2026 regular meeting for the Parks Recreation and Tree Advisory Commission.

Could I have roll call, please?

Board Donald.

Here.

Richard.

Here.

Wallace.

And Stokes is absent.

Thank you.

So for agenda review, we have a presentation from the Napa County Resource Conservation District.

It looks like we have a handful of administrative reports.

6A is harvest property acquisition.

6B discussion on the 2026 goals and work plan.

6C's urban forestry management plan update.

And 6D is park maintenance and recreation division updates.

Do we have anybody from the public who wishes to speak on any items that are not on the agenda?

We don't take phone calls right.

Anybody like to make a motion?

I'll move to approved minutes.

All in favor say aye.

Second over there.

Yep.

Bye.

Okay, moving right along.

Next up is a presentation from the RCD on their annual projects update.

I don't know.

Do I need to turn this on?

I just turned it's on, I think.

Well, I just should I put Should I put theirs up or I'm the old guy that barely I just hit control delete when I have their mics on, but I don't have control of the PowerPoint.

Or do I?

No, I don't think so.

So R C D PowerPoint.

This is mine and Jeff's.

Okay, thank you.

Ashley and I will be giving this presentation together, so we'll be kind of swapping out periodically, but I'll kick us off.

Next slide.

So today we wanted to give kind of a general overview of different ways we've been working with the city and accomplishments over the last year.

Ashley will talk a bit about our community stewardship programming.

We'll both talk a bit about other ways we've been working on coordination planning and implementing projects at a variety of scales.

And then we'll also talk about a few other partnerships with other city departments.

So I'll hand it over to Ashley.

So kicking it off right away with our volunteer events.

Um we partner with the City of Napa Parks and Mark Department quite a bit on different forest health-related events.

Um the first one is one of our largest events um every year.

Um that's our Green Friday event.

It happens the day after Thanksgiving.

Um and traditionally this is an oak planting event um at Alston Park.

Um it's very popular with the community.

We've had families that come back year after year and they go back and look at the tree that they planted, you know, the year before, two years before, five years before.

So it's extremely popular.

Um this year we had fifty-two volunteers that joined us, um, and we planted um 57 um new planting locations.

Um and those plantings um were kept within the footprints so that we weren't asking for more maintenance, um, but also um as um a mitigation for bowl damage that was done um in that area as well.

Um the other large events um that we do is MLK Day of Service.

Um this was run just recently um by our teen conservation interns.

We have three high school interns that run actually both Green Friday and MLK Day of Service.

Um but it just happened this Monday, it was a really successful event.

We had 60 volunteers uh that joined us along the Napa River Trail, and we removed um really invasive and very heavy ivy off of native trees along the river.

Um the whole point of that is to lighten the load of those trees so that they have the potential to not be super heavy and then obviously fall down.

And we removed Ivy from about 65 trees.

So it was a really super successful day.

And after talking with some park staff at the end of the day, we basically called that project done for the next two years until we need to do some sort of ongoing maintenance for that area.

And we also do sort of on our third Saturdays of the month from January through April.

We do we partner with the City of Napa, Napa RCD, and then the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service.

We all partnered together for the third Saturday French broom pools at Westwood Hills Park.

And students really love those because they are scheduled, they're regular, students need hours to graduate.

So they know that on the third Saturday of the month, they can go to Westwood Hills Park and they have an easy three, maybe not easy.

They have three hours that they can get for their volunteer service requirement for high school graduation.

So that's been a really popular program for the last I think this is the fourth year that we're doing it.

So it's been super popular, and we'll continue doing it.

Um then we've also had a couple, well, two so far really successful events as part of the urban forestry management plan.

This year we did one in October.

It was in contrast to the year prior, one of the wettest events I've been part of.

It was awesome.

We had 22 events in the downpouring rain.

They braved just absolute mud and slap to plant 50 trees and mulch the very entrance of Vineyard Park here in Napa.

It was really fun.

The volunteers absolutely loved it, they had a really great time.

So that was really great.

And then we have another one scheduled for March 7th out at the Napa Golf Course.

And then we also, as part of that urban forestry management plan, we've done two, we will have done two virtual workshops.

The first one was about tree regulations, and Jeff joined us for that and kind of led that one.

And that's available on our website on our YouTube page and also the city urban forestry web page.

And then our next program that's coming up is Right to your Right Place.

Um that's gonna help people figure out what tree to plant if they've got a certain kind of soil, if they've got a certain amount of space, if they've got other trees around, just kind of helping them figure out what kind of tree should go in the space and area that they've got.

Um then the last thing on this slide, um, we are starting um kind of a newer-ish partnership doing a tree giveaway as part of the um the street tree permit.

Um, and we're working with um again Jeff and his crew at City Parks and the city manager's sort of climate program.

Um, and the city parks folks, they're gonna take street trees, so folks who want to put in street trees, city parks will do the site visits, um, they will do the recommendation and things like that, and then folks who want to put in trees behind the sidewalk or in their backyards.

Napa R City will take on the site visits and things like that, make the recommendations and send that off to parks, and then that um we're hoping that that 200 fee will then be able to be waived.

Um, yeah, and then the goal of that is to really just increase canopy cover here within the city.

Go to the next slide.

Um, and then I want to really briefly um take a minute to introduce, reintroduce um the Napa weed management area.

Um, this is a countywide coordination on invasive weed management.

Um, this is something that was in existence for a while, has been in existence multiple times in the past.

We recently got a new three year funding grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Um, and this is we're hoping that this is gonna just be able to allow us to bring together different agencies and organizations and community partners to focus on education tools, uh, volunteer efforts, instead of all of us working in our individual silos, bring everybody together to have a plan for the county.

Um, so our funding is emphasizing coordination, not direct treatment, so coordinating volunteer events with the city of Napa and other partners, supporting meetings, workshops, educational materials, things like that.

I do want to mention that an MOU is not required to participate.

So if anybody from city parks departments or other, not just city parks, other city departments would like to participate, we welcome them to participate and let us know how you experience weeds and how you deal with weeds in your in your day-to-day work.

And then the really big thing that we're trying to do is advise on the upcoming countywide IPM policy.

So weeds are a big part of integrated pest management, and the weed management area is a big part of advising on that.

So I'm gonna hand it over to Allie.

We have funding from the Department of Conservation's regional forest and fire capacity program.

So we were able to provide this planning process to the city, forest management plans, kind of in contrast to an urban forest management plan, really drilled down into that specific property.

What are the kind of current conditions of the property, the goals and objectives of the landowner or land manager, kind of ongoing maintenance needs and really codify that into this living document that can help guide those management decisions over time?

And one thing that can be really valuable about these plans is that they are these cooperative plans that have been developed by the Board of Forestry and Natural Resource Conservation Services, and so it's kind of a standardized plan that's that's recognized and adopted, and can provide a pathway for implementation funding for certain grant programs that require these plans.

So we have completed the plan for Westwood Hills Park, have gotten feedback from Jeff and Brianna on that plan.

Um we worked with a registered professional forester, Estelle Clifton in developing that, and it's just going out for final signatures from the registered professional forester now.

So that's exciting.

Next slide, please.

We have funding that we secured from the state coastal conservancy to support some initial priority treatments.

Um you can see in the map that's on the screen there, the darker green is all the areas where there is French broom in the park.

Our volunteer efforts are really phenomenal, but in order to make a bigger dent in that, we wanted to bring in some additional resources that will help to mitigate wildfire risk and improve forest health.

You know, this is a really important wild wildland urban interface where there's a lot of wildfire risk to the community.

And so we are right now working on figuring out exactly how many acres of that about 40 acres will be able to treat.

Um, the treatment method that we've aligned with parks department on includes cutting, piling, and pile burning the broom, and then using this kind of novel technique of flaming the re-sprouts as they come up the next growing season.

You know, there are other treatment methods that can be used, but this is one that kind of fit best within the city's goals.

Um, you know, we'll need to be taking into account not only how far our funding can go in that initial treatment, but taking into account the longer term maintenance needs.

We have this funding through 2029, so we'd like to think about like at least having a couple rounds of follow-up treatments to make sure we're making as big of a dun as possible in that broom management.

Um we also built in some funding for community outreach and education.

It's obviously a very highly trafficked park.

We want people to understand what we're doing there and why, um, so see the opportunity to do kind of educational walk and talk.

