[0:00] Good morning and call this force to the district of Dupage County, commission meeting, agenda

[0:03] to order. Today, Tuesday, May 16th, 2023, right here at district headquarters. You please rise

[0:09] and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

[0:13] I pledge allegiance to the fight of the United States of America and to the republic for

[0:19] which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice, and the law.

[0:28] And this morning, for invocation, we welcome Deacon Ron Yerkes from St. Petronau, Parish, and Glen Allen.

[0:35] Good morning. Good to be with you, as always.

[0:38] There's an expression that he who sings praise twice. Let me see if I can do this.

[0:44] We are called to act with justice. We are called to love tenderly.

[0:50] We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with us.

[0:58] So this morning I was thinking of all the changes that are going on in our lives.

[1:01] I think of Chicago yesterday with their big celebrations and stuff.

[1:05] Change is part of our life.

[1:07] But we just pray that God is present with us here in this morning.

[1:10] 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.

[1:15] We have the gift of creation how I love to go out into the forest preserves and hear the bird singing

[1:21] So that's why I was thinking so a guy'd be with us today me all of our

[1:25] Decisions that we make in this room. They've been made with wisdom love knowledge that we all are God's keepers

[1:31] And this is a gift that has been given to us this all this property with all this wild animals

[1:36] 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

[1:51] We'll call, please.

[1:52] Mr. Garrus.

[1:54] Here.

[1:55] President Heberard.

[1:56] Here.

[1:57] Commissioners Al Murphy.

[1:59] Marsha Murphy.

[2:00] Here.

[2:00] O'Meara.

[2:01] Here.

[2:02] Painter.

[2:03] Here.

[2:03] Tyson Dunn.

[2:04] Here.

[2:05] Six present and one absent, Mr. President.

[2:09] Thank you.

[2:10] Spring has certainly sprung and right on time, so has our popular native plants.

[2:15] While the presale tickets are sold out for this Thursday, both Friday and Saturday are

[2:21] open to the public and they can come out in person for native flowers, grasses, shrubs,

[2:26] and trees at Maze Lake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook.

[2:30] There will be plant experts on site to answer your questions and make recommendations regarding

[2:34] over 160 species you can choose from.

[2:38] Be sure to come early if you want the best selection as plants are not restocked

[2:42] And when they are gone, they are gone.

[2:46] Also, in conjunction with the sale,

[2:48] free woodchips will be available to the public

[2:50] on Saturday, May 20th from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

[2:53] at the Forest Preserve District's native plant nursery

[2:56] at 29 West 220 Mac Road in West Chicago.

[3:00] More information is available on our website,

[3:02] dupageforest.org.

[3:05] This morning, we have an informational

[3:07] on the district's clean energy, resiliency,

[3:09] and sustainability plan.

[3:10] plan. This initiative was identified in the district's approved 2019 master plan to study

[3:16] ways to support strategic plan priorities of increasing energy efficiencies and reducing

[3:22] the agency's carbon footprint. We are proud of the many steps we have taken to move forward

[3:26] over the past several years, but this will help accelerate our progress and keep us moving

[3:31] on the most viable options first. The entire plan can also be found on our website.

[3:38] Finally, I am pulling R7, R8, and R9 from our agenda today as they are not ready.

[3:51] We do have multiple public comments.

[3:54] When I woke up this morning, I just wanted to remind everybody, it's a beautiful day,

[4:00] so let's not make it too long.

[4:01] We have three minutes for our public comments, and please be respectful of everyone's time.

[4:06] Karen Rugg, do you want to come up to the microphone?

[4:08] I'm

[4:13] trying to get the word out about getting

[4:16] in a proper retention pond or reservoir, whatever

[4:20] you want to call it.

[4:22] They're at Songbird Slew, and I cast it.

[4:25] And I went to the County Board of Health last Thursday night

[4:32] for their public comment, and I didn't

[4:34] know that they were having a huge meeting for retirement

[4:37] of Karen Ayala.

[4:38] However, when I pulled into the parking lot in front of the public health

[4:44] building on County Farm Road, all of a sudden right in front of me was this big hole,

[4:50] this big vast hole in the back. Immaculately groomed deep, and I guess that's a

[4:57] reservoir to keep the County Board of Health building from flooding out, and

[5:02] and also to protect County from road from flooding out.

[5:06] So the county absolutely cares about people in that campus.

[5:14] But I haven't heard a word from you.

[5:16] You keep on flooding out that building, that medical building that's right up next to your property

[5:22] and anxiously waiting for a phone call to hear when you're going to start.

[5:28] Just like you said about your plants.

[5:30] when they run out, they run out. It's important that you act on this as a team, protect humans in your community.

[5:41] Humans count too. And those are sick and dying humans.

[5:47] And they have to run their wheelchairs through your water.

[5:51] And I haven't heard a word of what you're doing to correct it.

[5:56] You've had seven years, Jim Zay is known about this.

[6:01] I put a film up just like I did with Mr. Jacobson on his back wooden porch of his office building.

[6:09] He's known about it.

[6:11] You've known about it for how long?

[6:14] And nobody's taking any action and it saddens me.

[6:19] So, I hope I get to hear from you, from somebody, when you're going to start this project.

[6:29] You can't be flooding people out, because somebody made a mistake years ago.

[6:35] Nobody's blaming you personally, but you're on the watch now, it's your duty to correct

[6:41] it.

[6:42] I'll be back next week.

[6:46] Next we have Becky Simon with Naperville Preservation.

[6:51] Step forward to the microphone.

[6:59] Hi, I'm Becky Simon with Naperville Preservation and I am here today to ask the board to formally

[7:07] convene an ad hoc committee to study alternative uses for oak cottage. Oak Cottage was recently

[7:15] identified as one of the most endangered historic sites in Illinois. We have found

[7:22] ourselves third parties who are willing to help fund signage for the site and people

[7:27] who are willing to serve on an ad hoc committee.

