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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 11/16/2022 NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR November 16, 2022 6:00 – 8:00 pm Via Zoom 11/16 /2022 – MINUTES Page 1 CALL TO ORDER 6:03pm ROLL CALL • List of Board Members Present – − Barry Noon − Dawson Metcalf - Chair − Drew Derderian − Kevin Krause- Vice Chair − Danielle Buttke − Matt Zoccali − Kelly Stewart • List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused, if no contact with Chair has been made − Avneesh Kumar − Victoria McKennan • List of Staff Members Present − Honore Depew, Staff Liaison − Angela Pena, Senior Engagement Specialist, Environmental Services • List of Guests − Lisa Andrews, Board Member starting in January − Bryan David, Board Member starting in January 1. AGENDA REVIEW 2. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION a. None 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – AUGUST a. Kevin moved and Barry seconded a motion to approve the November minutes. Motion passed unanimously. 6-0 NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 2 4. NEW BUSINESS a. Our Climate Future – Climate Equity Advisory Committee – Angela Pena, Senior Engagement Specialist, shared a draft recommendation for reimagining the Community Advisory Committee that will inform a future Climate Equity Advisory Committee work. The report highlights recommendations that are equity – and people-centered for future community-City processes in participation, engagement, and bridge building for Climate Action. Staff is seeking general feedback from NRAB members to inform the full report. (Discussion) − Discussion | Q + A − Dawson – Q – From a logistical question of getting feedback to you, either do it collective or as one person. Is it easier if I uploaded it to a Google Doc to make direct comments and then share with you so it is all in one place? Angela – A – That would be acceptable. However, it is easier for you to get me the information and feedback. Honore – Comment – Thank you for the suggestion. I put the PDF in the email and, Dawson, I will send you a word copy you can upload easily into Google Drive. Angela – Comment – Human Relations Commission had a lead person that collected feedback and sent it all along together. Honore – Comment – That advisory board also spent some time looking at this. − Dawson – Q – How large are we hoping this committee to be? Angela – A – That is in the recommendation too. 10-12 would be optimal size from recommendation. Dawson – Comment – Personally I think it will be best for me to review the document first and provide feedback that way rather than right now. But the floor is open to anyone else who has questions. − Matt – Q – I think I do have a question and maybe it will become apparent when I read the attachment but in terms of decision-making authority or power or whatever that statement was, I am curious about that. Has there been other citizen advisory groups that have decision making authority. It is interesting because we talk about advisory but then we talk about decision making. So again, maybe this will become clear, but can you give me some insight to how a group of citizens will make decisions for the Climate Action process. Angela – A – I think for me its in the long term. We are looking for long term, so this is a step in that direction. We start incorporating the voices, input, and recommendations. I think one of the highlights was looking at the charter and working with Claudia Menendez from the equity office, to add what can we do, what is possible, what does a charter look like and what must be done to move to the next steps for sharing power. That is the long vision. Honore – Comment – Before Angela came into this role, I got to sit in on a couple of the meetings of a group of community members who were NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 3 developing this report and thinking about those very issues. They found themselves running up against the City Charter. They said if you are serious about this, you need to transfer power and give this group some form of real authority. So, we did go to the City Attorney's Office and they said the City Charter limits decision making outside of City Council. That is why NRAB exists; you can make recommendations, but you are not assigning budget dollars or saying yes or no to a project. Maybe after you all have reviewed it, early next year, we can have a more detailed conversation. One example that was looked at was the Family Voice Council that is part of the Colorado Department of Human Services, and they have a model that allows the advisory board to say, “not yet.” They can’t say yes or no but they can say we are seeing some red flags or gaps in the way that you are applying equity to this process, and we are concerned so we are going to say not yet. We would like you to come back once you have developed a more thorough thinking in this space. So, they have the ability to pause and I don’t know how formalized that would have to be. It may be more based on trust. If you really value the input of these community members with lived experience as consultants and advisors then you need to show