We've talked about just broader outreach strategies to the neighbors and community members in the area, um, and then, you know, it'd be cool to eventually have some durable signage that could also educate people about the kind of ongoing management of the park.

And then, you know, as I mentioned, there's going to be ongoing maintenance needs.

There's also, you know, unlikely that we're going to be able to treat all of the sprooms.

So that's where the integration with the volunteer programming can be really effective and thinking about where are those targeted areas that the volunteers can support ongoing maintenance for year over year.

And I also want to mention, you know, we're thinking on our end about other sources of funding that could expand the treatments at Westwood Hills Park.

There's a wildlife conservation board grant that our statewide RCD agency is seeking funding through that could support some additional treatments at Westwood.

And then, you know, beyond the broom, there's obviously opportunities to think about the eucalyptus along the trail when you're walking in that pose a lot of safety and wildfire hazards and other improvements that could be made longer term.

Next slide.

Oh, and I'll pass it to Ashley to talk about Alston.

So Alston Park is we've got really exciting news at Alston Park.

We are looking at about 16% survival of trees planted over the last 11 years, which might not sound like a lot, but in wildline restoration where you're not using irrigation.

We're looking at 15% is the norm.

So we're actually doing better than the norm, which is exciting.

So we're really excited about what that looks like.

So we have had a lot of success despite, you know, the last year has been a little bit touch and go for us.

We had a really huge boom in vole population.

So voles are like a little rodent that loves to eat the bark of our small baby oak trees.

And that kills them almost immediately, or can kill them almost immediately.

A lot of our oak trees were able to re-sprout from the root, which is really exciting.

So oak trees are very resilient, it's one of the reasons why we love them so much.

So a lot of them resprouted from the roots, but a lot of them are only still alive because we had a really great core of volunteers who came out many many times to help us create rings of like defense around each and every one of the trees that are planted there.

There are over a thousand trees planted at Alston Park by Napa RCD volunteers.

And if we didn't have some of our dedicated volunteers, we want to be a known that we had an issue.

We had a volunteer come in and say, hey, all of a sudden, you know, we have 20 less trees in this one spot than we had a month ago.

And that's a big issue.

That's a problem.

So we're really lucky that we have such great volunteers doing a lot of really great work for us.

We also are really, really lucky that through another grant, a US Forest Service grant, we were able to hire Conservation Corps North Bay.

They actually did work on over 800 trees at Alston Park.

You can see in that photo, they basically just use weed whackers and created giant like bare areas around each one of the plantings.

And again, that just it discourages voles from being near the trees because they don't have a place to hide within that grass.

So that was a really big deal.

Having that weed reduction happen really helped reduce the vol damage that we could have potentially seen throughout the summer last year.

So really really excited that we were able to have that partnership.

And just because we wanted to keep it exciting, I'm gonna turn it back over to Allie.

I think it's just a testament to how integrated our programming is.

One other thing I just wanted to mention about Alston is you know, we see some opportunity for longer-term planning there, and um uh we do have a forest service grant that has some flexible budget to think about how we want to utilize that.

So um, you know, it'd be a little different than a forest management plan, but could provide some support and thinking through kind of that longer term vision.

Um, and then um kind of related to this, we've been working with the City of Napa Fire Department, as well as with support from parks department and our collaborators at Napa Valley Coad and Napa Firewise to develop a community wildfire protection plan for the city of Napa.

This has been a really nice process to go through.

You can see the map that's up on the screen there shows wildfire risk, and you can see, you know, there's good reason why we're focusing on places like Westwood Hills, where that is a really high wildfire risk in an area that leads into urban, you know, highly populated urban spaces.

So this planning process has involved a lot of engagement with local partners, agencies, community groups, and it that we now have a completed draft of the CWPP.

We're working on translating it into Spanish so that it's accessible to our community, and expect that it will go to council this spring for adoption.

And you know, want to mention that through our collaboration with the city, this the plan has a list in addition to highlighting kind of what are the known hazards and risks throughout the city, what are the kind of resources for mitigating those risks, it produces an action plan that has a project list and a method of prioritizing those, and that does include projects that we've identified in collaboration with the parks department, like the Westwood Hills work that we talked about, opportunities for Alston Park, and then kind of synchronization with the urban forest management plan, and you know, being able to eventually incorporate those identified needs into this planning process.

And I want to highlight in addition to you know planning the you know boots on the ground implementation projects, this this planning process identifies a lot of the community outreach and education needs regarding wildfire mitigation and emergency preparedness.

We did some surveys of the community, and there's most people don't know where their evacuation zone is.

Most people in these urban spaces are a little bit less kind of familiar with how do you pack a go bag and all those types of things that we all need to be prepared for.

So we see a lot of opportunity for that type of education going forward.

Next slide.

Ashley alluded to the Forest Service Grant that supported some of the work at Alston Park.

This is a cross-jurisdictional grant that we were awarded in collaboration with City of Napa, American Canyon, and St.

Helena, as well as the American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation and the Vine Trail.

And we have some opportunity to figure out where there are some additional planting locations within the city that we can support and additional educational needs.

So Ashley mentioned a few of the educational workshops that we've done, but we're always open to other ideas of you know what those needs might be within the community.

Next slide.

And this has been an exciting project to develop kind of a similar pathway where we first developed these management plans for Lake Hennessey and Moore Creek Park and the Snowden Vineyard, and then use that to help inform the grants that we're developing.

So I think it's just a nice example of the way that we can help support some of this planning and fund development with our partners.

So hopefully we'll be successful with that funding solicitation.

And back to Ashley last time.

So just really quickly talking about two other um city departments that we work with a lot.

We have a really great long-standing partnership with the City Water Division.

We support the Waterwise Landscaping Workshop series in the fall.

We do some in the fall and some in the spring, talking about uh drip irrigation conversion, you know, picking the right plants um for your different kind of soil and irrigation techniques um and all all kinds of things like that, um, and also talking about like landscape design as well.

Um and then we also are the primary coordinators of the climate-friendly garden tour.

And we did some math recently for a volunteer event that we did, and we found out that we um have actually um vis um reached over 13,000 um NEPA residents um through the garden tour.

Um so I think that's a really exciting benchmark that we've reached since 2011.

Um we are in the planning phase of the climate friendly garden tour right now.

Um it will be held on May 17th this year.

Um so we are in the thick of it right now, working with um Pat and Josh over at City Water.

Um, so that's a really exciting partnership that is always growing and is a really robust partnership.

Um and then the other one we have is we're working with the city manager's office um to work on some climate um climate action programs and climate action outreach.

Um we hosted a um summer workshop series for residents focused on practical everyday climate actions, and that's called the rooted in action week.

Um, and we did that, we offered that in both Spanish and English.

So we had translators available so that people who only spoke Spanish were able to participate as well.

Um, and those focused on reducing food waste, growing food indoors, repairing and reducing um household items.

We did like a repair fair, things like that.

Um, and that was um pretty successful.

Um, people really enjoyed um a lot of those programs as well.

Um, and they're currently partnering with the city manager's office to lead listening sessions with community-based organizations to um to gather input on improving electric vehicle and bike charging infrastructure throughout the city and focusing on um disadvantaged communities as well.

Um, and we're working on expanding partnerships with organizations such as um Napa Community Housing and the Family Resources Center, um, and we're just laying groundwork for future programming with um a lot of those different organizations, those community-based organizations, um, to just um talk about electric electrifying um the city of Napa, um, and getting more electric infrastructure throughout the whole city.

And I think that's all we have.

So if you have questions, um we'd love to love to answer some.

And um we'll you have questions, you can also feel free to email us as well.

Uh yeah.

Um, thank you for your presentation.

Um, you guys work two, it's a team, very good.

Practices.

Um I'm just curious from a historical uh framework.

The the fires.

It's uh either Austin or uh Westwood field uh over the years.

I'm just curious, and how bad were they?

What anybody know that here?

I know that fire history is in the Westwood Forest Management Plan, but I'm trying to remember Jeff.

Do you remember when that last fire was out there?

It might have been like the 90s or I I can't.

I mean, major, I can't remember what's in that plan.

Yeah, there, but there hasn't been a significant fire in a really long time, and that's partially, you know, the issue is that fire hasn't been on that fire adapted landscape in a long time, and so just a lot of overgrowth that's allowed the broom to really really get out of control.