[7:30] So again, my request for all of you here today

[7:32] is to form an ad hoc committee while we have time

[7:36] to identify alternative uses for Oak Cottage.

[7:40] Thank you.

[7:41] Thank you for your public comment.

[7:45] And with that, we will move into the regular agenda.

[7:51] Mr. President, under R1, we have a motion approving

[7:55] and placing on file the open planning session

[7:57] meeting minutes from 4.25.23

[7:59] and open commission meeting minutes from 5 to 23. Second. A motion and a second. Is

[8:06] there any discussion? Go call please. O'Meara. Aye. Painter. Aye. Tyson Dunn. Aye.

[8:14] Garris. Aye. Keebriard. Aye. Al Murphy. Marsha Murphy. Aye. All ayes, Mr. President. Motion passes.

[8:24] Mr. President, under R2, we have a resolution number 23-095, authorizing the payment of goods

[8:31] and services for payment 5, 18, 23.

[8:34] Second.

[8:35] A motion and a second.

[8:36] Is there any discussion?

[8:38] We'll call please.

[8:41] O'Meara.

[8:41] Aye.

[8:42] Painter.

[8:43] Aye.

[8:44] Tyson Dunn.

[8:44] Aye.

[8:45] Harris.

[8:46] Aye.

[8:46] Fibriard.

[8:47] Aye.

[8:48] Elmerfe, Marsha Murphy.

[8:49] Hi.

[8:50] Oh, hi.

[8:51] Mr. President.

[8:52] Motion passes.

[8:54] Mr. President, under R3, we have resolution number 23-071, authorizing the execution of

[9:01] a contract for professional services between the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

[9:05] and AQUITY Research and Insights Incorporated for professional services countywide.

[9:12] Second.

[9:13] Motion and a second.

[9:14] Is there any discussion?

[9:31] We have an ordinance number 23-099, authorizing an extension to the license agreement between

[9:40] the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and the Friends of Donata Incorporated for their

[9:45] operation of the Donata House and Donata Model Farm Complex.

[9:50] Second.

[9:50] I have a motion and a second.

[9:52] Is there any discussion?

[9:55] Vote call, please.

[9:57] O'Meara.

[9:58] Aye.

[9:59] Painter.

[10:00] Aye.

[10:00] Tyson Dunn.

[10:01] Aye.

[10:02] Harris.

[10:03] Aye.

[10:03] Gibriard.

[10:04] Aye.

[10:05] Al Murphy.

[10:06] Marcia Murphy.

[10:07] Aye.

[10:08] All ayes, Mr. President.

[10:09] Motion passes.

[10:11] Mr. President, under R5, we have a resolution number 23-075,

[10:18] authorizing the execution of a contract for the purchase of liquid propane

[10:22] auto gas fuel between the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

[10:26] and Heritage FS Incorporated.

[10:28] Second.

[10:29] I have a motion and a second.

[10:31] Is there any discussion?

[10:33] Roll call, please.

[10:35] Omira.

[10:36] Aye.

[10:37] Painter.

[10:37] Aye.

[10:38] Tyson Dunn.

[10:39] Aye.

[10:40] Harris.

[10:41] Aye.

[10:42] Fibriard.

[10:42] Aye.

[10:43] Al Murphy.

[10:44] Marsha Murphy.

[10:45] Aye.

[10:46] Aye.

[10:47] Mr. President.

[10:47] Motion passes.

[10:49] Mr. President, under R6, we have resolution number 23-090, authorizing the execution

[10:56] of an easement agreement between the Forest Reserve District of DuPage County and the

[11:01] County of DuPage for the operation and maintenance of a sanitary sewer force main

[11:06] in Green Valley Forest Preserve. Second. A motion and a second. Is there any

[11:11] discussion? Both call please. O'Meara. Aye. Painter. Aye. Tyson Dunn. Aye.

[11:19] Harris. Aye. Hebrard. Aye. Al Murphy. Marcia Murphy. Aye. All ayes Mr. President. Motion passes. I am very

[11:29] happy to make a motion on R10 resolution 23-089 authorizing the

[11:37] execution of a contract for professional services between the Forest

[11:41] Preserve District of DuPage County and HW Lockhear and Company and Waterfall

[11:47] Glen Forest Preserve. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any

[11:51] discussion. We're all excited for this to happen. Absolutely. Roll call please.

[11:58] Painter. Aye. Tyson Dunn. Aye. Harris. Aye. Hebrard. Aye. Cal Murphy. Marsha Murphy.

[12:07] Aye. O'Meara. Aye. All ayes Mr. President. Motion passes. And following up on that

[12:13] R11 I'd like to make a motion on resolution 23-103 authorizing the

[12:20] the execution of a contract between the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and MYS,

[12:26] Incorporated for Construction of the Sawmill Creek Pedestrian Bridge replacement in Waterfall

[12:32] Glen Forest Preserve.

[12:33] Second.

[12:34] I have a motion and a second.

[12:35] Is there any discussion?

[12:38] Well, call please.

[12:40] Painter?

[12:41] Aye.

[12:42] Tyson Dunn?

[12:43] Aye.

[12:44] Ferris?

[12:44] Aye.

[12:45] Kibriard?

[12:46] Aye.

[12:46] Al Murphy?

[12:47] Marcia Murphy?

[12:48] Aye.

[12:49] O'Meara?

[12:49] Hi

[12:52] Motion passes

[12:55] Mr.. President under our 12 we have a resolution number 23-102

[13:01] authorizing the

[13:02] application for Illinois Department of Natural Resources

[13:05] public museum capital grants program for willowbrook phase 2 master plan improvements

[13:11] Second of a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?

[13:16] Go call please

[13:18] O'Meara?

[13:19] Aye.

[13:20] Painter?

[13:21] Aye.

[13:21] Tyson Dunn?

[13:22] Aye.

[13:23] Ferris?

[13:24] Aye.

