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Good morning and call this force to the district of Dupage County, commission meeting, agenda

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to order. Today, Tuesday, May 16th, 2023, right here at district headquarters. You please rise

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and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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I pledge allegiance to the fight of the United States of America and to the republic for

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which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice, and the law.

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And this morning, for invocation, we welcome Deacon Ron Yerkes from St. Petronau, Parish, and Glen Allen.

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Good morning. Good to be with you, as always.

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There's an expression that he who sings praise twice. Let me see if I can do this.

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We are called to act with justice. We are called to love tenderly.

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We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with us.

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So this morning I was thinking of all the changes that are going on in our lives.

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I think of Chicago yesterday with their big celebrations and stuff.

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Change is part of our life.

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But we just pray that God is present with us here in this morning.

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We've all been called, as that song says, we've all been called to do His will, to do it, and to see His way.

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We have the gift of creation how I love to go out into the forest preserves and hear the bird singing

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So that's why I was thinking so a guy'd be with us today me all of our

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Decisions that we make in this room. They've been made with wisdom love knowledge that we all are God's keepers

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And this is a gift that has been given to us this all this property with all this wild animals

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Which are not so wild we're the wild ones. I bless us all we ask for his blessings upon all of you through the father

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We'll call, please.

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Mr. Garrus.

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Here.

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President Heberard.

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Here.

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Commissioners Al Murphy.

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Marsha Murphy.

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Here.

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O'Meara.

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Here.

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Painter.

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Here.

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Tyson Dunn.

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Here.

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Six present and one absent, Mr. President.

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Thank you.

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Spring has certainly sprung and right on time, so has our popular native plants.

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While the presale tickets are sold out for this Thursday, both Friday and Saturday are

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open to the public and they can come out in person for native flowers, grasses, shrubs,

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and trees at Maze Lake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook.

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There will be plant experts on site to answer your questions and make recommendations regarding

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over 160 species you can choose from.

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Be sure to come early if you want the best selection as plants are not restocked

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And when they are gone, they are gone.

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Also, in conjunction with the sale,

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free woodchips will be available to the public

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on Saturday, May 20th from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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at the Forest Preserve District's native plant nursery

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at 29 West 220 Mac Road in West Chicago.

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More information is available on our website,

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dupageforest.org.

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This morning, we have an informational

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on the district's clean energy, resiliency,

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and sustainability plan.

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plan. This initiative was identified in the district's approved 2019 master plan to study

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ways to support strategic plan priorities of increasing energy efficiencies and reducing

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the agency's carbon footprint. We are proud of the many steps we have taken to move forward

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over the past several years, but this will help accelerate our progress and keep us moving

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on the most viable options first. The entire plan can also be found on our website.

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Finally, I am pulling R7, R8, and R9 from our agenda today as they are not ready.

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We do have multiple public comments.

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When I woke up this morning, I just wanted to remind everybody, it's a beautiful day,

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so let's not make it too long.

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We have three minutes for our public comments, and please be respectful of everyone's time.

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Karen Rugg, do you want to come up to the microphone?

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I'm

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trying to get the word out about getting

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in a proper retention pond or reservoir, whatever

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you want to call it.

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They're at Songbird Slew, and I cast it.

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And I went to the County Board of Health last Thursday night

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for their public comment, and I didn't

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know that they were having a huge meeting for retirement

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of Karen Ayala.

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However, when I pulled into the parking lot in front of the public health

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building on County Farm Road, all of a sudden right in front of me was this big hole,

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this big vast hole in the back. Immaculately groomed deep, and I guess that's a

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reservoir to keep the County Board of Health building from flooding out, and

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and also to protect County from road from flooding out.

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So the county absolutely cares about people in that campus.

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But I haven't heard a word from you.

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You keep on flooding out that building, that medical building that's right up next to your property

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and anxiously waiting for a phone call to hear when you're going to start.

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Just like you said about your plants.

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when they run out, they run out. It's important that you act on this as a team, protect humans in your community.

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Humans count too. And those are sick and dying humans.

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And they have to run their wheelchairs through your water.

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And I haven't heard a word of what you're doing to correct it.

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You've had seven years, Jim Zay is known about this.

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I put a film up just like I did with Mr. Jacobson on his back wooden porch of his office building.

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He's known about it.

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You've known about it for how long?

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And nobody's taking any action and it saddens me.

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So, I hope I get to hear from you, from somebody, when you're going to start this project.

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You can't be flooding people out, because somebody made a mistake years ago.

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Nobody's blaming you personally, but you're on the watch now, it's your duty to correct

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it.

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I'll be back next week.

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Next we have Becky Simon with Naperville Preservation.

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Step forward to the microphone.

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Hi, I'm Becky Simon with Naperville Preservation and I am here today to ask the board to formally

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convene an ad hoc committee to study alternative uses for oak cottage. Oak Cottage was recently

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identified as one of the most endangered historic sites in Illinois. We have found

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ourselves third parties who are willing to help fund signage for the site and people

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who are willing to serve on an ad hoc committee.

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So again, my request for all of you here today

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is to form an ad hoc committee while we have time

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to identify alternative uses for Oak Cottage.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for your public comment.

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And with that, we will move into the regular agenda.

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Mr. President, under R1, we have a motion approving

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and placing on file the open planning session

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meeting minutes from 4.25.23

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and open commission meeting minutes from 5 to 23. Second. A motion and a second. Is

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there any discussion? Go call please. O'Meara. Aye. Painter. Aye. Tyson Dunn. Aye.

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Garris. Aye. Keebriard. Aye. Al Murphy. Marsha Murphy. Aye. All ayes, Mr. President. Motion passes.

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Mr. President, under R2, we have a resolution number 23-095, authorizing the payment of goods

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and services for payment 5, 18, 23.

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Second.

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A motion and a second.

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Is there any discussion?

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We'll call please.

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O'Meara.

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Aye.

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Painter.

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Aye.

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Tyson Dunn.

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Aye.

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Harris.

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Aye.

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Fibriard.

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Aye.

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Elmerfe, Marsha Murphy.

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Hi.

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Oh, hi.

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Mr. President.

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Motion passes.

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Mr. President, under R3, we have resolution number 23-071, authorizing the execution of

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a contract for professional services between the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

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and AQUITY Research and Insights Incorporated for professional services countywide.

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Second.

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Motion and a second.

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Is there any discussion?

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We have an ordinance number 23-099, authorizing an extension to the license agreement between

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the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and the Friends of Donata Incorporated for their

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operation of the Donata House and Donata Model Farm Complex.

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Second.

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I have a motion and a second.

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Is there any discussion?

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Vote call, please.

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O'Meara.

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Aye.

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Painter.

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Aye.

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Tyson Dunn.

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Aye.

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Harris.

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Aye.

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Gibriard.

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Aye.

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Al Murphy.

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Marcia Murphy.

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Aye.

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All ayes, Mr. President.

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Motion passes.

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Mr. President, under R5, we have a resolution number 23-075,

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authorizing the execution of a contract for the purchase of liquid propane

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auto gas fuel between the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

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and Heritage FS Incorporated.