Well, it's good you want to keep it that way, you know.

Something's working, so yeah.

Um I was curious about at Westwood.

There's that little nature center there on the Caroline Park.

Whose control is uh is that under where is that uh factor in the recreation department?

Uh that building is leased um from the parks and recreation department to the nonprofit entity that's a non-profit.

So they're totally separate.

Oh okay.

Um that's it, that's all I had.

Um I'm gonna ask a really dumb basic question.

So resource conservation district.

What type of organization is that?

Is it is it a foundation?

Is it uh how what's your budget?

How were you funded?

Are you you're obviously staffed?

Uh yeah, yeah.

So we're a public agency, yeah.

And resource conservation districts were established and response to the Dust Bowl, but without uh funding base.

So we are primarily, you know, we get maybe five percent of our annual operating budget through taxes, but the rest is through grants and contracts.

So we're that's why we're constantly going after grants, like some of what I was mentioning up there.

Um we can't accept donations like a nonprofit does.

That was that was gonna be my other question because obviously you're really leveraging volunteers, which is fantastic.

But as a resource conservation district, you cannot take, but that's not a big deal.

We essentially we essentially operate like a nonprofit, but we're we're a public agency.

Okay.

We're part of the give guide every year, and we get um not a ton of money, but we get, you know, a fair amount of money from the Git guide every year.

So I ran time right.

Yeah.

Uh I'm on the Park and Rec Foundation board.

So I'm like hey.

We are working on um an improved kind of donor engagement strategy as an organization, building out collateral.

I think you know, we're one trying to increase our name recognition within the county as well as help people know you can donate to us.

So from a staff perspective, then I mean how many folks actually work for the conservation district?

We have a team of 18.

We've grown pretty significantly in the last eight years.

I think eight or nine years ago, we were about a team of nine or ten.

Um our budget has also increased from about a three million dollar annual operating budget to eight million dollar annual operating budget.

So we've really been trying to increase kind of the scale of work we're doing and the impact we're having in the community.

Our forest health program is relatively new.

It really grew out uh in response to the 2017 and 2020 wildfires.

So we have a long history of oak planting and restoration, but now we're doing a lot more work in forest management planning, fuels reduction, um, and and that side of things as well.

So as you are pursuing partnerships or reaching out to businesses and whatnot, as they donate to you or as they partner with you, there's a tax benefit to them as well.

Because even though again you are a public agency, that money is intended to be a tax deductible.

Exactly, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Uh, just a couple.

Um, when Joe was asking you about funding, um, you mentioned taxes.

Are those property taxes or assessments on the property tax bill?

What sort of taxes do you receive?

I believe property.

I might need to double check that to be positive.

But it's it's small.

It's like if you look at our pie chart of where all our funding comes, you can barely see that sliver on the chart.

And it's it's in the city of Napa, but I don't think it's all of the city of NAVA.

So it's a very it was like when we were first founded, was when like our funding base came from.

When our funding base is established, and it's it's very strange.

Yeah.

Okay.

But if I did it's not child of government, yeah.

Um in the Westwood Hills implementation part of your presentation, the in the handout, I'm not sure you addressed this, I missed it.

Um, what is flaming of re-sprouts?

Yeah, so it's essentially like w after we cut back the broom, um, and there's new growth coming up the following season, it's basically taking like a torch and flaming those sprouts as they're growing up.

Yeah.

With a torch.

I wonder if that would work at home.

You could try it, but I would recommend getting advisement on it.

Most of my weeds are in the bark.

So I think the bark would catch fire before you were destroyed.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, next up is item six A, uh, an update on the harvest property acquisition.

Exciting news.

We are the proud owners of a vacant abandoned middle school.

I know.

It's been a while since I've seen you um all, but we closed on the property uh mid-December.

So the transaction uh recorded, I think December 12th.

Uh we took uh the month of December to just button up some final things that we needed to do uh in transitioning the property, but we opened it back up for public use uh starting January 3rd or maybe 2nd.

We had some groups sneaking in there.

Um this is obviously a a huge uh endeavor for the community, a huge endeavor for providing recreational services and amenities to the community, um being a 27-acre property.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about what's going on out there now, um, kind of the interim plan, and then um what our plan is over the next year or two, and ultimately um designing what will ultimately be constructed on that property, so even though the school um had been shuttered for a few years, there were numerous um community groups, nonprofits, and sports organizations that were renting um field space, gym space um over the past few years.

So collectively there was about 17 groups who rented about 2500 hours of space.

You can see the breakdown about 950 hour field hours and then 1,550 gym hours, and that's split over there are two gyms on the property.

Uh Playground Fantastico, which is um operated by the city that was originally um constructed upon uh a leased parcel of that property, so now we ultimately own own that property.

Um so our intent was to make sure uh that we didn't disrupt these groups um or did so as minimally as possible because one of the reasons we were one of the primary reasons we're very we're interested in purchasing uh harvest was to provide additional field space in court space and gym space.

So we want to be um mindful of that as we look to the future.

So we are currently um operating uh the small gym, the large gym, the synthetic uh turf field, and then the track that goes around it, and then there are two natural baseball fields um at the back.

So we've accepted uh reservations through June 30th.

We plan to accept reservations on like a six months basis moving forward until we we know definitively what the construction timeline will look like and construction will likely at least at some point impact some of these um these areas that are currently being utilized by the community.

Just a picture of the track.

Right now we do have four full-time staff out there with Los Las Flores being closed for construction.

We took those four staff that work out of Las Flores and they're over at harvest at least temporarily.

It's good for us to have um eyes on the property and have a presence there during the day.

One of our first orders of business is gonna be a demolition plan.

Uh it's an attractive nuisance.

It's already getting it has been getting quite a bit of vandalism over over the years.

Um it is in the city's best interest to get the vertical structures down as quickly as possible.

Um at yesterday's city council meeting, council approved and allocated five million um to go ahead and proceed with demolition, and that there should be um some funding remaining to at least initiate some of the planning and design services.

So I don't have a timeline yet, but now that that funding was awarded, we'll assemble a city team and start looking at what the demolition plan looks like.

Here's just an aerial view of the property.

Um I called out in the red box, that's the old gym.

At this point in time, that is the only structure uh that will remain as far as the school buildings go and all the surrounding school buildings are intended to come down.

Um the old gym gets a lot of use, so our first preference is to um rehabilitate or renovate that building, unless we learn that it's cost prohibitive to do so and that it's we we know for sure it's cheaper to demolition or demolish it and build something new.

We're gonna keep it up until we know that for sure.

And then right by that little small pool.

Oh, you can see my mouse.

This is the new gym, and this is in good condition, so that is remaining as well.

The first big uh lift will be to initiate community engagement.

It's very important to the city that it's uh transparent, it's an inclusive, it's a community-driven uh process in developing what will ultimately be constructed at the it doesn't even have a name yet.

We keep calling it the harvest recreational complex or harvest complex, um, what will be built upon the site.

So we have this four uh phased approach to community engagement.

I'm gonna walk through this just at a very high level, but I want to make sure you guys have an understanding of just how robust of a process this will be, how many touch points there will be with the community and with you all as stakeholders as we move uh through this process.

So four phases.

Phase one is connect, phase two is outreach and consult, phase three is involve and collaborate, and the final phase, phase four, is to share leadership.

The good news is all our work over the last few months as we have um done the the preliminary uh phase one work already, just anticipating that this time was coming when we would close on the property, and we would want to be positioned to pivot quickly.

Um we know there's going to be high community expectations and desires and demands to do this as quickly as possible, which is why over the past few months we conducted the statistically valid survey, the in-person community meeting.

Um you all participated in one of the two leadership alignment workshops with the commissions, and then uh beyond the statistically valid survey, we did the citywide uh bilingual survey, and I'm pleased to report we had over 1500 uh responses to that.

So we are compiling all this data.

This will all be coming back to you as like the very first layer of information in starting to articulate what the community's priorities are, and it's very interesting.

There was a lot of alignment, near parallel alignment between the statistically valid survey and the community-wide survey.

So we are once we have our um architect and design firm on board, and I'll talk a little bit in a minute about the process that we're going through.

But once we have our team assembled and on board, we will launch into phase two.

Uh it's anticipated that this will likely occur.