[13:24] TBR?

[13:25] Aye.

[13:26] Elmerfe?

[13:27] Marcia Murphy?

[13:28] Aye.

[13:29] All ayes, Mr. President?

[13:31] Motion passes.

[13:32] We do have informational agenda items today.

[13:35] I-1 is our Clean Energy Resiliency and Sustainability Plan Gaps, Barriers, and Opportunities

[13:41] Report.

[13:41] And welcome Jessica Cortiga.

[13:54] Good morning, everyone.

[13:55] I'm Jessica Ortega, Manager of Strategic Plans and Initiatives, and here to present

[14:01] this item today, Clean Energy Resiliency Sustainability Plan.

[14:05] So as you recall, the 2019 master plan called for completing a green energy study that

[14:11] would help identify ways to increase energy efficiencies and reduce the district's carbon

[14:16] footprint.

[14:17] And so to that end, the Board approved a contract with Delta Institute to identify

[14:21] gaps, barriers, and opportunities related to clean energy resiliency and

[14:25] sustainability. Delta Institute then worked with staff to assess the ecosystem

[14:30] services that the district currently provides, assess the feasibility of

[14:34] options for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and alternative fuel

[14:39] vehicles, explore green energy infrastructure opportunities, analyze the

[14:44] district's waste streams, assess transportation related emissions, and

[14:48] explore options for carbon sequestration.

[14:52] I'll just note as well, in addition to this work,

[14:54] the district contracted separately with SCS engineers

[14:58] to do analysis of clean energy.

[15:23] Thank

[15:29] you, Jessica. Good morning, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here today. My name is

[15:34] Patrick Murphy. I'm a senior lead at Delta Institute and in my role I've

[15:39] largely been focused on the communications of this project. Much of my

[15:43] colleagues who are here with me are much more knowledgeable on all the

[15:46] ins and outs of this but it's my pleasure to introduce us, talk about some

[15:50] of the background about what brought us here and what next steps are ahead for

[15:55] us.

[15:59] As Jessica introduced us, Delta Institute is a 501c3 profit

[16:03] organization that has a 25-year history of collaborating with communities across

[16:08] the Midwest to solve complex environmental challenges. In partnership

[16:11] with ECT we responded to RFP to address the clean energy resiliency and

[16:18] sustainability plan that surfaced from the 2019 master plan and it's been a

[16:23] pleasure to work on this everything up until today to talk about what we saw

[16:29] and what we see for opportunities going forward.

[16:32] But of course this work doesn't happen in a vacuum.

[16:35] This requires collaboration across board level, staff level,

[16:41] and we just wanted to take a brief moment to acknowledge the many people

[16:46] who have been participating with us throughout this sharing,

[16:49] providing lots of feedback, reviews.

[16:52] There's been a lot of help not just by the people that you see here on the screen,

[16:55] but also people that make the district run on a daily basis.

[16:58] So we want to make sure that we acknowledge everybody here

[17:01] and everybody on the screen as well.

[17:05] So dipping into the results here, again,

[17:08] I won't take too much every time because we have a lot to cover.

[17:12] And I'm just going to cover where we started off with.

[17:15] And just a note saying that this does not cover

[17:18] any of the adjacent landfill operations as well.

[17:21] We did factor that into the equation,

[17:23] but this is not specifically covering any of that.

[17:27] 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.

[17:35] And that's built upon the 100 years of conservation and preservation that the district has been investing in.

[17:42] But not just that, also with many of the recent accomplishments that the district has spearheaded for many years,

[17:48] All of which you see here, several, several, several more that are listed in the report

[17:53] itself and beyond.

[17:57] Things like investing in 100% renewable energy credits for the year 2023, already installing

[18:04] and designing green infrastructure sites throughout many of the preserves and developing

[18:08] and constructing trails throughout many of the preserves.

[18:11] What we find is that to achieve the district's next targeted goals of reducing its carbon footprint,

[18:20] increasing clean energy opportunities, we find that the district is in a great position and only moving forward.

[18:30] If this opportunity, it's my pleasure to introduce the person who has been spearheading the entirety of this project team.

[18:36] He's a senior advisor at Delta Institute.

[18:39] My pleasure to introduce Kevin Dick.

[18:46] You see ECT on the slide.

[18:50] They were a partner project.

[18:56] So one of the things we did in this project was to really look at the emissions that were

[19:04] generated by the job which is and we really don't need on that.

[19:09] I'm going to go into that a little bit.

[19:12] But before I do, I want to give Tom an opportunity

[19:15] to really talk about the other aspects of this plan,

[19:19] the resiliency side, which is what the force reserve

[19:23] district provides as a people service.

[19:26] They're equally important.

[19:27] And actually offset a lot of the issues

[19:29] that the operations of the force reserve

[19:33] has as an operator.

[19:36] So we want to make sure that that's

[19:39] But, sure, thanks Kevin.

[19:43] We'll get into a little deeper dive in a little bit, but the district is the largest holder

[19:49] of floodplain in the county and most of that land is pervious area that's able to absorb

[19:56] runoff, sequestered carbon, as Kevin said, and so that's been working well.

[20:02] The also been working with the county to help house or sort of locate some of the

[20:07] flood control facilities that are helping countywide.

[20:10] And that's important because we've got

[20:12] some very heavy vegetation increases that are predicted

[20:15] that's no surprise to you.

[20:18] And as we all sort of feel it,

[20:20] 100 year events are just keep getting worse

[20:22] and our events are getting bigger.

[20:25] At the same time, we're seeing

[20:26] reduction in, you know, greater drought as well.

[20:30] So we're getting maybe similar amounts of total rainfall

[20:32] but the amounts are all occurring as part of events

[20:43] And that's a good foundation because part of the reason we're looking at emissions is

[20:48] it's part of the mission obviously for this organization to, you know, be a steward of

[20:54] the environment.