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Second.

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I have a motion and a second.

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Is there any discussion?

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Roll call, please.

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Omira.

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Aye.

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Painter.

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Aye.

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Tyson Dunn.

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Aye.

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Harris.

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Aye.

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Fibriard.

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Aye.

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Al Murphy.

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Marsha Murphy.

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Aye.

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Aye.

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Mr. President.

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Motion passes.

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Mr. President, under R6, we have resolution number 23-090, authorizing the execution

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of an easement agreement between the Forest Reserve District of DuPage County and the

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County of DuPage for the operation and maintenance of a sanitary sewer force main

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in Green Valley Forest Preserve. Second. A motion and a second. Is there any

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discussion? Both call please. O'Meara. Aye. Painter. Aye. Tyson Dunn. Aye.

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Harris. Aye. Hebrard. Aye. Al Murphy. Marcia Murphy. Aye. All ayes Mr. President. Motion passes. I am very

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happy to make a motion on R10 resolution 23-089 authorizing the

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execution of a contract for professional services between the Forest

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Preserve District of DuPage County and HW Lockhear and Company and Waterfall

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Glen Forest Preserve. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any

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discussion. We're all excited for this to happen. Absolutely. Roll call please.

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Painter. Aye. Tyson Dunn. Aye. Harris. Aye. Hebrard. Aye. Cal Murphy. Marsha Murphy.

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Aye. O'Meara. Aye. All ayes Mr. President. Motion passes. And following up on that

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R11 I'd like to make a motion on resolution 23-103 authorizing the

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the execution of a contract between the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and MYS,

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Incorporated for Construction of the Sawmill Creek Pedestrian Bridge replacement in Waterfall

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Glen Forest Preserve.

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Second.

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I have a motion and a second.

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Is there any discussion?

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Well, call please.

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Painter?

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Aye.

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Tyson Dunn?

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Aye.

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Ferris?

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Aye.

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Kibriard?

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Aye.

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Al Murphy?

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Marcia Murphy?

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Aye.

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O'Meara?

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Hi

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Motion passes

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Mr.. President under our 12 we have a resolution number 23-102

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authorizing the

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application for Illinois Department of Natural Resources

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public museum capital grants program for willowbrook phase 2 master plan improvements

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Second of a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?

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Go call please

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O'Meara?

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Aye.

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Painter?

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Aye.

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Tyson Dunn?

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Aye.

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Ferris?

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Aye.

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TBR?

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Aye.

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Elmerfe?

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Marcia Murphy?

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Aye.

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All ayes, Mr. President?

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Motion passes.

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We do have informational agenda items today.

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I-1 is our Clean Energy Resiliency and Sustainability Plan Gaps, Barriers, and Opportunities

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Report.

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And welcome Jessica Cortiga.

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Good morning, everyone.

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I'm Jessica Ortega, Manager of Strategic Plans and Initiatives, and here to present

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this item today, Clean Energy Resiliency Sustainability Plan.

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So as you recall, the 2019 master plan called for completing a green energy study that

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would help identify ways to increase energy efficiencies and reduce the district's carbon

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footprint.

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And so to that end, the Board approved a contract with Delta Institute to identify

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gaps, barriers, and opportunities related to clean energy resiliency and

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sustainability. Delta Institute then worked with staff to assess the ecosystem

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services that the district currently provides, assess the feasibility of

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options for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and alternative fuel

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vehicles, explore green energy infrastructure opportunities, analyze the

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district's waste streams, assess transportation related emissions, and

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explore options for carbon sequestration.

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I'll just note as well, in addition to this work,

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the district contracted separately with SCS engineers

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to do analysis of clean energy.

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Thank

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you, Jessica. Good morning, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here today. My name is

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Patrick Murphy. I'm a senior lead at Delta Institute and in my role I've

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largely been focused on the communications of this project. Much of my

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colleagues who are here with me are much more knowledgeable on all the

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ins and outs of this but it's my pleasure to introduce us, talk about some

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of the background about what brought us here and what next steps are ahead for

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us.

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As Jessica introduced us, Delta Institute is a 501c3 profit

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organization that has a 25-year history of collaborating with communities across

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the Midwest to solve complex environmental challenges. In partnership

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with ECT we responded to RFP to address the clean energy resiliency and

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sustainability plan that surfaced from the 2019 master plan and it's been a

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pleasure to work on this everything up until today to talk about what we saw

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and what we see for opportunities going forward.

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But of course this work doesn't happen in a vacuum.

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This requires collaboration across board level, staff level,

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and we just wanted to take a brief moment to acknowledge the many people

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who have been participating with us throughout this sharing,

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providing lots of feedback, reviews.

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There's been a lot of help not just by the people that you see here on the screen,

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but also people that make the district run on a daily basis.

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So we want to make sure that we acknowledge everybody here

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and everybody on the screen as well.

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So dipping into the results here, again,

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I won't take too much every time because we have a lot to cover.

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And I'm just going to cover where we started off with.

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And just a note saying that this does not cover

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any of the adjacent landfill operations as well.

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We did factor that into the equation,

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but this is not specifically covering any of that.

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So looking as far as background, where we've come from so far, the great news is that we are starting off with great footing so far.

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And that's built upon the 100 years of conservation and preservation that the district has been investing in.

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But not just that, also with many of the recent accomplishments that the district has spearheaded for many years,

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All of which you see here, several, several, several more that are listed in the report

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itself and beyond.

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Things like investing in 100% renewable energy credits for the year 2023, already installing

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00:18:04,330 --> 00:18:08,850
and designing green infrastructure sites throughout many of the preserves and developing

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and constructing trails throughout many of the preserves.

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What we find is that to achieve the district's next targeted goals of reducing its carbon footprint,

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increasing clean energy opportunities, we find that the district is in a great position and only moving forward.

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If this opportunity, it's my pleasure to introduce the person who has been spearheading the entirety of this project team.

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He's a senior advisor at Delta Institute.

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My pleasure to introduce Kevin Dick.

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You see ECT on the slide.

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They were a partner project.

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So one of the things we did in this project was to really look at the emissions that were

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generated by the job which is and we really don't need on that.

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I'm going to go into that a little bit.

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But before I do, I want to give Tom an opportunity

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to really talk about the other aspects of this plan,

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the resiliency side, which is what the force reserve

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district provides as a people service.

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They're equally important.

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And actually offset a lot of the issues

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that the operations of the force reserve

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has as an operator.

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So we want to make sure that that's

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But, sure, thanks Kevin.

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We'll get into a little deeper dive in a little bit, but the district is the largest holder

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of floodplain in the county and most of that land is pervious area that's able to absorb

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runoff, sequestered carbon, as Kevin said, and so that's been working well.

330
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The also been working with the county to help house or sort of locate some of the

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flood control facilities that are helping countywide.

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And that's important because we've got

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some very heavy vegetation increases that are predicted

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that's no surprise to you.

335
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And as we all sort of feel it,

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100 year events are just keep getting worse

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and our events are getting bigger.

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At the same time, we're seeing

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reduction in, you know, greater drought as well.

