon on Southwood uh park, and um, which was been a great sort of collaboration over the years with the development that's gone in by um arrow apartments and um stadium view and then some and then now some new um high density apartments on the west hand side of of those, and it's created this um sort of amalgamation of of multiple parcels, which all total will be uh is uh 24 acres of of public parkland.

So this thing is really positioned where it can be our next really large-scale community park on the south side of town, so south of South of Kegy.

Um, and we have a park space that's already existing um east of the one where we where we cut the ribbon on Southwood, but Southwood is more amenitized in there with some public art and plate features, um, shade structures, uh, concrete paths to get you to these elements so to add accessibility, um, and then we'll start master planning.

Um, this summer actually, we just because we got uh fortunately improved in our uh budget Tuesday night um that um some work to do that includes um an additional facility there that's that's pickleball facilities, has racket and paddle sports, and it's also um play and skate um features.

So all wheels, so we're really working on turning that into kind of our next large-scale community park.

And then some of our staff have sort of thought about it as kind of the Lently Park of that area of town in the future, and then um I would say also that yes, thank you for noticing that because we're we're gonna we're trying to make a more concerted concerted effort to communicate with our communications team with the city to help us to recognize some of these.

Speaking of sort of burnout and busier, it's far too often that we do these types of projects and then just move on and go on to the next one and don't even stop and pause and and and recognize the work that's been done.

Um and we're trying to do better at that.

And yeah.

It's a great park.

I I walk in it almost weekly, not every day, but I as a Southsider, I really appreciate its connection.

I thought it was the most ridiculous place when it started.

I was like, why are they putting a park out there?

Now I love it.

So please tell the staff.

Awesome.

Thank you.

It's great.

Thank you.

Can I ask?

Um, I know as far as the bike fill thing, everybody was wanting to follow up on the bird survey.

It did Audubon.

Yes, did the bird survey.

Um, I went out there myself personally on Sunday morning, 7 a.m.

to open the gate for them.

Uh, to let them in uh Sunday mornings, 7 a.m., yeah, right.

I mean, right, it takes a village, is what we do, and I don't want to ask somebody else to do that, frankly, to be honest with you, you know.

Um, and and they were great.

They were, and we completed it, it's all done.

I have not seen the what would the data that was entered into it, but yes.

Okay, cool.

We completed it, and love the partnership with the second, we had Audubon.

Maybe we'll uh see if they can put it on the engage page.

Okay.

Yeah.

Great, thank you.

Um, so the urban parks and forestry board generally meets the fourth Thursday of every month from 6 to 8.

And with that, I would like to call this meeting adjourned.

Am I supposed to do that?

Oh, you have to, yeah.

It's kind of good.

Goodbye.

Is there a permanent chair?