[20:55] As things get worse, the emissions of the horse river district does, it may have become

[21:01] a part of the, it's a part of the issue and we want to make sure that they're,

[21:05] you know, aware of what's going on.

[21:06] what those opportunities for reducing that cost.

[21:10] So I'm going to give you a two sentence, hopefully,

[21:14] review of what carbon accounting is.

[21:17] And you can think about this in your own terms as well.

[21:20] There's three scopes in carbon accounting.

[21:23] And what you do when you do a carbon accounting

[21:25] is you understand the boundary of the organization

[21:28] you're working with, whether it's a municipality or a company

[21:30] or even a household.

[21:31] What is in your purview?

[21:34] And so the scope one emissions are what is what is used on site so natural gas

[21:43] and anything that's used on site like a forklift or something like that.

[21:49] So two emissions are your electricity use. It's emissions that are because that

[21:53] are due to your operations but happen elsewhere. So a coal plant emits it

[21:57] somewhere else but it's because you guys are using electricity. And then scope

[22:01] So three emissions, which is the largest, usually about 40% or more of the emissions of an operation,

[22:07] is all of the supply chain emissions that you have.

[22:10] So everything you purchase, because you purchase, becomes a force of an emission.

[22:16] We didn't really look at scope three emissions.

[22:18] It's a very big undertaking and really is much bigger than scope one and scope two, except for waste.

[22:26] We actually looked at your waste emissions as well, because that is under scope three.

[22:30] So, when we look at the emissions of an organization or a municipality, we also are taking into

[22:37] account where those are coming from.

[22:38] So, not all of the greenhouse gas emissions are pretty equal.

[22:42] You may have heard that methane creates more emissions than a CO2, and nitrous oxides are

[22:48] one of the bigger ones.

[22:49] So, we did look at that as well.

[22:52] If we look at your non-manfil operation, the bottom line is that boundary total

[22:59] tons of CO2E is 8,000 tons a year. We included your visitors in that. As you can see, all

[23:07] of their driving to your horse river district sites are part of that. We want to include

[23:14] that because it is part of your operations. It's not necessary to keep it in and we'll

[23:20] show you how that works out when you're looking at just your direct operations.

[23:25] We also looked at your carbon sequestration as well, so we'll get into that a little bit

[23:32] deeper.

[23:33] When we look at just your operations emissions on the right side, you have about 2,700 tons

[23:40] of operations emissions, and to put this in perspective for you guys, a typical DuPage

[23:45] County household uses about 18 tons for their household and their driving.

[23:51] So that'll give you about 250 or so households is what your emissions kind of comes out to if you do that.

[23:58] So we'll get into that. And you can see your landfill emissions at the bottom left there absolutely dwarf your operations emissions.

[24:04] And that's a separate issue.

[24:09] So scope one, as I mentioned, it's what you use on site. This is all of the fleet and maintenance equipment.

[24:14] You guys do a lot of great work using ethanol, which reduces your E85, reduces your emissions

[24:21] because of gasoline, biodiesel reduces emissions versus regular diesel, and compressed natural

[24:28] gas uses or reduces emissions versus regular motor gasoline.

[24:31] This is one of the biggest portions of your emissions in one of the areas that you think

[24:36] there's opportunity.

[24:36] And as you can see about most of it is from vehicles, your cars and trucks.

[24:40] As

[24:44] Patrick mentioned, one of the things you've done recently is you started buying renewable

[24:49] energy credits for your electricity generation.

[24:52] When you're doing carbon accounting, you actually offset 100% of your emissions.

[24:58] That's wonderful.

[24:59] So you literally zero out your scope to emissions for this purpose.

[25:04] What you're doing is you're purchasing 100% wind credits and you're eliminating natural

[25:09] natural gas and coal, and some biomass use from the emissions of the grid. So congratulations

[25:21] on that. And just so you know, this is the generation

[25:25] mix for where you get your electricity. This will continue to get more green as coal plants

[25:30] close by 2050. Most of them will be closed. They'll convert to natural gas. And wind

[25:34] power is slated to double, triple, quadruple by 2050, as we go on as well. So you're going

[25:41] to see a big greening of the grid.

[25:45] So just as I said earlier, here's the numbers. You

[25:49] have a huge gross carbon sequestration number. This is all of the ecosystem services provided

[25:57] by your forest preserve district lands, 7,400 tons. That's enormous. And that gets your

[26:03] your gross emissions, if you keep your visitor emissions in and you keep your scope to emissions

[26:09] in down to about 4500. That's great. As we mentioned though, you offset your scope

[26:16] to emissions and we can take the visitor emissions out when you're really considering

[26:21] just your operations and you actually operate at a deficit of 891. So you actually offset

[26:28] that about 50 households of emissions.

[26:31] That's a wonderful bottom line, you guys.

[26:34] You are less than net zero, so that is great.

[26:39] You guys are doing awesome.

[26:41] There are opportunities, and we'll get into those

[26:44] a little bit.

[26:45] We did look at how we wanted to kind of talk

[26:48] about those opportunities.

[26:49] We looked at gaps, we looked at opportunities,

[26:51] and we looked at what you were already doing well,

[26:53] and we kind of put them into boring,

[26:56] if you read the plan, little icons pop up. Where are you along at Green Continuum? Are

[27:01] you just exploring or are you actually performing and ready to scale? So we wanted to do that

[27:05] for each area, each strategy area that we identified. And you had some wins. We were doing, as

[27:13] I mentioned before, you're using alternative fuels. That's already great. You used landfill

[27:19] gas to energy. We did some ASHRAE audits. There's a lot of wonderful efficiency going

[27:24] There's some opportunities there as well and you're tracking all this information on a regular basis.

[27:29] So there's a good amount of work already done on all the buildings that you currently manage.

[27:36] There are some gaps. We think that there's opportunity around space utilization.

[27:41] There's spaces that are heated when they're unoccupied, especially during the winter.