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So we're getting maybe similar amounts of total rainfall

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but the amounts are all occurring as part of events

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And that's a good foundation because part of the reason we're looking at emissions is

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it's part of the mission obviously for this organization to, you know, be a steward of

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the environment.

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As things get worse, the emissions of the horse river district does, it may have become

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a part of the, it's a part of the issue and we want to make sure that they're,

347
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you know, aware of what's going on.

348
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what those opportunities for reducing that cost.

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So I'm going to give you a two sentence, hopefully,

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review of what carbon accounting is.

351
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And you can think about this in your own terms as well.

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There's three scopes in carbon accounting.

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And what you do when you do a carbon accounting

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is you understand the boundary of the organization

355
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you're working with, whether it's a municipality or a company

356
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or even a household.

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What is in your purview?

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And so the scope one emissions are what is what is used on site so natural gas

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and anything that's used on site like a forklift or something like that.

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So two emissions are your electricity use. It's emissions that are because that

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are due to your operations but happen elsewhere. So a coal plant emits it

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somewhere else but it's because you guys are using electricity. And then scope

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So three emissions, which is the largest, usually about 40% or more of the emissions of an operation,

364
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is all of the supply chain emissions that you have.

365
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So everything you purchase, because you purchase, becomes a force of an emission.

366
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We didn't really look at scope three emissions.

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It's a very big undertaking and really is much bigger than scope one and scope two, except for waste.

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We actually looked at your waste emissions as well, because that is under scope three.

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So, when we look at the emissions of an organization or a municipality, we also are taking into

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account where those are coming from.

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So, not all of the greenhouse gas emissions are pretty equal.

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You may have heard that methane creates more emissions than a CO2, and nitrous oxides are

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one of the bigger ones.

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So, we did look at that as well.

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If we look at your non-manfil operation, the bottom line is that boundary total

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tons of CO2E is 8,000 tons a year. We included your visitors in that. As you can see, all

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of their driving to your horse river district sites are part of that. We want to include

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00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:20,600
that because it is part of your operations. It's not necessary to keep it in and we'll

379
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:25,140
show you how that works out when you're looking at just your direct operations.

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00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:32,700
We also looked at your carbon sequestration as well, so we'll get into that a little bit

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deeper.

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When we look at just your operations emissions on the right side, you have about 2,700 tons

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00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:45,260
of operations emissions, and to put this in perspective for you guys, a typical DuPage

384
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County household uses about 18 tons for their household and their driving.

385
00:23:51,180 --> 00:23:57,060
So that'll give you about 250 or so households is what your emissions kind of comes out to if you do that.

386
00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:04,560
So we'll get into that. And you can see your landfill emissions at the bottom left there absolutely dwarf your operations emissions.

387
00:24:04,940 --> 00:24:06,000
And that's a separate issue.

388
00:24:09,100 --> 00:24:14,200
So scope one, as I mentioned, it's what you use on site. This is all of the fleet and maintenance equipment.

389
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:21,700
You guys do a lot of great work using ethanol, which reduces your E85, reduces your emissions

390
00:24:21,700 --> 00:24:28,320
because of gasoline, biodiesel reduces emissions versus regular diesel, and compressed natural

391
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,420
gas uses or reduces emissions versus regular motor gasoline.

392
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:36,100
This is one of the biggest portions of your emissions in one of the areas that you think

393
00:24:36,100 --> 00:24:36,620
there's opportunity.

394
00:24:36,980 --> 00:24:40,600
And as you can see about most of it is from vehicles, your cars and trucks.

395
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:41,720
As

396
00:24:44,340 --> 00:24:49,200
Patrick mentioned, one of the things you've done recently is you started buying renewable

397
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,700
energy credits for your electricity generation.

398
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:58,140
When you're doing carbon accounting, you actually offset 100% of your emissions.

399
00:24:58,420 --> 00:24:58,960
That's wonderful.

400
00:24:59,220 --> 00:25:03,720
So you literally zero out your scope to emissions for this purpose.

401
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:09,920
What you're doing is you're purchasing 100% wind credits and you're eliminating natural

402
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:21,020
natural gas and coal, and some biomass use from the emissions of the grid. So congratulations

403
00:25:21,020 --> 00:25:25,260
on that. And just so you know, this is the generation

404
00:25:25,260 --> 00:25:30,340
mix for where you get your electricity. This will continue to get more green as coal plants

405
00:25:30,340 --> 00:25:34,860
close by 2050. Most of them will be closed. They'll convert to natural gas. And wind

406
00:25:34,860 --> 00:25:41,200
power is slated to double, triple, quadruple by 2050, as we go on as well. So you're going

407
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:42,980
to see a big greening of the grid.

408
00:25:45,180 --> 00:25:49,540
So just as I said earlier, here's the numbers. You

409
00:25:49,540 --> 00:25:57,020
have a huge gross carbon sequestration number. This is all of the ecosystem services provided

410
00:25:57,020 --> 00:26:03,360
by your forest preserve district lands, 7,400 tons. That's enormous. And that gets your

411
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:09,380
your gross emissions, if you keep your visitor emissions in and you keep your scope to emissions

412
00:26:09,380 --> 00:26:16,340
in down to about 4500. That's great. As we mentioned though, you offset your scope

413
00:26:16,340 --> 00:26:21,000
to emissions and we can take the visitor emissions out when you're really considering

414
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:28,620
just your operations and you actually operate at a deficit of 891. So you actually offset

415
00:26:28,620 --> 00:26:31,460
that about 50 households of emissions.

416
00:26:31,860 --> 00:26:33,880
That's a wonderful bottom line, you guys.

417
00:26:34,180 --> 00:26:39,500
You are less than net zero, so that is great.

418
00:26:39,980 --> 00:26:40,820
You guys are doing awesome.

419
00:26:41,660 --> 00:26:44,160
There are opportunities, and we'll get into those

420
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:44,580
a little bit.

421
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,800
We did look at how we wanted to kind of talk

422
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:49,740
about those opportunities.

423
00:26:49,940 --> 00:26:51,520
We looked at gaps, we looked at opportunities,

424
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:53,100
and we looked at what you were already doing well,

425
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,160
and we kind of put them into boring,

426
00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:01,440
if you read the plan, little icons pop up. Where are you along at Green Continuum? Are

427
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,980
you just exploring or are you actually performing and ready to scale? So we wanted to do that

428
00:27:05,980 --> 00:27:13,720
for each area, each strategy area that we identified. And you had some wins. We were doing, as

429
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:19,160
I mentioned before, you're using alternative fuels. That's already great. You used landfill

430
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:24,260
gas to energy. We did some ASHRAE audits. There's a lot of wonderful efficiency going

431
00:27:24,260 --> 00:27:29,320
There's some opportunities there as well and you're tracking all this information on a regular basis.

432
00:27:29,580 --> 00:27:34,860
So there's a good amount of work already done on all the buildings that you currently manage.

433
00:27:36,860 --> 00:27:41,440
There are some gaps. We think that there's opportunity around space utilization.