It's not great to do community outreach at the peak of summer, so we're likely going to try to target like August, like right after kids go back to school.

You'll see a host of um opportunities to participate.

So phase two outreach, we'll analyze and kind of present that phase one, all that work that we just did.

We'll we'll unveil the results, and then we'll we'll pivot and talk site specifically about harvest.

So we to this point we just kind of asked Jen generally what is missing in recreation, what do people want?

Um, and as we go into phase two, we're gonna actually start to focus the what those desires and needs are and talk specifically about the harvest site.

Um we're anticipating four town hall meetings, um, two right on site to make sure we're we're touching that local community.

One of them will be completely in Spanish.

We'll do a city council work session to hear from city council kind of what their desires are uh for this the future of this property, and then do about 10 to 15 stakeholder focused group meetings.

You all are obviously going to be a very active.

If you didn't know already, you all are gonna be very active stakeholders uh in this process.

And uh continue to do, you know, as much as we can connect with the community so they're that they're aware of their opportunity to participate and they're just aware that this very exciting thing is is um taking off.

Uh, community events, local neighborhood outreach, civic organization outreach.

And then we will transition into phase three.

Phase three will focus on programming and design alternatives.

Um it is ultimate the ultimate goal we are working for is to be at two design concepts by the end of 2026.

So two ultimate um kind of concept designs of what the the potential layout would look like and what the cost associated with those two alternative layouts looks like.

Uh so once we have these two concepts, there'll be three community design review meetings where we can talk through the pros and cons, the cost alternatives, kind of the options associated with with each of the two designs.

Uh again, continue pop pop-up and outreach at community events, local neighborhood and civic neighborhood outreach.

It will likely do another online voting tool or survey, um, where the community can vote on what what their preference is.

And then ultimately, um at the end of phase three, the the we will be hopefully selecting one of the two design alternatives, and then we will transition into phase four, which is to really communicate what the final concept design is, um, make sure we're updating stakeholders, educating the community on which design alternative is actually trans transitioning into full the design development phase and ultimately construction documentation phase.

So because we're uh excited, we know the community's excited to get this started as expeditiously as possible, uh the city uh released an RFP, a request for proposals to select an architectural planning and design firm.

They need to have um kind of all the subs on board as they submit their uh proposal, um, and we will have the the planning firm actually lead the community outreach so they're hearing firsthand kind of what the community um desires, and if um all goes according to our tentative uh calendar, council could uh potentially be awarding that agreement as soon as May 5th.

And again, with the phase two community engagement hopefully kicking off in August.

So that is very high level uh kind of overview of where we are headed here over the next couple of months.

Um I'm happy to answer any questions you have either about material I went over or just about the property in general, I know.

Snack up just a couple quick ones, Brianna.

Um remind me is this site essentially planned just for recreational use or but uh will city offices be included?

Is there housing?

What what are the elements?

Uh according to the city's general plan, um, and council certainly reserves the right to give us direction in either way, but the general plan was just recently adopted and it calls for 2.53 acres of high density housing on the site.

So ultimately it's a 27 acre site, so we're looking at 25 solely for public recreation.

Great.

Who was who was running the gym and the track and the fields before the city took over?

I mean, if these folks were using it, didn't they have to like book it and pay the fee to somebody who was running it?

The school district, okay.

Even though they had shut it down, they'd still thank you.

Yeah, Brian.

Uh does the state of California have any um uh you do with the building of this, you know, the development is.

You have to work with the state at all.

Are they you have to satisfy anything from them so we you don't have to they're not gonna get in your hair.

Not that we anticipate um all of the funding for the development of the site will will be kind of local dollars.

Um, the city council uh established a JPA so that they are positioned to be able to issue a ultimately issue a bond um to be able to develop the property, so all local funding.

Um Brianna, I gotta tell you I'm really impressed with the job you and your staff have done with this to wrap your arms around this project and and plan it to this extent.

It's really impressive.

Um but I assume this has created a major workload for for the department.

Um you mentioned shifting some field staff over to the school.

How are you coping administratively with it?

We uh did request and thankfully were granted um some additional maintenance help because 27 acres is is a bigger lift for Jeff and his team, so he's getting uh one limited term position and one promotion uh for another lead worker.

And then uh we thankfully got Allie Koenig some help, another limited term position was approved.

So we have another management analyst who started uh this week.

So Allie now has a full-time staff working with her who will hopefully be able to take on some of the smaller park projects so that Allie can stay more focused uh on harvest.

And you know, that's just to get us through this design and construction process because once we know what's going to be built there, whether it's uh we know the pool was the number one ask in both the community survey and the citywide survey.

Um so once we know that a pool will be built or what size that pool will be, we'll have to start wrapping our head around the ongoing operational costs of staffing and lifeguards and operating a full, you know, a full facility of that magnitude.

Okay, so it's under under control.

Hopefully.

Does the city view this as a potential source of income over the years?

Uh it will offset some of its expenses and in revenue, but it will not fully cost recover.

Yeah.

If you can get a facility even to 50%, then that's good.

So there will be some subsidy.

But that subsidy would likely come in the form of like what property taxes and developer fees or where would the offset?

Uh measure G.

Thank you very much, Messer G.

Yeah, a question.

Uh the solar panels, is that part of the package?

Yes, yes, we now own a solar field.

Um we transferred the solar purchasing power agreement um over to the the city.

There's 10 or quite a few years left on the agreement.

Um we do have an out clause as well.

Um it's it's operational and we'd like to keep it operational as long as we can, unless the design for the site, like unless it makes sense to put something there and it just needs to come down.

Um we're hoping to keep it as operational as long as we can.

And even once we do have a design for the site, it's likely to be a phased construction.

I mean, this is just a really big project.

So ideally, if we could take the solar field down in like phase two or phase three and keep it up a little longer, that would be ideal, but all that's gonna be dependent on the actual design that the community lands on.

So, okay, thank you very much.

Next up is uh item six B a discussion on the 2026 PRTAC goals and work plan.

So typically in January we do the chair, vice chair, beak pack rep, but if you haven't noticed, we're still a little light.

We're down to two positions.

Uh we have applications in, so that's good.

We have a student application in as well.

Um interviews are tentatively scheduled for February 9th.

Um so we m and applications are still open.

People can still apply and still be considered by council on February 9th.

So hopefully we'll be getting you guys some help shortly, and once we do that, then we'll look at the chair and vice chair and BPAC rep.

So that's why that's not on typic what it I it's typically on our January agenda, and it is not tonight, but I did want to at least look at um your goals for 2026.

So what I put in the packet was what you did in 2025, and then I highlighted the things that we didn't get to, and there was not a whole lot.

We did pretty well last year.

Um so we didn't necessarily have a specific NAPO Lighted Arts Festival highlight, and we um did not have course co the golf course come out, but they're actually scheduled to come next month.

Um so we're just a little behind schedule on that.

Uh ultimately, I think we need to move forward and come up with a plan for 2026.

And then starting in 2027, I would recommend we kind of do a two-year work plan to align with the two-year budget to align with the two-year council focus areas, but um we'll at least need to tackle 2026.

So one thing that we know I I need to weave into your 2026 plan is all the harvest-related items.

So that's gonna be like bringing you back phase one community outreach and what we heard from the community and what they're asking for.

Um, and then your stakeholders serving in a stakeholder capacity once our planning and design team is on board.

So we do have those two things to add in here.

What I suggest is I open the floor and you guys can tell me what worked well last year, what you might recommend changing, and then I can take that back and type something up and bring it back to you at the next meeting on consent.

I do know, like in 2025, that was the first year we did two park tours.

You guys always want more park tours.

So we actually did two this year.

Um, you know, so those are the the things that we changed, and they're certainly open to your um input recommendations.

Any comments and questions input?

Uh just for everybody's benefit.

I dropped Brianna a note um regarding the Park and Wreck Foundation presentation.

Um I think we can take that off of the schedule for a formal presentation uh next year.

And what I'd like to do is just um add it as a standing agenda item in section seven, uh, just as a quick little readout uh from Park and Rec Foundation.

Um I'm doing that already in my commissioner comment section, but we can just agendize it to make sure that it uh stays top of mind for us.

I assume nobody has a problem with that.

Uh sounds good.

I'll keep going.

Uh uh park visits are great.