[27:46] There are ways to reduce that. Building controls, remote sensing, there's opportunities there.

[27:51] one of the big ones I found was in some of the ASHRAE audits is more efficient

[27:56] motors for places like the Urban Stream Research Center has an opportunity to

[28:01] load. It's a foot print that way as well.

[28:06] And as I mentioned electrification is a

[28:10] growing opportunity. We mentioned in the plan it's not a recommendation right

[28:14] now. Your natural gas is very cheap at the moment. And I want

[28:24] to pass it to Tom.

[28:26] Great. So some of the things that already doing, again, most of your land is natural

[28:32] area or pervious surfaces, we say, not impervious roofs or parking lots. And so that's great.

[28:38] And you're restoring a lot of land. In fact, in the next few years, you're scheduled

[28:43] to restore 470 acres of cropland to natural area, which will do us runoff by nearly

[28:51] 22 million gallons of water per year, and to put that in perspective, that's about the

[28:58] equivalent of 50 feet of water over the area of a football field, so it's a lot of water.

[29:05] And as I mentioned before, you're working a lot to do some cooperative efforts to reduce

[29:10] the runoff from the county as a whole through flood control and such, but also doing some

[29:15] things on your own land through green infrastructure, and just right out here in your parking

[29:19] lot in this facility is a good example of a lot of the green infrastructure, green stormwater

[29:24] infrastructure things that you're doing. You restore waterways, you're home to more than

[29:30] 5,000 species of plants and you continue to acquire and protect natural areas. And even at

[29:37] some of your sort of less sustainable if you will or what some people might say is golf courses

[29:42] you're doing a lot of work to reduce the impact of those as well. So, you know, you've got

[29:48] some great wind so far.

[29:51] In terms of some of the gaps, you know, all of these things require

[29:55] maintenance and green infrastructure is one of those. And sometimes you think of if we

[29:59] Thank you very much.

[30:00] Just naturalized areas that means we can kind of walk away from them.

[30:03] And as the district, you know that better than pretty much anybody, that there's still a stewardship

[30:09] component. And that's no less with the stormwater features.

[30:14] And just using a lot of nature-based solutions can just continue down that road.

[30:20] Funding is always an issue, and so working on securing additional funding through grants and other sources,

[30:26] and then looking at some of the agricultural lands.

[30:29] How can, you know, doing some good things already,

[30:31] but how can we get that better?

[30:33] And then how is water used?

[30:36] And looking at, you know, again,

[30:39] looking at rather than using portable water,

[30:41] you're not doing that.

[30:42] But even as we draw it out of our local streams and such,

[30:46] there's opportunities to just use it more efficiently

[30:48] and only irrigate when necessary.

[30:51] And then snow and ice control is definitely an issue.

[30:55] Again, you're using some natural materials there, but looking at what areas actually

[30:59] get snow and ice control made some areas that don't need it because they're not used heavily

[31:05] and being more targeted in terms of the types of materials that you use for de-icing and

[31:11] traction to the specific resources that are nearby would be affected by that.

[31:18] Then just generally there's some limited data on carbon sequestration as it varies

[31:22] by landscape.

[31:23] Dave, that's not specific to you, but just is sort of an industry.

[31:29] And some opportunities, you know, as we work into the future and design future facilities,

[31:35] stormwater and other facilities, just looking at what we project rainfall is going to be

[31:40] rather than just using the numbers today.

[31:43] That's always a challenge and how do you actually do that?

[31:46] City of Madison, for example, uses the 200-year event instead of the 100-year event for

[31:50] design purposes with really sort of just a way to adjust for the fact that the 100-year

[31:55] event is someday going to be that big. Looking for grants, as I mentioned before, and then

[32:03] you do have some exemptions in terms of where you're required to provide storm water, and

[32:08] I think that's certainly appropriate for a lot of your linear trails and other sorts

[32:12] of things where it really does just run off in the landscape. In other areas where

[32:17] There's concentrated impervious areas such as parking lots and things like that, roofs

[32:22] that go directly into the system, even though you may be exempt, you know, consider looking

[32:27] at still providing management for those areas not required.

[32:32] And continuing restoration activities, looking at operations at your golf courses

[32:37] and some of your agricultural areas.

[32:42] And, all right, I'll introduce Claire Costello from Delta Institute to talk about the sustainability

[32:50] gaps and wins and opportunities that are available for waste management.

[32:56] Yeah, thank you, Kevin.

[32:57] And, you know, with the sustainability, we really focused on two things, waste management

[33:01] and transportation, though as we went before, this cannot include activities happening

[33:07] within the landfills.

[33:08] The Forest Reserve District is already doing a lot of great work in both of these materials,

[33:13] which is great.

[33:18] But there are multiple efforts already dedicated towards getting materials out of the plant,

[33:23] all of the recycling, composting, auctions for end-of-life materials,

[33:31] and also being a leader in trail development, doing a lot of work that allows visitors to access.

[33:41] As far as gas, we found that some of the waste management

[33:46] aren't closely tracked.

[33:48] We know that these things are happening,

[33:50] but we can't always readily answer questions like,

[33:53] how much material is actually being respected?

[33:57] And with any waste management activity or program,

[34:02] people don't always behave the way that we really want to.

[34:06] This can range from a visitor putting items in the incorrect bin at a preserve,

[34:14] but it can also go as far as a plan.

[34:22] And then in terms of opportunities, increased data tracking and collection

[34:27] around the city opens a ton of possibilities, market setting,

[34:32] and really having a highly accurate understanding of what's going on with the groups.

[34:40] Otherwise, just continuing to be a leader in the space, which is already really happening,

[34:45] whether it's, you know, exploring green purchasing, doing more sustainability outreach and education,

[34:51] or continuing to be an advocate for the group.

[34:54] So with that in mind, I'll...

[35:02] Obviously, this plan was really focused on the baseline operations and getting the data.

[35:07] We see a couple of things that pop out and there's more than just this.