434
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:46,360
There's spaces that are heated when they're unoccupied, especially during the winter.

435
00:27:46,540 --> 00:27:51,600
There are ways to reduce that. Building controls, remote sensing, there's opportunities there.

436
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:56,820
one of the big ones I found was in some of the ASHRAE audits is more efficient

437
00:27:56,820 --> 00:28:01,500
motors for places like the Urban Stream Research Center has an opportunity to

438
00:28:01,500 --> 00:28:03,460
load. It's a foot print that way as well.

439
00:28:06,260 --> 00:28:10,240
And as I mentioned electrification is a

440
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,060
growing opportunity. We mentioned in the plan it's not a recommendation right

441
00:28:14,060 --> 00:28:19,640
now. Your natural gas is very cheap at the moment. And I want

442
00:28:24,570 --> 00:28:25,450
to pass it to Tom.

443
00:28:26,990 --> 00:28:32,550
Great. So some of the things that already doing, again, most of your land is natural

444
00:28:32,550 --> 00:28:38,230
area or pervious surfaces, we say, not impervious roofs or parking lots. And so that's great.

445
00:28:38,630 --> 00:28:43,190
And you're restoring a lot of land. In fact, in the next few years, you're scheduled

446
00:28:43,190 --> 00:28:51,490
to restore 470 acres of cropland to natural area, which will do us runoff by nearly

447
00:28:51,490 --> 00:28:58,950
22 million gallons of water per year, and to put that in perspective, that's about the

448
00:28:58,950 --> 00:29:03,710
equivalent of 50 feet of water over the area of a football field, so it's a lot of water.

449
00:29:05,390 --> 00:29:10,230
And as I mentioned before, you're working a lot to do some cooperative efforts to reduce

450
00:29:10,230 --> 00:29:15,730
the runoff from the county as a whole through flood control and such, but also doing some

451
00:29:15,730 --> 00:29:19,790
things on your own land through green infrastructure, and just right out here in your parking

452
00:29:19,790 --> 00:29:24,330
lot in this facility is a good example of a lot of the green infrastructure, green stormwater

453
00:29:24,330 --> 00:29:30,630
infrastructure things that you're doing. You restore waterways, you're home to more than

454
00:29:30,630 --> 00:29:37,450
5,000 species of plants and you continue to acquire and protect natural areas. And even at

455
00:29:37,450 --> 00:29:42,610
some of your sort of less sustainable if you will or what some people might say is golf courses

456
00:29:42,610 --> 00:29:48,050
you're doing a lot of work to reduce the impact of those as well. So, you know, you've got

457
00:29:48,050 --> 00:29:49,090
some great wind so far.

458
00:29:51,590 --> 00:29:55,830
In terms of some of the gaps, you know, all of these things require

459
00:29:55,830 --> 00:29:59,910
maintenance and green infrastructure is one of those. And sometimes you think of if we

460
00:29:59,910 --> 00:29:59,970
Thank you very much.

461
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,940
Just naturalized areas that means we can kind of walk away from them.

462
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:09,900
And as the district, you know that better than pretty much anybody, that there's still a stewardship

463
00:30:09,900 --> 00:30:13,520
component. And that's no less with the stormwater features.

464
00:30:14,100 --> 00:30:19,640
And just using a lot of nature-based solutions can just continue down that road.

465
00:30:20,420 --> 00:30:26,380
Funding is always an issue, and so working on securing additional funding through grants and other sources,

466
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,260
and then looking at some of the agricultural lands.

467
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,200
How can, you know, doing some good things already,

468
00:30:31,340 --> 00:30:33,140
but how can we get that better?

469
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,780
And then how is water used?

470
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:38,920
And looking at, you know, again,

471
00:30:39,460 --> 00:30:41,140
looking at rather than using portable water,

472
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:41,980
you're not doing that.

473
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,900
But even as we draw it out of our local streams and such,

474
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,560
there's opportunities to just use it more efficiently

475
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:50,040
and only irrigate when necessary.

476
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:55,380
And then snow and ice control is definitely an issue.

477
00:30:55,380 --> 00:30:59,780
Again, you're using some natural materials there, but looking at what areas actually

478
00:30:59,780 --> 00:31:05,140
get snow and ice control made some areas that don't need it because they're not used heavily

479
00:31:05,660 --> 00:31:11,140
and being more targeted in terms of the types of materials that you use for de-icing and

480
00:31:11,140 --> 00:31:16,980
traction to the specific resources that are nearby would be affected by that.

481
00:31:18,340 --> 00:31:22,880
Then just generally there's some limited data on carbon sequestration as it varies

482
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:23,520
by landscape.

483
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,320
Dave, that's not specific to you, but just is sort of an industry.

484
00:31:29,180 --> 00:31:34,380
And some opportunities, you know, as we work into the future and design future facilities,

485
00:31:35,340 --> 00:31:40,700
stormwater and other facilities, just looking at what we project rainfall is going to be

486
00:31:40,700 --> 00:31:42,560
rather than just using the numbers today.

487
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,800
That's always a challenge and how do you actually do that?

488
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:50,660
City of Madison, for example, uses the 200-year event instead of the 100-year event for

489
00:31:50,660 --> 00:31:55,800
design purposes with really sort of just a way to adjust for the fact that the 100-year

490
00:31:55,800 --> 00:32:03,520
event is someday going to be that big. Looking for grants, as I mentioned before, and then

491
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:08,400
you do have some exemptions in terms of where you're required to provide storm water, and

492
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:12,840
I think that's certainly appropriate for a lot of your linear trails and other sorts

493
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:17,240
of things where it really does just run off in the landscape. In other areas where

494
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:22,280
There's concentrated impervious areas such as parking lots and things like that, roofs

495
00:32:22,780 --> 00:32:27,320
that go directly into the system, even though you may be exempt, you know, consider looking

496
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:31,220
at still providing management for those areas not required.

497
00:32:32,340 --> 00:32:37,580
And continuing restoration activities, looking at operations at your golf courses

498
00:32:37,580 --> 00:32:40,940
and some of your agricultural areas.

499
00:32:42,100 --> 00:32:49,680
And, all right, I'll introduce Claire Costello from Delta Institute to talk about the sustainability

500
00:32:50,130 --> 00:32:54,720
gaps and wins and opportunities that are available for waste management.

501
00:32:56,020 --> 00:32:57,220
Yeah, thank you, Kevin.

502
00:32:57,660 --> 00:33:01,660
And, you know, with the sustainability, we really focused on two things, waste management

503
00:33:01,660 --> 00:33:07,080
and transportation, though as we went before, this cannot include activities happening

504
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:08,100
within the landfills.

505
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:13,680
The Forest Reserve District is already doing a lot of great work in both of these materials,

506
00:33:13,860 --> 00:33:14,680
which is great.

507
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:22,960
But there are multiple efforts already dedicated towards getting materials out of the plant,

508
00:33:23,220 --> 00:33:29,900
all of the recycling, composting, auctions for end-of-life materials,

509
00:33:31,340 --> 00:33:36,800
and also being a leader in trail development, doing a lot of work that allows visitors to access.