Uh yeah, at least two.

I think those are really valuable.

Do you guys want to get out to harvest sometime soon?

Heck yeah.

And um I was I continue to be really interested in the Placer AI data.

And if there is any sort of annual readout or something about park usage, uh recreation programs, you know, obviously activities downtown, um, something there that shows us where we're getting the highest level of engagement, I think would be really interesting and helpful.

Great.

Yep.

Suggestions?

Recommendations.

I had one question.

Um I did notice that the joint meeting for the playable arts project was on calendar for January.

What's the status of of the project?

Is it going forward?

It is all the site preparations have been completed.

Uh they were done in the fall.

Uh we had a slight delay, rain to let we had some horrible weather over the last couple months.

We had some rain delays and we had to redesign some of the footings.

All the uh equipment is here.

So it was fabricated in Berlin, came over on a ship, came into the Carolinas, loaded on five trucks, showed up here at our corp yard at like what one in the morning, Jeff.

Yeah.

Uh so the equipment's all here, and uh the installation crew is remobilizing on Monday.

So that was a very timely question to ask.

So yes.

Uh additional concrete, additional rebar is going in because of the footing redesign.

So now it's pushing our anticipated construction timeline into April, but that's okay.

Yep.

And we've relocated because Las Flores is closed.

We're running summer camp out of Fuller Park this summer.

It's gonna be the summer camp hub.

So we've got to get that playground in.

Did we incorporate the feedback from the community about enclosing that play area?

We did, and Jeff and Allie worked with a fence contractor and we found a solution and we're gonna be able to fully enclose it.

Thank you so much.

That's awesome.

And now the restroom is funded for design this year and construction.

So that was the other feedback we heard was wanting uh an inclusive restroom.

So that's also in motion.

Fantastic.

That's great.

Yes, the fuller restroom.

People love it.

Yeah, Jeff's got a little issue with the drain going on, but the community loves it.

Alright, thank you so much.

Um moving along to item six C an update on the urban forest management plan.

Right.

Long time coming.

Got the grant in 2022.

So really excited to bring bring this item in front of the commission tonight.

Um like I said, been a long time coming.

It's been a lot, a lot of work with staff, but it's it's created so many opportunities and avenues for us to learn things that we we never knew before.

So really excited to go over at least portions of this plan tonight with you all.

Um kind of moving along and a little update of where we are now, how we got there.

Um we are at draft two right now, and and you are all seeing portions of draft two, and I'll go a little bit more into those portions and why we strategically chose those portions.

Uh draft one was something that was delivered to staff in a Word document uh in the fall of 25, and it was really meant to for us to take a look and look at the various sections of the plan, identify uh a lot of the items in the plan, but no images, no visuals, no tables.

We had seen the tables in various aspects and meetings, but really never seen it put together in a plan package.

Um so it wasn't until you know just a few weeks ago that we received this draft two, which is an 85-page plan including all the tables, and it has four various sections within it.

Um, and tonight we're bringing you a few strategic sections.

Um, and I'll go a little bit into detail about the other sections of the plan.

Uh, what's coming to you tonight is really the meat of the plan and what will be probably used to drive changes that we make.

Um the remaining of the plan has a lot of backup information about community engagement that we did, it has a lot of the um tech heavy portions describing to the reader where we got this information, and eventually obviously at the end we'll talk about draft three and when that comes in front of the commission.

Um, and then uh at the end is more information and more data.

So, really what you're seeing tonight is is really the meat and potatoes of of that plan.

Um so moving on, the pieces of the plan.

So tonight what's being asked the commissioners is to go ahead and review, discuss, and provide feedback on these three specific sections of the plan.

Um, and the first piece of that being this executive summary, and what this piece is really describing is is describing kind of what goes into a 40 year plan.

How do you get there and what are the pieces that you use to build it?

So, not to read it verbatim as it's in your packet, but just to highlight some of those things.

So, really, this is a 40 year plan to just to provide the roadmap to to the city on how to care for the urban forestry.

Um, it also provides an overview of the community.

So it describes you know our size, kind of what we are, a little bit of the history of the community.

Um, and then it dives into some of those pieces I just touched on, which is the data part of it.

So it really leans in heavy on that tree inventory.

I know I've brought to the commission before that software tree keeper that we use where they inventored 34,000 trees.

It also dives into the canopy aspect of that, um, which is something that they use LIDAR to determine how much canopy coverage we do have in the city.

Not to go without saying big highlight 21 and a half percent, really.

That is where our canopy is at, and that is a very, very respectable number.

You'll see that number called out a lot in here, and and really, you know, one of the main goals is to keep it there or grow it, you know.

And then another aspect is really just about the benefits of the trees.

So, you know, air quality, stormwater, all those things, that executive summary goes into that.

Um, and then there's a piece that talks about how the how the forest is managed.

So it talks about the work that city staff does to manage what portion of the urban canopy it can, roughly about 25%, and then it starts to dive into really where where the the largest majority of the canopy is, which is again located on private property, and it talks about that partnership.

So that's really the executive summary.

Um the second piece that was brought in front of you tonight is that visioning statement, and I'll go into a little bit more detail of the visioning statement, and then lastly, um, and probably the biggest portion of what I'll spend the most of my time on is talking about the goals and the recommendations of the plan.

So moving on to the visioning statement.

So this was a this was a statement that was developed uh with Davy Resource Group and with staff and something that we we took a lot of time with and are really really proud of what we've produced.

And so this is the four Ps, and it's you'll see this four P statement kind of transitioning throughout the entire plan, particularly you'll see it touched on in the goals and recommendations.

And so again, I won't read it verbatim, but really it's built out of really four key categories.

So you've got preserve, protect, promote, and plan.

Um, and so that preserve is really talking about the support and encouraging a healthy tree structure and urban forest.

That protect is really just utilizing tree protection that we can within the city, but knowing that 75% of our canopy is not located on city property and outside of our jurisdiction, we're leaning really on that education piece.

Um, and then that promote really tied into that private property aspect.

How can the city, and especially RCD, one of our biggest partners, how can we really be an educator and a promoter of of the urban forest and its benefits, and then lastly is really the plan, and that's kind of all the the information that I'll go into in the goals and recommendations section, but how can we be planning for long-term maintenance and care of both the trees we oversee as well, those ones on private property as well.

So the next section is really how does that how does that visioning statement and goal recommendations section play into the goals and recommendations, which are really really the the kind of meat of what we have.

And so how are those goals and recommendations created?

Um really at the foundation of those is all this technical data that we got.

So the assessment of the urban forestry sustainability indicators, that community tree inventory where we had uh over nine staff members from DRG out for about seven weeks looking at every single tree, identifying its species, its size, its canopy, any of its needs, and then review of all of our city policies and practices that we currently do here in the city as far as as planning around planning for trees, also all of our work practices from our equipment to the number of trees that we prune every year.

We really uh we've spent a lot of time digging into that information, and then lastly, what goes into these goals and recommendations, and you know, one of the key aspects is really the input from the community, you know, and themes and priorities that came from that.

Um, and then the other section here on the right side of the screen is really just um in your packet you have this as well, but I wanted to go into a little bit in depth about what this key is.

So as you see every goal and recommendation, you can hopefully kind of understand what impacts they might have.

What is the timeline.

So the first one is really talking about the departments involved in implementation.

So most of these obviously live under the park and recreation, but you'll see public works, you'll see our legal team, you'll see economic development depending on the goal or the action.

And then timeline, and again, we already have some input on draft two, so we're looking to tweak this section a little bit.

But as far as timeline goes, we wanted to make sure that we gave the reader kind of an idea of you know what is our anticipated timeline that we would start this action, not necessarily complete it.

So obviously in progress is in progress, one to three years, and then obviously four plus would be for longer term items.

And then lastly, the money, you know, what will it take to get these goals or recommendations moved on?

And you know, the single-dollar symbol is really something that we feel like we can do with it within the existing funding that we have.

Uh, the two dollar is something that we may be able to leverage some of the funding that we currently have, but maybe may need to look at additional funding to try to get that action over the hump.

And then lastly, the third is is things that that may take significant additional resources to to be able to complete.

Alright, so moving on here.

So as I talked about earlier, the visioning statement does really lead into the goals and recommendations.

And as you read through your packet, and you'll see as I go through this, you'll see those four Ps start to come through.