the respect. If you bring a project to them, they are going to have the ability to say not yet. That might just be one way it could go. Matt – Comment – That is a super helpful example and I recognize you are not saying that is where they are headed but that gives me something tangible to grab onto. Thank you. − Dawson – Comment – We really appreciate it Angela, in opening the conversation. We will get it all in one document and get it sent over. Hopefully easiest for everyone. − Barry – Comment – Thinking about the whole scope of what Angela talked about and its intersection with what’s happening at the Climate Summit in Egypt, where the focus of the last few days there has really been about those countries and people who are least contributing to climate change affects are experiencing the most severe consequences of that. So that is looking at a global scale, but I think it all scales up from the local level including Fort Collins where the issue of equity where those individuals in our community who often are experiencing the most significant adverse effect of climate change and environmental change in the broader concept are those who are already struggling socially and economically in their lives. That may be the way to begin to solve these problems. Its not from top down but from bottom up and I just want to applaud the efforts that are being done because I am very supportive of them. Thank you. − Danielle – Comment – I want to apologize for being late. I was really excited to hear your presentation. I look forward to looking through the meeting notes NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 4 and the document Honore shared. Dawson – Q – I apologize Danielle, I didn’t see you jump on. Did you hear us say we will put it all in one document to give back? Danielle – A – Right when Angela finished. I think I missed that part. Dawson – Comment – I think what we are going to do is upload it into a Google Doc so everyone can review and make comments on one and then we will share it with Angela. That way it is easily accessible to all. Danielle – Comment – That sounds wonderful. Thank you b. 2023 NRAB Workplan – The Board set their priorities and developed a workplan for 2023. It was led by the Board Chair, Dawson. (Discussion) − Discussion | Q + A − Matt – Comment –I will share what I already shared with Dawson. I thought he did a fantastic job, and it is a great initial plan. My only comment is there was a qualifying statement under coordinating action on how this group would communicate with or coordinate with Air Quality Advisory Board and other groups and I mentioned that I thought a similar statement under the water resources category for us with Water Commission was something to consider. Besides that, I didn’t have anything else to offer. − Barry – Comment – I also have a comment on the water resources that parallel comments just made. There have been two different drafts of the 1041 regulations, and they are long. I think 60 plus pages, and they are quite redundant. I worked through them quickly and I have some real heartburn about one of the proposals that restrict the 1041 regulations to just City owned lands. I think that is a huge mistake. So, I really would like to add that to a possible agenda for our next meeting which I can talk about in a bit more detail of why I think that is a big error to move in that direction. Dawson – Q – Just to confirm you would like space during next meeting to have an open discussion around 1041 regulations from what you are seeing, and you have reviewed, but not an addition to the NRAB work plan for 2023. Barry – A – I don’t know I think ti would benefit from the whole Board discussing it, but the workload is a bit extensive. This is being discussed by City Council now. Both documents were 60-70 pages in length, and we are all busy. My reading might have ben superficial but the contrast between the two is pretty easy to simplify. If my understanding is correct, it is about what is exempt within the bounds of the City limits from 1041 regulatory powers. One of the proposals to it is to exempt all lands that are not City property. That suggests that there are no flows in the environment between stressors across artificial boundaries of ownership. I won’t go any further but my opinion as an ecologist makes absolutely no ecological sense to do that and I think its really NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 5 going to be detrimental to Fort Collins and the citizens of Fort Collins. I would like to see the whole Board engaged but its kind of an owner assignment because of the length of the documents. Dawson – Comment – I appreciate you bringing this up Barry as you are a representative for another committee. I know we can do that potentially under other business Board member reports and potentially look at next month. We can share those 1041 regulations so people can review and have that space devoted to it. Does that make sense to you Honore? Honore – Comment – Yes, I think you had talked about potentially having space under other business tonight if it seemed appropriate but then also having Kirk here to answer some of those questions or respond to some of the concerns might