510
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:45,300
As far as gas, we found that some of the waste management

511
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:47,820
aren't closely tracked.

512
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:50,440
We know that these things are happening,

513
00:33:50,700 --> 00:33:53,240
but we can't always readily answer questions like,

514
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:55,360
how much material is actually being respected?

515
00:33:57,140 --> 00:34:02,520
And with any waste management activity or program,

516
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,820
people don't always behave the way that we really want to.

517
00:34:06,820 --> 00:34:13,740
This can range from a visitor putting items in the incorrect bin at a preserve,

518
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:19,480
but it can also go as far as a plan.

519
00:34:22,100 --> 00:34:27,560
And then in terms of opportunities, increased data tracking and collection

520
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:32,420
around the city opens a ton of possibilities, market setting,

521
00:34:32,420 --> 00:34:37,620
and really having a highly accurate understanding of what's going on with the groups.

522
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:44,000
Otherwise, just continuing to be a leader in the space, which is already really happening,

523
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:50,260
whether it's, you know, exploring green purchasing, doing more sustainability outreach and education,

524
00:34:51,180 --> 00:34:53,840
or continuing to be an advocate for the group.

525
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,900
So with that in mind, I'll...

526
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,920
Obviously, this plan was really focused on the baseline operations and getting the data.

527
00:35:07,180 --> 00:35:09,840
We see a couple of things that pop out and there's more than just this.

528
00:35:10,100 --> 00:35:14,640
My top three, the team's top three, seem to fall into these areas.

529
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:21,400
We think that there's opportunity around electrifying your transportation, so a lot of your fleet

530
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:29,100
vehicles do have existing and developing opportunities around EV, as well as maintenance equipment.

531
00:35:29,100 --> 00:35:35,800
most maintenance equipment as electric projects that are readily usable.

532
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:41,100
So that's a huge opportunity to eliminate over the time period you would implement it,

533
00:35:41,820 --> 00:35:45,760
probably about half, almost half of your operations emissions.

534
00:35:47,060 --> 00:35:51,480
We think that there's an opportunity around continued increase in natural area restoration,

535
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,840
as has been mentioned in the past, just looking at the numbers.

536
00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:03,040
it doesn't look enormous when you look at just tonnage on a hundred acre per year area,

537
00:36:03,140 --> 00:36:04,640
but that is permanent.

538
00:36:05,220 --> 00:36:08,080
So there's no emissions associated with that, that's net.

539
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:15,360
As well as the, as Tom mentioned, there's an enormous amount of stormwater opportunity

540
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:21,680
around converting conventional agriculture, converting things, areas back to natural.

541
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:25,360
So, there are opportunities there as well.

542
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:33,820
And then SCS covers this pretty well in their report around landfill opportunity with solar.

543
00:36:34,060 --> 00:36:39,320
There's also solar, some solar opportunity in existing land.

544
00:36:40,420 --> 00:36:42,880
And there's of course EV infrastructure.

545
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,280
We mentioned your emissions from your visitors.

546
00:36:47,140 --> 00:36:50,780
They are going to be electrifying their vehicles and currently there isn't a lot

547
00:36:50,780 --> 00:36:53,100
of infrastructure available for them to charge as they get here.

548
00:36:53,180 --> 00:36:54,460
So that's an opportunity as well.

549
00:36:54,900 --> 00:36:57,540
And you can see that there's a decent amount of reductions.

550
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:01,320
So even though the district is currently net zero

551
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:05,020
because of its resiliency, its ecosystem services,

552
00:37:05,660 --> 00:37:08,980
there is an opportunity to continue to build on that

553
00:37:08,980 --> 00:37:11,760
and serve your population of visitors

554
00:37:12,340 --> 00:37:14,420
to help them reduce their footprints as well.

555
00:37:17,180 --> 00:37:18,680
And I did want to thank the team.

556
00:37:19,180 --> 00:37:20,280
We did a lot of work on this.

557
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:29,180
And it was very heavily done by the team you see here as well as some other individuals

558
00:37:29,180 --> 00:37:30,900
at the ECTN at Delta Institute.

559
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:33,480
And with that, get to questions.

560
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:40,360
I'd like to thank everybody for the presentation and the work on this project.

561
00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:43,220
Obviously, it is one of the identified master plan initiatives.

562
00:37:43,700 --> 00:37:45,880
So we were excited to see this come forward.

563
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:50,300
And obviously I'm excited to hear that we're doing well and have opportunities to do even better.

564
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,600
I just wanted to talk quickly about a couple next steps that staff's been thinking about.

565
00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,940
So with all this information, I heard a lot of information today.

566
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,600
Staff's going to start thinking about different goals and objectives around these different areas.

567
00:38:04,820 --> 00:38:07,740
What are these different things that are right for our organization?

568
00:38:08,900 --> 00:38:15,100
We're going to also look at outlining potential policies that the board might want to consider around these three areas.

569
00:38:15,100 --> 00:38:17,360
And while we're working on that,

570
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:21,720
staffs can also look at some of these larger opportunities

571
00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:26,300
about reducing greenhouse gas emissions through solar installations,

572
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:28,880
reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles

573
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:32,380
by making it easier to use electric vehicles in our preserves

574
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:38,460
and generating renewable energy through renewable natural gas or gas to energy at the landfills.

575
00:38:38,540 --> 00:38:40,880
And we'll talk more about that when SCS comes back

576
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,000
or when we bring back that report.

577
00:38:43,980 --> 00:38:52,500
generating renewable energy through targeted deployment of solar panels and increasing energy efficiency or reducing energy consumption.

578
00:38:52,940 --> 00:38:56,380
So we'll be working on some of those things and bring those back to you.

579
00:38:56,820 --> 00:38:59,860
And I'm happy to answer any questions about what you've heard today.

580
00:39:03,720 --> 00:39:06,320
Well, anyway, this is particularly exciting for me.

581
00:39:07,100 --> 00:39:11,540
This is kind of a dream to be working with an organization that's actually attempting this.

582
00:39:11,540 --> 00:39:15,680
And I could see how we could establish a goal, say, in 20 years, who would be in that zero.

583
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:21,800
And I think the one chart really intrigued me that there was a massive emission reduction

584
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,080
caused by restoration work.

585
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:29,580
And then there was a remark, and I noticed that also in the literature that's published.

586
00:39:29,700 --> 00:39:32,180
There's not a whole lot of information out there, so I'm wondering how you came up

587
00:39:32,180 --> 00:39:32,780
with that number.

588
00:39:33,140 --> 00:39:35,320
Was that just a scientific guess?

589
00:39:43,570 --> 00:39:44,410
Yeah, that's right.

590
00:39:44,410 --> 00:39:50,090
There is information, there's research that does back those up.

591
00:39:50,130 --> 00:39:55,170
I think there's a table 17 that lists the utilization types.

592
00:39:56,010 --> 00:40:01,970
What is complicated about, especially carbon sequestration, is it's not linear, it's very

593
00:40:01,970 --> 00:40:03,490
weather dependent, it's very site dependent.