And so we broke down all these goals under those four Ps, the preservation, the promote, and the plan.

So starting with press one-one is to really go into those goals and actions.

And there's a lot of them under each one of these sections.

So what I'm gonna do tonight with you all is is kind of give you an overview of each section one, one, one, two, et cetera.

And then I'll talk about the items that are in progress.

Uh, if you have any questions about the other items at the end, happy to answer those.

So, starting with uh starting with preserve here, uh one one is provide ongoing proactive maintenance to trees throughout all stages of their life cycle to maximize the chance of success.

So, this is what all these goals are going to live under is kind of this heading.

Um, we have two things in progress, and that's implementing the industry industry standards when selecting planting and providing establishment and care uh for new trees.

So that that's two items.

One that we've already completed and one that's that's almost completed, and that is a tree care plan that Davy Resource Group worked on, and it's also our master street tree list that you all had a part of that we approve.

And then the second one is that is contracting out pruning and other maintenance if internal crews do not have capacity.

So uh we know we oversee 34,000 trees, which is more than five folks can handle in a year.

We already do this, there is room for growth.

That's why you see a $2 sign there.

Um, I'm I'm sorry, I'm looking at the the piece that's in your packet.

Um, so there is some room for growth there, but it's something we already do.

And then moving on to one two here, um, preserve large, healthy, mature trees whenever possible to maximize and sustain community benefits.

Uh we all know that the large trees play a huge role in the canopy, but in many other aspects, and there are two sub-goals under that, both in progress.

It's protect maintain desirable forest stands and focus on preservation efforts on trees.

Uh, it's something the department's been doing ever since I've been here, and we're just continuing to refine it.

So it's an ongoing, in progress goal here.

And then the second one is to continue to protect important trees on city property by creating a designation for mature desirable trees on public property.

Under our current Muni code, the trees on our property are already overseen and protected by us.

So that's something in progress as well.

And then moving to one three here: plan and prepare for invasive and nuisance species, including plants, pests, pathogens to protect NAPA's forest.

Um, not as many in this section in progress, but there is one.

So, following your integrated pest management for best practices when monitoring for and dealing with invasive and nuisive species.

Um, so you saw that there, Westwood Hills, although not a tree.

That's a that's another project that we're already in the progress of doing those use of trees as well.

And touching on one four is increase the species and diversity and new and replacement trees.

Lots in progress here, but the first four are really around that 102030 rule, which is not more than 10 species, 20 genus, 30 as the as kind of the rule to follow when planting trees.

So if we remember back to the master street tree list, and I brought to you some information about what species we have the highest percent of percentage of that oak tree at 10% was one that was hovering at 9.5%.

So we made sure that every tree on that master street tree list fell within that diversity.

Another area in here is to talk about updating that master tree tree list.

So as you understand how your populations change, you update that list.

Moving on to one five, and the last under preserve is to evaluate parks and urban forestry division staffing and resources to keep up with city forest program needs.

So again, here another one in progress is to utilize the data and public tree inventory resource analysis and work plans to predict upcoming tree maintenance needs.

So with our current software that we have, we know which trees need to be pruned.

We know which trees are prior to removals.

This stuff is already going into our work plan and is going into our day-to-day activities.

In addition, in this section, you have integrate tree maintenance budget into citywide planning efforts.

This again is already being done with the streets and sidewalk programs, and as well as something I'll touch on later, which is Coomb Street.

Uh, these reforesting projects are already integrated into other departments' budgets as well.

And then explore additional funding for trees, replacements, and maintenance again in progress.

That's something we continue to do all the time, pre-plan and post-plan.

And then continue to plan fleet replacements and equipment acquisition aligned with operational needs.

We are a department that has been blessed with a lot of really great tree equipment that allows us to do a lot more work than a lot of other agencies really can.

So moving on to protect.

So the first one in protect two one is to identify gaps in existing tree planting maintenance preservation standards and city city municipal code.

One just to touch on here in progress is the relevant language for current policies and standards, uh, street tree removal notification policy and tree preservation standards.

These are two policies that drive how we assess trees for removal, and it is currently being reviewed by Davy Resource Group, and they've just given us recommendations for how to update that, those two plans there.

And moving on to two, two here, ensure tree related policies and any other related city documents, such as approved street tree list, street tree planting specifications, tree removal, and posting policies are updated updated and aligned.

So we are regularly updating our city's approved master street tree list.

Again, an item brought to the commission.

That's one in progress, and then again, another one touches on our master street tree list, which again is in progress and actually completed, and then review and update our tree removal and posting policies.

I touched on that as something, another project that we're we're working on currently.

And two, three, develop new standards education materials to address issues affecting NAPA's urban forest that are not included in the current city codes and policies.

So really under the major major category that's in progress here is develop a comprehensive tree manual for staff, contractors, community members to standardize practices and promote maintenance.

Davy Rescourse Group helped us create two kind of two page documents.

One's really about the education and planting.

It's called Right Tree Right Place.

So it's a cool little pamphlet that gives gives you know contractors, residents, just kind of high-level information on what tree and why it should go where it goes.

So it refers back to our Master Street tree list.

And then moving on to promote.

3-1 here in Promote is communicate important information about the benefits and maintenance needs of NAPA's community trees to the general public, private property owners, potential partners, funders, and decision makers.

So really this goes back to the amount of tree canopy that falls outside of our jurisdiction.

So promote was really one of the one of the areas we really wanted to focus on in our goals and recommendations, knowing that we needed to utilize and leverage education as one of the really key aspects to maintain the forest that is outside of our jurisdiction.

Lots lots of items in progress here, and happy to answer any questions, but really a very key area within this project that we've been working on.

And then moving on to three, two here, engage community members and decision making process around current and future tree management and planting to encourage community buy-in and support.

So we're continuing to engage residents to determine preference for trees and infrastructure conflict mitigation, including phased or complete tree removals and repairs, alternative designs, and planner modifications.

So really in every project that we work on with CIP or with our streets and sidewalk program.

This is really just an ongoing thing that we already do, but we really try to do our best to communicate with those residents about any and all opportunities that are available for us to kind of make headway in that category.

And then finally, three three is strengthen and develop partnerships with residents, nonprofit groups, organizations, and the private sector.

One thing to note here that's in progress is other environmental organizations to collaborate with, and that's really leaning on that partnership we have with RCD to help uh promote and provide education around the urban forest.

And then the last section of the goals and recommendations is the plan section, and so going into 4-1 is to develop a functional and sustainable urban forestry management program with adequate staffing resources and support for city partnerships.

One area to note that's in progress is to develop partnerships and increase collaboration between parks and trees divisions, other city of Napa departments, and local decision makers and utilities.

So throughout this whole progress or process, we've really been working hard with PGE.

It's been one of the areas that we've struggled with in the past.

I have now gotten a good contact, and we are getting uh biweekly updates on trees that they're planning to work on.

So we are making some really good strides there, and then I've mentioned just a lot of the internal communication that we've had with our CIP division, and with uh streets and sidewalks are often in the region of public works and moving on to four or two, uh, manage existing tree and infrastructure conflicts in NAPA's urban forests and prevent future tree and infrastructure conflicts.

Um, a lot of things going on in that section, but some of probably the most notable ones is that with our with our new tree keeper program, we are able to look and identify some of those healthy mature trees that we really want to make uh valiant efforts for in um keeping them from being removed within projects.

So we're developing a way to allow the engineers to see those easily and not have to have those back and forth conversations with us, um, and just understand which ones are really the priorities to save within that um and then moving here to four three.

So plant replace and preserve trees at strategic levels and locations around the city to align with NAPA's canopy goals, achieve an equitable distribution for tree canopy and ensure consistent canopy coverage.

Um a lot of these items under this are are more long-term items, but just to note a few of the things that we are working on is we do have maps, we do understand where our lower canopy sections are, and so we are kind of in that one to three year or four plus year to try to develop some priority planting locations.

And then lastly, four three is develop and implement standards, data tracking processes for the city tree inventory, canopy, and urban forestry management plans and goals.

So really the one the one in progress one there is regularly update resources over time to see how the city is changing and if the program is tracking and meeting urban forestry goals.

So we did see um we did see a change in canopy um from 2012, a pretty significant one to 2020 or to 2023 when this was done.