[35:10] My top three, the team's top three, seem to fall into these areas.

[35:15] We think that there's opportunity around electrifying your transportation, so a lot of your fleet

[35:21] vehicles do have existing and developing opportunities around EV, as well as maintenance equipment.

[35:29] most maintenance equipment as electric projects that are readily usable.

[35:36] So that's a huge opportunity to eliminate over the time period you would implement it,

[35:41] probably about half, almost half of your operations emissions.

[35:47] We think that there's an opportunity around continued increase in natural area restoration,

[35:51] as has been mentioned in the past, just looking at the numbers.

[35:55] it doesn't look enormous when you look at just tonnage on a hundred acre per year area,

[36:03] but that is permanent.

[36:05] So there's no emissions associated with that, that's net.

[36:08] As well as the, as Tom mentioned, there's an enormous amount of stormwater opportunity

[36:15] around converting conventional agriculture, converting things, areas back to natural.

[36:21] So, there are opportunities there as well.

[36:26] And then SCS covers this pretty well in their report around landfill opportunity with solar.

[36:34] There's also solar, some solar opportunity in existing land.

[36:40] And there's of course EV infrastructure.

[36:43] We mentioned your emissions from your visitors.

[36:47] They are going to be electrifying their vehicles and currently there isn't a lot

[36:50] of infrastructure available for them to charge as they get here.

[36:53] So that's an opportunity as well.

[36:54] And you can see that there's a decent amount of reductions.

[36:58] So even though the district is currently net zero

[37:01] because of its resiliency, its ecosystem services,

[37:05] there is an opportunity to continue to build on that

[37:08] and serve your population of visitors

[37:12] to help them reduce their footprints as well.

[37:17] And I did want to thank the team.

[37:19] We did a lot of work on this.

[37:20] And it was very heavily done by the team you see here as well as some other individuals

[37:29] at the ECTN at Delta Institute.

[37:31] And with that, get to questions.

[37:36] I'd like to thank everybody for the presentation and the work on this project.

[37:40] Obviously, it is one of the identified master plan initiatives.

[37:43] So we were excited to see this come forward.

[37:45] And obviously I'm excited to hear that we're doing well and have opportunities to do even better.

[37:52] I just wanted to talk quickly about a couple next steps that staff's been thinking about.

[37:56] So with all this information, I heard a lot of information today.

[38:00] Staff's going to start thinking about different goals and objectives around these different areas.

[38:04] What are these different things that are right for our organization?

[38:08] We're going to also look at outlining potential policies that the board might want to consider around these three areas.

[38:15] And while we're working on that,

[38:17] staffs can also look at some of these larger opportunities

[38:21] about reducing greenhouse gas emissions through solar installations,

[38:26] reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles

[38:28] by making it easier to use electric vehicles in our preserves

[38:33] and generating renewable energy through renewable natural gas or gas to energy at the landfills.

[38:38] And we'll talk more about that when SCS comes back

[38:40] or when we bring back that report.

[38:43] generating renewable energy through targeted deployment of solar panels and increasing energy efficiency or reducing energy consumption.

[38:52] So we'll be working on some of those things and bring those back to you.

[38:56] And I'm happy to answer any questions about what you've heard today.

[39:03] Well, anyway, this is particularly exciting for me.

[39:07] This is kind of a dream to be working with an organization that's actually attempting this.

[39:11] And I could see how we could establish a goal, say, in 20 years, who would be in that zero.

[39:16] And I think the one chart really intrigued me that there was a massive emission reduction

[39:22] caused by restoration work.

[39:25] And then there was a remark, and I noticed that also in the literature that's published.

[39:29] There's not a whole lot of information out there, so I'm wondering how you came up

[39:32] with that number.

[39:33] Was that just a scientific guess?

[39:43] Yeah, that's right.

[39:44] There is information, there's research that does back those up.

[39:50] I think there's a table 17 that lists the utilization types.

[39:56] What is complicated about, especially carbon sequestration, is it's not linear, it's very

[40:01] weather dependent, it's very site dependent.

[40:04] So we've done a lot of work Delta has around conservation tillage and regenerative agriculture

[40:12] and you see the numbers go up and down.

[40:14] So you're looking at averages over many years.

[40:17] What is true is that certain types of restoration initiatives

[40:22] will have a larger carbon sequestration opportunity.

[40:26] I think wetland.

[40:29] And forestry has, depending on the mix and prairie,

[40:34] have different sequestration numbers.

[40:36] So what is clear, though, is the more you do it,

[40:40] The the more positive the the carbon sequestration is because the natural natural processes for

[40:46] When plants grow they especially with nitrogen, which is the greenhouse gas is one of the more potent greenhouse gases for

[40:54] landscapes

[40:56] 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

[41:03] Yeah, because I was thinking

[41:04] and sort of remark from staff that we get a lot of bang for our buck out of the prairies

[41:10] as opposed to people think of trees all the time, but that may not be the best way, just

[41:13] planting trees, but you recommend even thinning trees, so we're often re-moving trees.

[41:19] Yeah.

[41:20] That would be offset by other growth that occurs as nature responds to that.

[41:24] Right.

[41:24] Because what is happening is new growth is taking up a lot of that nitrogen and

[41:30] Exceed it in the soil as opposed to it being off-gassed.

[41:33] And it especially has a big effect on that.

[41:36] And of course we remove lots of buckthorn

[41:38] and honeysuckle every day, volunteers and staff alike.

[41:41] And that's an enormous amount of mass there

[41:43] that we have to manage that we're removing

[41:47] that has carbon in it.

[41:48] We typically burn it.

[41:50] I know that staff has looked at the idea of biochar

[41:52] and what our freedom is looking at that.

[41:54] Yes, biochar would be a good opportunity there as well.

[41:57] I guess one point I'm leading up to

[41:58] is we could be spending a lot of time talking about this.