594
00:40:04,110 --> 00:40:12,770
So we've done a lot of work Delta has around conservation tillage and regenerative agriculture

595
00:40:12,770 --> 00:40:14,570
and you see the numbers go up and down.

596
00:40:14,770 --> 00:40:16,950
So you're looking at averages over many years.

597
00:40:17,450 --> 00:40:22,510
What is true is that certain types of restoration initiatives

598
00:40:22,510 --> 00:40:25,950
will have a larger carbon sequestration opportunity.

599
00:40:26,130 --> 00:40:26,650
I think wetland.

600
00:40:29,610 --> 00:40:33,770
And forestry has, depending on the mix and prairie,

601
00:40:34,130 --> 00:40:36,030
have different sequestration numbers.

602
00:40:36,770 --> 00:40:40,070
So what is clear, though, is the more you do it,

603
00:40:40,070 --> 00:40:46,550
The the more positive the the carbon sequestration is because the natural natural processes for

604
00:40:46,550 --> 00:40:54,250
When plants grow they especially with nitrogen, which is the greenhouse gas is one of the more potent greenhouse gases for

605
00:40:54,890 --> 00:40:55,410
landscapes

606
00:40:56,370 --> 00:41:02,510
It's it stays in the soil. It doesn't off gas. It's used by those plants. So that's that's what usually is happening

607
00:41:03,410 --> 00:41:04,450
Yeah, because I was thinking

608
00:41:04,450 --> 00:41:10,130
and sort of remark from staff that we get a lot of bang for our buck out of the prairies

609
00:41:10,130 --> 00:41:13,590
as opposed to people think of trees all the time, but that may not be the best way, just

610
00:41:13,590 --> 00:41:18,830
planting trees, but you recommend even thinning trees, so we're often re-moving trees.

611
00:41:19,910 --> 00:41:20,090
Yeah.

612
00:41:20,090 --> 00:41:23,850
That would be offset by other growth that occurs as nature responds to that.

613
00:41:24,110 --> 00:41:24,230
Right.

614
00:41:24,230 --> 00:41:30,250
Because what is happening is new growth is taking up a lot of that nitrogen and

615
00:41:30,250 --> 00:41:32,670
Exceed it in the soil as opposed to it being off-gassed.

616
00:41:33,170 --> 00:41:36,210
And it especially has a big effect on that.

617
00:41:36,370 --> 00:41:38,410
And of course we remove lots of buckthorn

618
00:41:38,410 --> 00:41:41,650
and honeysuckle every day, volunteers and staff alike.

619
00:41:41,890 --> 00:41:43,630
And that's an enormous amount of mass there

620
00:41:43,630 --> 00:41:47,150
that we have to manage that we're removing

621
00:41:47,610 --> 00:41:48,750
that has carbon in it.

622
00:41:48,770 --> 00:41:50,050
We typically burn it.

623
00:41:50,470 --> 00:41:52,650
I know that staff has looked at the idea of biochar

624
00:41:52,650 --> 00:41:54,490
and what our freedom is looking at that.

625
00:41:54,650 --> 00:41:56,990
Yes, biochar would be a good opportunity there as well.

626
00:41:57,410 --> 00:41:58,830
I guess one point I'm leading up to

627
00:41:58,830 --> 00:42:01,890
is we could be spending a lot of time talking about this.

628
00:42:02,130 --> 00:42:05,010
I guess we need to, and if the public is involved,

629
00:42:05,270 --> 00:42:09,030
I'd like the fact that you have a public education

630
00:42:09,030 --> 00:42:11,270
component, or at least we can reach out to stakeholders

631
00:42:11,270 --> 00:42:15,590
and say, like our neighbors, and whether it's this kind of

632
00:42:15,590 --> 00:42:20,430
issue or flooding, what can the neighbors be doing?

633
00:42:20,710 --> 00:42:22,690
Because they tend to want to say, well, we'll just

634
00:42:22,690 --> 00:42:24,110
send the water to the Forest Preserve.

635
00:42:24,570 --> 00:42:26,570
You'll have your lawns and plant native plants.

636
00:42:27,770 --> 00:42:31,830
So there's a lot, I think there's a lot we can be doing with the public and others, you

637
00:42:31,830 --> 00:42:32,710
know, external stakeholders.

638
00:42:33,130 --> 00:42:34,370
So I'm excited about this.

639
00:42:34,590 --> 00:42:34,830
Yeah.

640
00:42:35,310 --> 00:42:35,390
Yeah.

641
00:42:35,750 --> 00:42:39,390
And it's these, this, this plan gave you numbers.

642
00:42:39,750 --> 00:42:44,730
I think it, and what that does is it, it gives you target, the ability to set targets

643
00:42:44,730 --> 00:42:50,390
and to look at what, what your limited resources and efforts can go toward actually making

644
00:42:50,390 --> 00:42:50,830
a difference.

645
00:42:51,290 --> 00:42:54,730
And you guys are, again, already doing such great work.

646
00:42:54,730 --> 00:42:59,950
So, at least we know that we got some ideas for how to start, because this is massive

647
00:43:00,590 --> 00:43:00,990
potentially.

648
00:43:01,250 --> 00:43:02,770
So, we just obviously have to prioritize.

649
00:43:03,250 --> 00:43:03,550
Thank you.

650
00:43:03,830 --> 00:43:03,890
Yeah.

651
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:07,280
Quick question.

652
00:43:07,860 --> 00:43:09,500
So, thank you very much for doing this.

653
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:10,660
This is a fantastic study.

654
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:14,900
One thing I was kind of honed in on was the public transport side of things.

655
00:43:15,380 --> 00:43:21,940
Do we have anything that tells people, can direct people on what are the best ways

656
00:43:21,940 --> 00:43:27,060
to get to our preserve, each preserve using public transport? Or is that something that

657
00:43:27,060 --> 00:43:31,640
staff can look at and identify? Or how did you actually grade us on that?

658
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:37,780
Yeah, I mean, I'll rely on Delta for the details here, but just in general, there

659
00:43:37,780 --> 00:43:43,480
isn't really great transport access to our preserves, so maybe I'll let them elaborate

660
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:47,560
on that, but in general, that's kind of the answer that's coming.

661
00:43:49,360 --> 00:44:04,640
Yeah, so we did take a look at all of these routes, both Metra and Forest Reverses, are running through to Page County and there are limited nodes for communities.

662
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:10,680
And I go to Leah's and she lives in the city, and it's been so many times, so much time

663
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:15,060
trying to figure out how to take this into a plug-in, although it's really difficult.

664
00:44:16,500 --> 00:44:22,880
And the other thing we did look at was the community survey that was being,

665
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:30,640
and one thing that did stick up was not only were there other challenges that come with connectivity,

666
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:42,500
But also, I think 2% were interested even in taking public transit, so I think we wanted

667
00:44:42,500 --> 00:44:43,020
to engage.

668
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:52,660
Do you have any suggestions of how to engage, like what, how much we want to invest in that?

669
00:44:53,140 --> 00:44:54,580
Because I think it's something very important.

670
00:44:54,700 --> 00:44:56,160
We have a lot of people that don't have cars.