So some of the some of so we do know that the work that we are doing is helping to increase the canopy that we have.

Um but a lot of these items are longer-term ones that will take some time to see kind of what our efforts will do for that.

And then lastly, um our comments are going back shortly to our consultant on draft two, and then we will be getting right into starting on draft three, which will be the final draft that we have.

Uh, we plan to bring that to its entirety back to this commission.

Timing is a little uncertain, but possibly as early as February, or maybe March, just depending on how quickly we get through those items.

So a lot of information.

Um happy to answer any questions that any of you might have in any one of those three sections, or just in general.

Um, if you have any comments or any revisions you'd like to see, please share them.

We can note those and get those over to the consultant.

Um, but yeah, again, no action on this item, just provide feedback on these three portions of the plan.

Any feedback?

Anybody want to kick us off?

Yeah, I mean, kick it off.

Uh I'm just curious with 34,000 trees.

You ever get the feeling that you've overlooked some trees?

I mean, how how do you how do you really know that you've really reaching every tree in EPR or is that something that you it's not unrealistic?

I mean, I'm just curious with that many.

Yeah, technology is amazing.

Um there we do come across a few, but just to clarify, so 34,000 is not every tree in Napa.

34,000 is really just those trees that are in parks, and then those trees that are in planter strips and in right and and in Median Island.

So in people's backyards, we don't count that tree in the 34,000, but all the trees, whether they be on public property or in someone's backyard get counted in the canopy assessment.

So when we talk holistically how many trees we have in the city, we talk in canopy because it captures all those, but then when we talk about what the city has jurisdiction over and what we can maintain, we talk about the 34,000.

What is that number?

Does the city has jurisdiction roughly from 34,000 is what we have what we have jurisdiction over.

So that's all the trees in the parks and then all those in the planner strips as well.

And that doesn't count our open space parks.

Those trees we have not counted individually.

Autumn.

A lot of trees.

I can't even take care of my own yard.

Any other comments, Mike?

No, that was good.

Thank you, Jeff.

Um, real quick, Jeff.

Um, I I can't imagine that I would have a question or comment that would have an impact on this because it is incredibly detailed and it's you've done you and Davy have done a great work.

Um, what is the process though for approval and adoption?

Is the draft three gonna come to us and we're gonna say thumbs up, we approve, and then it goes on to city council, or does it go straight to council?

Yeah, I'll I know that city council is excited for an update, so we're definitely going to bring them an update.

Uh being that it's a it's a guiding document.

Yes.

Um I don't know that there's necessarily any approval.

Your input is very valuable.

The community's input is obviously very valuable, but I don't know that there isn't is necessarily a need for adoption.

I mean, we will have the plan.

It is a resource for us to use.

Um it's a long-term planning document that we can use.

Um so I don't I don't anticipate that we'll have an action.

Um, but so I guess maybe then I could state the question a little differently.

So city council obviously is aware that we have provided input, we've been participating in work sessions and whatnot, but the city council is not saying has this plan been approved by Park Record Trees Commission uh before it was forwarded to us.

This is the type of thing that will go straight to city council.

Uh I guess one of the caveats here is count it the the plan will go to council to just show it to them.

They're not necessarily approving it.

So if they were taking an action, they would be looking for your sub action.

If you all are very excited about it and pleased with it how it comes out, you can certainly take an action just to say you as a body are supportive of this plan and we would share that with council.

Okay, but council then is not gonna vote to adopt formally adopt it.

Thank you.

But there are there are lots of portions and pieces within the goals and recommendations that you may require action, but not necessarily as the plan is as a whole.

So is that a little bit different then than the like a 2040 planning document?

It is.

I think Jeff's speaking to like the specific recommendations.

Just because the recommendations are in the plan, doesn't mean we're committing to being able to accomplish all of them or fund all of them.

So thank you.

Um another impressive report, thank you for the summary of of a lengthy document.

It's very good.

Um little knit in the plan purpose and vision portion on page two of the PowerPoint.

There's one sentence that didn't make sense to me.

Says the planning process started in January of twenty-three and commenced in March of 26.

There's something missing, I think, as to what commenced in March of 26.

Oh, or maybe not.

So the grant was completed in March of 26.

Yeah, the grant deadline for completion of the project is March of 26.

So good catch.

That sentence needs to be clarified.

Um I really appreciate the use of the dollar signs to indicate the sufficiency of funding.

It's very helpful.

And I see that they mostly track the the timeline.

Yeah.

But my question is how do you anticipate keeping track of when it's time to seek more funding?

And I assume most of the funding would be new group.

How are you gonna keep track of of when to seek funding for these various phases?

There, so there's a lot of crossover in those goals and recommendations.

Um so if you tackle a singular goal and recommendation, it is likely that it is touched on.

So, say in preserve, it's likely it's touched on in another aspect.

But I think the the approach there is really you're probably looking you're looking at individual, likely individual projects, and like if I give you an example of one, uh, there's a goal and recommendation to update your inventory on a on a seven-year cycle.

So that would likely come out as a a specific request for those specific funds to go ahead and have somebody come back out and re-look at your tree inventory and have that have that done.

Um, so it's really it's more specifically tied to the task, um, and how you would go about seeking funding to really promote or finish that that task in itself as opposed to say what would it cost to do every goal and recommendation within this within this plan.

I see, okay.

Will you have these things calendared in some way?

So we kind of we attempted to to give the viewer an understanding of that with those those in progress one to three years, four plus years.

Um and so a lot of the recommendations are affecting day to day and operations and you'll see those being reflected as in progress items.

Um so like the master tree tree list is an example.

It's something we use contractors use on a daily basis.

So it's an ongoing it's an ongoing item and then there are items that uh talk about update to our n our municipal plan and we know that those are longer term things that will require more time to complete.

Um so it's it's I guess more so than anything it's kind of giving us the flexibility to implement and drive these plans when resources allow or when they become a priority.

And do you have some sort of ongoing grant program, grant application program or currently we do not other than leveraging funds that R C D has from another grant to help further some of these items as well.

That's the only funding source.

G is funding some things as well.

That was the one I was thinking of uh City Council allocated an additional two hundred and fifty thousand dollars towards parks and community landscaping it's a little bit general um but that's part of Jeff's new baseline budget every year and our intent in seeking that allocation from council was definitely to be able to start to implement more and more pieces of the urban forestry management plan and as with any operating budget either whether it's ongoing operating budget or one time requests for like a specific project um those would be sought through the annual budget cycle you know where all the departments submit their requests and council decides what their priorities are and yeah.

So just an example of those funds we recently made about a fifteen thousand dollar purchase of trees to reforest the neighborhood that we hadn't replanted from a street and sidewalk project.

So we're already seeing the actions come to fruition already.

Okay thank you.

Any other comments um on the topic of having the council formally adopt it um is that a decision or are you just unsure if you're gonna do that or not as far as formally adopt the the plan its entirety um I don't know that we've really come to that decision yay or nay at this point.

It's my understanding that was just to direct it from city manager's office that they wanted the plan shared with council but that it was a guiding document it didn't necessitate formal adoption.

No it doesn't but sometimes there are benefits for having it formally adopted it could signal a stronger commitment on the part of the council and that could then in turn influence funding decisions it's an opportunity for the council to tout any of its climate benefits um in alignment with a potential future climate action plan.

So I don't know I would maybe think about it unless you've already been given directions and whatever um ultimately won't change the words on the piece of paper whether they do or don't formally develop it.

Yeah we can we can share uh your you that that's a perspective of this commission um and share that up the chain and see if that's I mean make sure that would be something that the council would want to take credit for certain I completely support that.

Um and also you and your team as well um gives you a little spotlight.

Because I agree this is a tremendous document and it has tremendous value now and into the future and something like that for those reasons maybe warrant you know something more formal but your call obviously um on the canopy would you say it was twenty or twenty five percent twenty one and a half.

Twenty one and a half and you had mentioned that that's pretty good.

Yeah, just for perspective uh city of Sacramento is at nineteen is there and there's th I didn't go through the entire packet and I know this is kind of just excerpts.

Um but one of the things that came to mind is the way in which the goals are written is to maintain it.

Um, but do we want to not only maintain it but enhance it and grow it beyond twenty percent.

Yeah, so we had a lot of discussion.