[42:02] I guess we need to, and if the public is involved,

[42:05] I'd like the fact that you have a public education

[42:09] component, or at least we can reach out to stakeholders

[42:11] and say, like our neighbors, and whether it's this kind of

[42:15] issue or flooding, what can the neighbors be doing?

[42:20] Because they tend to want to say, well, we'll just

[42:22] send the water to the Forest Preserve.

[42:24] You'll have your lawns and plant native plants.

[42:27] So there's a lot, I think there's a lot we can be doing with the public and others, you

[42:31] know, external stakeholders.

[42:33] So I'm excited about this.

[42:34] Yeah.

[42:35] Yeah.

[42:35] And it's these, this, this plan gave you numbers.

[42:39] I think it, and what that does is it, it gives you target, the ability to set targets

[42:44] and to look at what, what your limited resources and efforts can go toward actually making

[42:50] a difference.

[42:51] And you guys are, again, already doing such great work.

[42:54] So, at least we know that we got some ideas for how to start, because this is massive

[43:00] potentially.

[43:01] So, we just obviously have to prioritize.

[43:03] Thank you.

[43:03] Yeah.

[43:06] Quick question.

[43:07] So, thank you very much for doing this.

[43:09] This is a fantastic study.

[43:11] One thing I was kind of honed in on was the public transport side of things.

[43:15] Do we have anything that tells people, can direct people on what are the best ways

[43:21] to get to our preserve, each preserve using public transport? Or is that something that

[43:27] staff can look at and identify? Or how did you actually grade us on that?

[43:32] Yeah, I mean, I'll rely on Delta for the details here, but just in general, there

[43:37] isn't really great transport access to our preserves, so maybe I'll let them elaborate

[43:43] on that, but in general, that's kind of the answer that's coming.

[43:49] 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.

[44:05] And I go to Leah's and she lives in the city, and it's been so many times, so much time

[44:10] trying to figure out how to take this into a plug-in, although it's really difficult.

[44:16] And the other thing we did look at was the community survey that was being,

[44:23] and one thing that did stick up was not only were there other challenges that come with connectivity,

[44:30] But also, I think 2% were interested even in taking public transit, so I think we wanted

[44:42] to engage.

[44:46] Do you have any suggestions of how to engage, like what, how much we want to invest in that?

[44:53] Because I think it's something very important.

[44:54] We have a lot of people that don't have cars.

[44:56] They don't have bikes to get to our preserves.

[44:58] And I think it's important.

[44:59] Thank you.

[45:00] That's that opportunity, but how much do you direct towards that, showing only that 2% interest?

[45:07] Numbers wise, not to talk to my head if it's been something you've seen before.

[45:13] Have you had experience with other counties that have been in this situation?

[45:18] Do they work with PACE and Metro, well, obviously Metro can't realign their stops,

[45:22] but with PACE would that be something that we work on with them to just maybe highlight

[45:27] like one or two of our larger preserves

[45:30] and try to see if they can put a stop

[45:32] if they're going by already, just a sample, if that.

[45:36] Yeah, so I can't speak to what other kinds are doing it now,

[45:39] but I think everything's working,

[45:43] collaborating a little bit for where there would be opportunity.

[45:51] Great, thank you.

[45:54] Just to feed off of that, just sparked,

[45:58] we've talked a little bit about it

[46:00] with some of the master plans that we've just gone through is to make entry points to make

[46:10] it more accessible to neighborhoods so that they don't have to drive to the parking lot.

[46:15] They can walk to the preserve.

[46:19] I'm very blessed in this part of the reason I moved where I moved is because there's

[46:23] an accessible block and a half for my house.

[46:26] So I can go there and walk or ride a bike, and I don't have to drive to the Forest Preserve.

[46:32] If I didn't have that entrance at that point, I'd have to drive to the parking lot and go from there.

[46:39] So I think entry points is something that we could look at.

[46:43] And we should be with our big master plan that we're supposed to be looking at,

[46:48] is that we should have easier access points to the residence.

[46:52] That's one thing.

[46:54] And then on page 80, I don't know which one of you, it does talk about that we have twice,

[47:02] over twice as much negative emissions based on our forests than our prairies.

[47:12] So I'm a big proponent that, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that trees are

[47:19] very important to our net emissions versus prairies.

[47:36] When you're looking at, you know, kind of the sequestration numbers, you

[47:40] have to look at both the sequestration rate and the area of that particular

[47:46] cover. And so anything that's got the most cover amount, even if it's got a lower

[47:51] rate, it's going to look like a really big number.

[47:53] So, absolutely, your forests are essential, it's not like you want to get rid of those.

[47:58] But I also think that forests get, maybe I'll put it another way, prairies and wetlands

[48:07] probably get less credit than they deserve in terms of sequestration.

[48:11] They actually sequester a carbon at a greater rate.

[48:14] Most of that carbon in that plant material is actually below ground, gets incorporated

[48:20] to the soil, makes the soil healthier.

[48:21] most of the organic matter with trees is actually above ground and so eventually

[48:28] tree dies and that carbon goes back in the atmosphere so it's not sort of

[48:32] permanently sequestered. So not to say that forests aren't amazing and do a

[48:37] great job it's just prairies and wetlands also do a really good job and

[48:41] actually have a higher.

[48:46] I did want to add one thing to that as well.

[48:53] One of

[48:53] bit more biodiversity than a forest, which has pretty, you know, natural

[48:59] stand tendency more biodiversity in the edge communities on the edge of a forest

[49:03] or in a prairie than you would in the middle of the forest as well, so that's something to consider.

[49:08] And while you're talking about the edges of the forest for sure, I did

[49:13] read through your report, very interesting, very comprehensive. The

[49:20] The edges are where a lot of the, I raised them on our butterflies, so I read about your

[49:27] pollinators, and my concern is that we use too much herbicides around that and that fringes

[49:38] on the growth of-

[49:39] To keep a, you know, where there's grass meeting edge barrier or something like that?