be helpful. I think we can in December as January might be too late. Dawson – Comment – And that would give people more time to review the 1041 regulations. Barry – Comment – It is a big of a homework assignment. Honore – Comment – Actually the 1st reading has been postponed to February 7th. Barry – Comment – That is good. Danielle – Comment – I completely agree with your concerns Barry. It is such a gaping hole that I almost assume there are other policies or processes that would cover reviews of impact to non-City owned, non-public owned lands and then also recognizing how frankly libertarian a lot of private ownership laws, especially in Colorado run that maybe that is a legal roadblock that is insurmountable. I am wondering how that is framed and was that addressed at all in any of the discussions in that special committee you are on. Barry – Comment – That committee has not been very active. So much of this I am doing independent of what is initiated by the committee. What I found most interesting is in those documents is the attached letters from the lawyers representing Northern Water. My initial reaction is that maybe the City staff was undoing by those letters and again in my perspective they represent a complete misunderstanding of how nature works. It does not respond to political boundaries. So, what you do external boundaries has an impact to City owned lands. You can’t parcel it that way and responsibly sustain ecological services. It doesn’t work that way. That is not how nature works. The legal construct shows a phenomenal lack of understanding of how the natural world works and our dependence on sustaining environmental services over the long term within the bounds of this City. As some of you know I am on the County Environmental Advisory Board so what the County does and in terms what the state does and so on to me, is a fundamental manshift that needs to happen and perhaps best to start from the ground up to initiate change. That is why I would like to see it discussed more broadly with the entire board. Dawson – Comment – Barry would you mind sharing those documents with the rest of the Board in preparation of the next meeting? Barry – Q – Honore, I am assuming they are publicly available? Honore – Both drafts I believe are on the website. I will try NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 6 to find the link. − Kevin – I think the workplan is great I don’t have anything specific to add. Everything seems good grammatically. Some of the stuff will come close to expiring in a way, like if the Active Modes Plan is adopted here, we won’t be doing much work on it in 2023 in terms of engagement, but I don’t think that really matters. I think it looks great. − Barry – Comment – I may not have studied this close enough, I apologize. I have been looking at the air quality data relative to wind direction and it is kind of like a no brainer. When the wind is coming from the southeast, the air quality in Fort Collins is really bad. What lies to the east and south of us? Weld County and tens of thousands of oil and gas activities. So, this is another example where political boundaries are meaningless in terms of environmental conditions. Weld County does monitor their air quality but to the best of my knowledge do not share that data with Larimer County or Fort Collins. Air quality issues in Fort Collins are very much affected by policy decision that are occurring external to our boundaries. The idea of looking beyond political boundaries in planning and trying to solve environmental problems is a big issue that may be something our committee should discuss and have perspectives on. Danielle – Comment – It also seems to me that the City had funding approved for additional monitoring equipment which has been a huge need for a while specifically methane. I think there might be an opportunity to move that needle at least more quickly if not further than we have in the past. Honore – Comment – Our Air Quality Team is partnering with CSU and just received a $500,000 grant to install additional air quality monitoring equipment. That is good news. I would also remind you that there is an Air Quality Advisory Board made up of amazing people that have great perspectives. I would agree that increasingly air quality in general is a natural resources concern and there is also an acknowledgment at a federal level that greenhouse gas emissions is a form of air pollution. There is a case to be made that air quality is also climate but perhaps that falls under the category coordinating action with other boards. − Danielle – Comment – We haven’t had a super issues meeting in a while. Honore – Comment – There has been some pushback in the past. I know it was several years ago. Super issue meetings I think will come back now that we have a permanent person in place as the board support person in the clerk’s office. Back in 2018 or 2019 there was a little bit of discomfort from City Council to say why are you moving boards around, but this is also a time that Council is looking with a critical eye at our boards and commissions system. It looks like they are going to be forming up a sub committee of Council to NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 