So 21 and a half is is our current canopy, um, and you know, we there's aspects that you can take.

City of Sacramento is a good example.

They put out a very aggressive plan to get to 30%, which required uh thousands and thousands and thousands of plantings um in order to get to that point.

Um one thing that we really recognized in this plan, and particularly in the area that we oversee, which is the majority of the trees within the parks we have full jurisdiction over and and really ultimate decision to plant larger trees, so that's an easier task.

Obviously, we have areas that we wouldn't plant trees in the middle of soccer fields and baseball fields and playgrounds and things like that.

That would make an interesting soccer game.

But probably one of our biggest struggles is that that tree conflict with um with sidewalk curb infrastructure.

Um, and we are blessed with a lot of things, but one thing we are blessed with here is is narrow planter strips.

And so a lot of the uh waverly streets, probably a recent good example.

Um a lot of those streets were planted with species that would no longer be acceptable on our Master Street tree list.

They're too large, they don't fit into those larger areas.

We've also all seen what kind of work PGE is allowed to and does do on trees around power lines.

So we know we have to anticipate that we're gonna have, as we go through, we update our streets, our sidewalks, we're gonna we know that we're gonna have smaller stature trees um in those planter strips.

So we really took that into account when we were thinking about about those goals, those canopy goals and what is achievable um as we go forward, and knowing that we were sitting at a a pretty good baseline, um we didn't we didn't want to be you know overly um optimistic with our with our canopy goals um and we felt that maybe our resources would be better spent with educating where the majority of our trees live, which is on that private property.

So that's kind of how we landed at that that percentage and saying, well, I think that uh uh a first stab of this should be our our maintain what we have.

Yeah, um that makes total sense.

Um but kind of along those lines, I guess, in terms of not only promoting but in enhancing or expanding whatever the word may be.

Um is there the ability to inventory, I guess, wrong trees in wrong place, um, that could then be turned into the right trees right place that could also have canopy enhancements.

I know that's probably a wish list type item and dependent upon money and trees and all that.

Yeah.

There could be opportunities there.

Yeah, so the word Craig Myrtle comes to mind.

Highest possibility.

18%.

Yeah.

Um I like wrong tree wrong place.

We're getting t-shirts, yeah.

Public works would buy them all.

So um uh kind of a two two prong answer there, Brian.

Um yes, we have the information to understand what trees are technically the wrong tree for that uh for that planner area, but our approach is not to just go and say, Well, you're the wrong tree, you can't stay here.

It's more of an approach when we when we look at them from a strategic standpoint, like are they are they causing infrastructure issues?

So we, you know, we use the word healthy a lot, right?

So not only does the um does the plan talk about mature, but it also talks about healthy, we have that condition.

So when we look at a mature tree, we look at it from those aspects.

Is it healthy?

You know, does it fit within within the space that it's that it's in?

Um and then the kind of the second part of that is we do know where we have about uh three thousand planting opportunities.

Cause when we went and did the inventory, we identified anything that was a stump and we identified any areas that that could be potential planting areas that we have jurisdiction over.

So we didn't we didn't go into people's backyards and say you have a big lawn area, you can what we have jurisdiction over.

Um, and then we also know from the canopy data where our lower canopy areas are.

So if we kind of try to align those things, we do have the data to do it, it's just a matter of getting the resources uh to get the education out.

We have street tree planting program.

Uh we're working with RCD on a on a free tree giveaway program for private and public trees.

Um so we're trying to kind of create those mechanisms, knowing that we have five staff and we may be able to put in several hundred trees a year, but we also have the goal of making sure they survive.

So we really need to lean in on those on those property owners, give them opportunities to get a tree, but know that we need their support to maintain it to keep it thriving.

Yeah.

Um, as part of the plan, and I guess looking into the future, and maybe this goes back to the tree list that we looked at a few months ago.

Um are we asking ourselves with climate change, what areas the suitability of the area, and whether or not the trees we're planting today are gonna be able to survive 50 years from now, or the trees we plant 30 years from now are gonna survive, you know, the right tree, right place based on what we anticipate the climate and the conditions to be sure.

Yeah, so uh so we have Davy provided us a list that is about three times longer than the trees that we brought to you all in the master street tree list.

A couple reasons around that.

I took a lot of staff's input to say, hey, you work on these species all day, every day.

Which ones are doing well, which ones have issues.

So we used that.

Um we also took the avenue of of checking to make sure that that was a tree that was available.

We didn't want to put a tree on a master street tree list that we couldn't get.

Um and then Davey did that background work with all the other work that they've done with various communities to say, hey, these are species based on your climate that we will that we think will do well.

Um but then really I think the key to that is if we run into those issues, we update that that tree list, you know, on a on a pretty frequent basis if needed, or we at least we at least look at it and make updates if we need to.

So I think we've set ourselves up to um try to avoid those issues.

Um and then the other part of that is really just pests, and there's a poor there's a portion of that, so so sticking with that 102030 rule, not having more than 10 percent crate myrtle is a good example at 18% not on our street tree list.

Um, if there was a pest that came in and killed every crate myrtle, we lose eighteen percent of our tree.

So we want to constantly keep that diversity up uh as we go.

Great.

I think that's all we have.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

This is awesome.

Are there any other comments or questions?

Oh good.

Um, great job.

Um moving on to 6D park maintenance and recreation division updates.

Just on behalf of recreation, I will remind you all if you haven't been down there already.

The Napa Light Art Festival kicked off on Saturday.

So we've had four successful nights.

The event runs a full 30 days or through February 17th, I think that whatever that weekend is, middle of February.

But the projection will only remain up through next Sunday.

Uh we this coming Sunday.

So it it'll be up weeknight, so even tonight and tomorrow night.

Um, and then through the weekend, and we haven't pulled the place or AI data yet, because there's like a three-day lag, but we're excited to look here tomorrow and see what attendance was for the three-day holiday weekend.

And then we already spoke about harvest, that's been the other big endeavor that our recreation folks have been working on.

Later at festival questions.

Well, I missed part of what you said.

Is uh is it still gonna be going on the 31st of January and the first of February?

Yes, it runs till the middle of February.

So the event runs 30 days, but the projection on the church in the courthouse, the three projection sites, only run for 10 days, and that's the same every year.

But the projections won't be available on the last day of January and the first day of February.

So we um I gotta look at my calendar.

Whatever this Sunday is.

Yeah, 24th.

This Sunday is the last day.

Yes.

Yep.

So the 25th will be the last projection night.

And then the other 15 installations will stay up till the middle of next month.

Two two quick items, more trees.

We haven't had enough.

Um but just to kind of put a bow on uh on a lot of the work.

We've been working over the last year or so really closely with the the CIP team on the Coomb Street rehab project.

Um so just some numbers, a total of 47 trees were removed in that project, and then we replanted a total of 57.

Um the trees we were planted, we went with 24 box.

Uh there was a lot of uh a lot of neighbors that were very concerned about the aesthetics of the community.

So we worked really, really closely with them and the CIP and the contractor, contractor planted all those trees.

Um so you know, in a really challenging project, we we we met our one to one ratio and actually beat it.

So um that was a really successful project um as far as collaboration goes with uh with CIP.

And that project is currently in punch list, so it's really close to being done.

And then lastly, since we haven't seen each other since October, and Ashley touched on it, but we had a really successful Arbor Day.

Um I know she touched on it, so I won't say too much.

Um those were grant funded trees um for that project.

So 50 trees of Vineyard Park and then some other pretty significant updates.

And yeah, 21 volunteers.

I was in complete full rain gear that day.

It was raining that bad.

So uh really some some really stellar volunteers.

Okay.

So I'll move to adjournment to the next regularly scheduled meeting for the parks recreation and tree advisory commission on February 18th.

Before we do that, um very quick update from the Park and Rec Foundation.

Uh we earned $6,625 through 55 donations in our appearance in the give guide.

Um we received an additional three thousand dollars in donations off the give guide platform, but I'm confident that we would not have received that $3,000 if we weren't in the give guide.

So um we are going to claim $9,625 total uh for the Park and Wreck Foundation.

Good chunk of that, um probably three grand or so was through the board itself.

So we kind of pumped up our own total a little bit, but still that is the most successful give guide placement I think we've had ever.

So yay us.

I'm dragging.

All right, thank you.

Any intel on the uh LA project?