[49:44] Well, yeah.

[49:45] and reg around the baths and things like that,

[49:49] that maybe we shouldn't be using as many herbicides there

[49:53] because that's where the milkweed for one

[49:57] and other pollinators want need that area to grow

[50:03] so that the pollinators have something to pollinate on.

[50:06] Yeah, I agree with that, it's site dependent.

[50:09] And my concern about the monarch caterpillars

[50:12] is that they're eating the milkweed.

[50:16] And in the past, I mean, where I have my home,

[50:22] I don't put any herbicides, pesticides, any on them.

[50:26] Because when I started raising monitor,

[50:29] I had a lot of caterpillars that just shriveled up.

[50:34] So I really went all natural, didn't put anything

[50:38] getting on my lawns or in the way of pesticides or herbicides, and now I have a, I last, like,

[50:46] 65 or something called, they're all very healthy.

[50:50] Nice.

[50:50] So, I don't know if we're going to address that.

[50:55] I think it was part of the, there's a little bit of part, it wasn't a major part of it.

[50:59] I think you're out, you're spawning.

[51:01] If you don't need to be using pesticides or herbicides or plant control,

[51:07] 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.

[51:16] So I think that's a consideration as well. Is the lawn really what you...

[51:21] What's the utilization of lawn? It's really cycling.

[51:23] 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.

[51:35] And there's potential for that to happen in the future.

[51:41] And that wasn't in your report.

[51:44] But I'm just wondering, in my mind,

[51:47] I read a study that the tires of cars

[51:51] produce more emissions than the gasoline does.

[51:54] Do you know anything about that?

[51:55] You mean, well, possibly?

[51:57] Well, no, when you're driving,

[52:00] the emissions that come off the tires are really.

[52:04] Yeah.

[52:11] Yeah, there's particulates too.

[52:13] Yeah, you're right.

[52:14] And it was the particulates, I think.

[52:19] Yeah.

[52:20] And I mean, EVs have- I was just wondering if you had any information on how much of it.

[52:24] But I agree with Tom.

[52:25] It sounds- I've never heard of that.

[52:27] And it sounds to me like it might be particulates that are part of the- Yeah, I think it

[52:31] was.

[52:32] The latent.

[52:32] Not card.

[52:33] Not card.

[52:34] But EVs have their own environmental issues as well.

[52:36] So part of the things that, you know, when we look at this as kind of the whole

[52:41] So, it's a good point, you know, trying to try to look at these.

[52:45] And Argonne, because I live by Argonne National Lab,

[52:48] and they're looking at how to recycle,

[52:50] if they have a big department on how to recycle electric vehicle batteries.

[52:57] That's a very, very interesting department.

[53:00] We're going to get that figured out, I'm sure.

[53:02] I have a lot of faith in Argonne.

[53:04] Further questions or discussion?

[53:07] Well, again, thank you so much.

[53:09] I know we have 166 miles of trail that connects with nearly 250 miles throughout the county.

[53:15] So that connects.

[53:16] But we can absolutely keep connecting.

[53:18] And we are actually have a couple of trail openings right here at Denada One and down

[53:21] to Springbrook Curry, another one to connect more neighborhoods.

[53:23] So look forward to keep pushing on all of these environmental issues.

[53:27] So thank you again for the presentation.

[53:30] We do have a second informational agenda item.

[53:33] We have I2 excellence in financial reporting, fiscal year 2021.

[53:38] And we welcome Andrew Brown.

[53:40] Good morning, President Hebrard, Board of Commissioners,

[53:42] Director Freiland.

[53:44] I'm here to report that we have been recognized

[53:47] by the Government Finance Officers Association

[53:49] for the 35th time for excellence in financial reporting

[53:53] for our comprehensive financial report, which also

[53:56] doubles as our audit.

[53:58] It is a more transparent version of the statutorily

[54:02] required audit that we provide on an annual basis.

[54:05] and again something that speaks to the transparency that the Forest Preserve

[54:09] provides in those financial documents as well as our commitment to excellence

[54:13] and providing those records and data to the public. I'm also pleased to

[54:19] announce that the district is one for the first time this award for the

[54:24] popular annual financial report from the Government Finance Office Association.

[54:29] This is a summary version of the comprehensive report that is provided

[54:34] in a manner that someone without a financial acumen

[54:37] can understand what our financial performance was

[54:40] for the year.

[54:41] I need to thank my staff, specifically,

[54:43] Brian Koszewski and Kiri Murtis,

[54:45] for helping me put this together, and our CR team.

[54:48] Jane Bonner did a wonderful job helping me

[54:50] bring finance down to a level that folks can understand.

[54:54] Both of these documents are available on our website

[54:56] and have been since June of last year,

[54:59] and I'm happy to take any questions if there are.

[55:02] Congratulations. Very exciting. And I do like the new one. It is very, very friendly on the eyes.

[55:10] Congratulations. And I think finance, more understandable on a basic level, is great for everybody. Not all of them. Not everybody wants finances.

[55:21] Yeah, I want to echo previous comments, I think finance is looking good for us and is

[55:27] well-managed and I appreciate the efforts to communicate.

[55:31] In the presentation by Delta Institute they mentioned we're buying green credits, I was

[55:37] a little confused on that because I know we're talking about how we want to acquire electricity

[55:42] and where it comes from and that's probably part of the financial aspect.

[55:48] I mean we do environmental stuff that appreciate efforts to

[55:52] Communicate what we're doing with our money and how we're spending it, but thank you

[56:02] I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn. I have a motion a second to adjourn roll call, please

[56:08] Tyson done. I

[56:10] Gearest I

[56:12] Keep your eye

[56:15] I'll Murphy Marsha Murphy. Hi. Oh, Mira. Hi painter. Hi

[56:20] All eyes, Mr. President. We are adjourned

Commission Meeting 5/16/23

Agenda

Transcript