671
00:44:56,340 --> 00:44:58,500
They don't have bikes to get to our preserves.

672
00:44:58,500 --> 00:44:59,400
And I think it's important.

673
00:44:59,580 --> 00:44:59,800
Thank you.

674
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:06,180
That's that opportunity, but how much do you direct towards that, showing only that 2% interest?

675
00:45:07,860 --> 00:45:12,600
Numbers wise, not to talk to my head if it's been something you've seen before.

676
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:17,720
Have you had experience with other counties that have been in this situation?

677
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:22,480
Do they work with PACE and Metro, well, obviously Metro can't realign their stops,

678
00:45:22,700 --> 00:45:27,820
but with PACE would that be something that we work on with them to just maybe highlight

679
00:45:27,820 --> 00:45:29,840
like one or two of our larger preserves

680
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:32,140
and try to see if they can put a stop

681
00:45:32,140 --> 00:45:35,840
if they're going by already, just a sample, if that.

682
00:45:36,500 --> 00:45:39,360
Yeah, so I can't speak to what other kinds are doing it now,

683
00:45:39,380 --> 00:45:43,130
but I think everything's working,

684
00:45:43,450 --> 00:45:48,310
collaborating a little bit for where there would be opportunity.

685
00:45:51,970 --> 00:45:52,610
Great, thank you.

686
00:45:54,190 --> 00:45:57,490
Just to feed off of that, just sparked,

687
00:45:58,090 --> 00:46:00,350
we've talked a little bit about it

688
00:46:00,350 --> 00:46:10,070
with some of the master plans that we've just gone through is to make entry points to make

689
00:46:10,070 --> 00:46:15,750
it more accessible to neighborhoods so that they don't have to drive to the parking lot.

690
00:46:15,950 --> 00:46:18,130
They can walk to the preserve.

691
00:46:19,110 --> 00:46:23,270
I'm very blessed in this part of the reason I moved where I moved is because there's

692
00:46:23,270 --> 00:46:26,090
an accessible block and a half for my house.

693
00:46:26,090 --> 00:46:31,710
So I can go there and walk or ride a bike, and I don't have to drive to the Forest Preserve.

694
00:46:32,050 --> 00:46:39,450
If I didn't have that entrance at that point, I'd have to drive to the parking lot and go from there.

695
00:46:39,710 --> 00:46:43,430
So I think entry points is something that we could look at.

696
00:46:43,790 --> 00:46:47,910
And we should be with our big master plan that we're supposed to be looking at,

697
00:46:48,010 --> 00:46:52,010
is that we should have easier access points to the residence.

698
00:46:52,630 --> 00:46:53,590
That's one thing.

699
00:46:54,230 --> 00:47:02,510
And then on page 80, I don't know which one of you, it does talk about that we have twice,

700
00:47:02,650 --> 00:47:11,530
over twice as much negative emissions based on our forests than our prairies.

701
00:47:12,210 --> 00:47:19,470
So I'm a big proponent that, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that trees are

702
00:47:19,470 --> 00:47:25,910
very important to our net emissions versus prairies.

703
00:47:36,500 --> 00:47:40,520
When you're looking at, you know, kind of the sequestration numbers, you

704
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:46,640
have to look at both the sequestration rate and the area of that particular

705
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:51,320
cover. And so anything that's got the most cover amount, even if it's got a lower

706
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:53,280
rate, it's going to look like a really big number.

707
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:57,540
So, absolutely, your forests are essential, it's not like you want to get rid of those.

708
00:47:58,100 --> 00:48:07,060
But I also think that forests get, maybe I'll put it another way, prairies and wetlands

709
00:48:07,060 --> 00:48:11,140
probably get less credit than they deserve in terms of sequestration.

710
00:48:11,620 --> 00:48:14,020
They actually sequester a carbon at a greater rate.

711
00:48:14,420 --> 00:48:20,080
Most of that carbon in that plant material is actually below ground, gets incorporated

712
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:21,660
to the soil, makes the soil healthier.

713
00:48:21,660 --> 00:48:28,080
most of the organic matter with trees is actually above ground and so eventually

714
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:32,640
tree dies and that carbon goes back in the atmosphere so it's not sort of

715
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:37,120
permanently sequestered. So not to say that forests aren't amazing and do a

716
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:41,120
great job it's just prairies and wetlands also do a really good job and

717
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:42,300
actually have a higher.

718
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:48,800
I did want to add one thing to that as well.

719
00:48:53,180 --> 00:48:53,800
One of

720
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:59,400
bit more biodiversity than a forest, which has pretty, you know, natural

721
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:03,680
stand tendency more biodiversity in the edge communities on the edge of a forest

722
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:08,580
or in a prairie than you would in the middle of the forest as well, so that's something to consider.

723
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:13,660
And while you're talking about the edges of the forest for sure, I did

724
00:49:13,660 --> 00:49:20,760
read through your report, very interesting, very comprehensive. The

725
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:27,080
The edges are where a lot of the, I raised them on our butterflies, so I read about your

726
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:38,520
pollinators, and my concern is that we use too much herbicides around that and that fringes

727
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:39,760
on the growth of-

728
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:44,740
To keep a, you know, where there's grass meeting edge barrier or something like that?

729
00:49:44,860 --> 00:49:45,420
Well, yeah.

730
00:49:45,420 --> 00:49:49,580
and reg around the baths and things like that,

731
00:49:49,740 --> 00:49:53,040
that maybe we shouldn't be using as many herbicides there

732
00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:57,660
because that's where the milkweed for one

733
00:49:57,660 --> 00:50:03,380
and other pollinators want need that area to grow

734
00:50:03,380 --> 00:50:06,640
so that the pollinators have something to pollinate on.

735
00:50:06,940 --> 00:50:08,760
Yeah, I agree with that, it's site dependent.

736
00:50:09,240 --> 00:50:12,500
And my concern about the monarch caterpillars

737
00:50:12,500 --> 00:50:15,320
is that they're eating the milkweed.

738
00:50:16,340 --> 00:50:22,420
And in the past, I mean, where I have my home,

739
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:26,140
I don't put any herbicides, pesticides, any on them.

740
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:28,340
Because when I started raising monitor,

741
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:33,940
I had a lot of caterpillars that just shriveled up.

742
00:50:34,300 --> 00:50:38,920
So I really went all natural, didn't put anything

743
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:45,960
getting on my lawns or in the way of pesticides or herbicides, and now I have a, I last, like,

744
00:50:46,900 --> 00:50:49,640
65 or something called, they're all very healthy.

745
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:50,300
Nice.

746
00:50:50,660 --> 00:50:54,780
So, I don't know if we're going to address that.

747
00:50:55,140 --> 00:50:59,520
I think it was part of the, there's a little bit of part, it wasn't a major part of it.

748
00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:01,480
I think you're out, you're spawning.

749
00:51:01,940 --> 00:51:06,700
If you don't need to be using pesticides or herbicides or plant control,

750
00:51:07,860 --> 00:51:16,140
certainly not in a prairie or even in the edge, but you might get wind blown off from, you know, trying to control weeds in the lawn.

751
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:21,060
So I think that's a consideration as well. Is the lawn really what you...

752
00:51:21,060 --> 00:51:23,100
What's the utilization of lawn? It's really cycling.

753
00:51:23,980 --> 00:51:35,060
So there are opportunities. You know, we've kind of reviewed this a little bit in the solar to be putting solar panels where you could possibly have a prairie.

754
00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:40,040
And there's potential for that to happen in the future.

755
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:44,220
And that wasn't in your report.

756
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:47,800
But I'm just wondering, in my mind,

757
00:51:47,940 --> 00:51:51,000
I read a study that the tires of cars

758
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:54,020
produce more emissions than the gasoline does.

759
00:51:54,340 --> 00:51:55,600
Do you know anything about that?

760
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:56,800
You mean, well, possibly?

761
00:51:57,640 --> 00:52:00,340
Well, no, when you're driving,

762
00:52:00,860 --> 00:52:04,060
the emissions that come off the tires are really.

763
00:52:04,780 --> 00:52:05,140
Yeah.

764
00:52:11,620 --> 00:52:13,340
Yeah, there's particulates too.

765
00:52:13,560 --> 00:52:14,020
Yeah, you're right.

766
00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:17,180
And it was the particulates, I think.

767
00:52:19,380 --> 00:52:19,740
Yeah.

768
00:52:20,240 --> 00:52:24,160
And I mean, EVs have- I was just wondering if you had any information on how much of it.

769
00:52:24,260 --> 00:52:25,240
But I agree with Tom.

770
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:26,980
It sounds- I've never heard of that.

771
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:31,780
And it sounds to me like it might be particulates that are part of the- Yeah, I think it

772
00:52:31,780 --> 00:52:32,040
was.

773
00:52:32,460 --> 00:52:32,740
The latent.

774
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:33,280
Not card.

775
00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:33,340
Not card.

776
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:36,260
But EVs have their own environmental issues as well.

777
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:40,340
So part of the things that, you know, when we look at this as kind of the whole

778
00:52:41,620 --> 00:52:44,660
So, it's a good point, you know, trying to try to look at these.

779
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:48,420
And Argonne, because I live by Argonne National Lab,

780
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:50,100
and they're looking at how to recycle,

781
00:52:50,100 --> 00:52:55,900
if they have a big department on how to recycle electric vehicle batteries.

782
00:52:57,580 --> 00:53:00,000
That's a very, very interesting department.

783
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:01,980
We're going to get that figured out, I'm sure.

784
00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:03,500
I have a lot of faith in Argonne.

785
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:05,660
Further questions or discussion?

786
00:53:07,900 --> 00:53:09,260
Well, again, thank you so much.

787
00:53:09,260 --> 00:53:15,060
I know we have 166 miles of trail that connects with nearly 250 miles throughout the county.

788
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:16,240
So that connects.

789
00:53:16,380 --> 00:53:18,020
But we can absolutely keep connecting.

790
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:21,460
And we are actually have a couple of trail openings right here at Denada One and down

791
00:53:21,460 --> 00:53:23,280
to Springbrook Curry, another one to connect more neighborhoods.

792
00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:26,860
So look forward to keep pushing on all of these environmental issues.

793
00:53:27,140 --> 00:53:28,940
So thank you again for the presentation.

794
00:53:30,500 --> 00:53:33,080
We do have a second informational agenda item.

795
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:38,300
We have I2 excellence in financial reporting, fiscal year 2021.

796
00:53:38,300 --> 00:53:39,600
And we welcome Andrew Brown.

797
00:53:40,060 --> 00:53:42,640
Good morning, President Hebrard, Board of Commissioners,

798
00:53:42,720 --> 00:53:43,480
Director Freiland.

799
00:53:44,240 --> 00:53:47,380
I'm here to report that we have been recognized

800
00:53:47,380 --> 00:53:49,400
by the Government Finance Officers Association

801
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:53,200
for the 35th time for excellence in financial reporting

802
00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:56,620
for our comprehensive financial report, which also

803
00:53:56,620 --> 00:53:57,740
doubles as our audit.

804
00:53:58,300 --> 00:54:02,320
It is a more transparent version of the statutorily

805
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:05,360
required audit that we provide on an annual basis.

806
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:09,860
and again something that speaks to the transparency that the Forest Preserve

807
00:54:09,860 --> 00:54:13,780
provides in those financial documents as well as our commitment to excellence

808
00:54:13,780 --> 00:54:19,720
and providing those records and data to the public. I'm also pleased to

809
00:54:19,720 --> 00:54:24,800
announce that the district is one for the first time this award for the

810
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,800
popular annual financial report from the Government Finance Office Association.

811
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:34,740
This is a summary version of the comprehensive report that is provided

812
00:54:34,740 --> 00:54:37,240
in a manner that someone without a financial acumen

813
00:54:37,240 --> 00:54:40,020
can understand what our financial performance was

814
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:40,980
for the year.

815
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:43,520
I need to thank my staff, specifically,

816
00:54:43,880 --> 00:54:45,740
Brian Koszewski and Kiri Murtis,

817
00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:48,220
for helping me put this together, and our CR team.

818
00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:50,660
Jane Bonner did a wonderful job helping me

819
00:54:50,660 --> 00:54:53,820
bring finance down to a level that folks can understand.

820
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:56,740
Both of these documents are available on our website

821
00:54:56,740 --> 00:54:59,540
and have been since June of last year,

822
00:54:59,740 --> 00:55:01,700
and I'm happy to take any questions if there are.

823
00:55:02,620 --> 00:55:08,800
Congratulations. Very exciting. And I do like the new one. It is very, very friendly on the eyes.

824
00:55:10,260 --> 00:55:19,860
Congratulations. And I think finance, more understandable on a basic level, is great for everybody. Not all of them. Not everybody wants finances.

825
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:27,960
Yeah, I want to echo previous comments, I think finance is looking good for us and is

826
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:30,360
well-managed and I appreciate the efforts to communicate.

827
00:55:31,300 --> 00:55:37,660
In the presentation by Delta Institute they mentioned we're buying green credits, I was

828
00:55:37,660 --> 00:55:42,560
a little confused on that because I know we're talking about how we want to acquire electricity

829
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:48,820
and where it comes from and that's probably part of the financial aspect.

830
00:55:48,820 --> 00:55:51,640
I mean we do environmental stuff that appreciate efforts to

831
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:56,300
Communicate what we're doing with our money and how we're spending it, but thank you

832
00:56:02,250 --> 00:56:07,690
I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn. I have a motion a second to adjourn roll call, please

833
00:56:08,530 --> 00:56:09,830
Tyson done. I

834
00:56:10,910 --> 00:56:11,910
Gearest I

835
00:56:12,530 --> 00:56:13,710
Keep your eye

836
00:56:15,660 --> 00:56:20,620
I'll Murphy Marsha Murphy. Hi. Oh, Mira. Hi painter. Hi

837
00:56:20,620 --> 00:56:23,640
All eyes, Mr. President. We are adjourned