7 specifically look at whether we have the right mix and distribution; is 27 the right number. So, it might be the right time to do, if not a super issues meeting, a joint meeting with Air Quality. I could pose that if that is something you were interested in or Dawson could reach out to their Chair, Karen Artell and see if that is something you wanted to get on the calendar for next year. Dawson – Comment – Depending on what the Board feels like, there could be some great opportunities to meet with other boards in that space. Co-meetings or co-collaborative effort makes some positive impact. We do make a couple mentions of air quality in the document, but it is much more tied to concepts in gas emissions. We could add working with the Air Quality Board along with the Energy Board and Transportation Board to look at these issues to other related issues and provide another paragraph on that under resilient urban forest or we can leave it as it is. Danielle – I don’t feel we need to put this in the work plan discreetly, but I do think it is an important topic to keep on our radar and if we are not able to directly have a super issues board or work with the Air Quality Board, I think it would be nice to have some updates moving forward. I think what you have in the work plan is general, allowing us time to work on it moving forward. Kevin Agrees − Dawson motions and Kevin seconds for NRAB to accept the 2023 annual work plan as written. Motion passed unanimously. 7-0 5. OTHER BUSINESS a. Rights of Nature – Updated Draft Resolution − Dawson – Comment – Speaking to what Barry has been speaking to, we did receive an email from some community members regarding the rights of nature for the Cache la Poudre. Back in August we had three community members come to one of our meetings to discuss a potential resolution around the rights of nature for the Cache la Poudre River. They were advised to meet with additional officials from the City. Since then, they have spoken with City staff elected officials, other interested organizations, and additional members of the public. The resolution we all received is the updated draft resolution and these community members are requesting us to consider providing a memo of letter of support for that resolution to City Council. I would like to open the floor for discussion around the resolution itself as well as if we are interested to express some sort of support to City Council via memo. − Matt – Comment – I guess I have to be honest; I like things that have practical application like 1041 regulations. That discussion makes sense to NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 8 me. I am excited to engage with a tool in the toolbox. I don’t get this. I mean I understand some of the philosophical approach, but I don’t know what this tool brings or what the tool is. I said this last time, is it a hammer, a fine-tooth chisel? I don’t know what it adds or how it is going to work. Philosophically I love the Poudre. I raised my family here and I want to protect it and the watershed. I just don’t get how it works. I am not sure where to go with it personally. Does anyone else have thoughts on that. What does it do? Barry – Comment – Well it probably will do nothing. It is deeply aspirational, and I think fundamentally its logic is correct sadly. So here is my question I would pose to you, and I don’t know the answer myself. Do pragmatic changes, let’s say something that eventually comes out in a law, do they begin with aspirational perspectives? Is that what initiates change? How does change occur? Something that is deeply aspirational but also evidence based actually has a factual foundation. Do you think that ultimately humans can live independently of ecological and environmental integrity? No, so in a sense I think pragmatically, its dead in the water but it is something that I embrace. It is something my understanding of how nature works supports but pragmatically I am on the same page as you, but I am waffling as you can tell. Matt – Comment – I appreciate that perspective and I would agree with you. Certainly, have taught both my boys to be aspirational in the world and they are now in their early 20s, hopefully headed out doing the right thing. Thank you for saying that. − Dawson – Comment – One thing I would add from a pragmatic standpoint going forward and when we are looking at other examples that exist out there around this, I think it is section 4 the rivers voice and guardians and having some sort of established group of individuals that help inform or evaluate. Who is that body, how is it created, and those kinds of elements. I think that is when we get the pragmatic piece of when that committee or board looks like at the end of the day. Kevin – Comment – I wonder to the point of how things come to fruition. The Board could be in support of the spirit of this and ask that Council consider how to citify or take aspects of it forward that are more practical and actionable. I don’t know. I am not sure where I am on it. I am kind of in the middle as well because I think there are really good points. Just to go through the motion feels meaningful and meaningless at the same time. If you don’t have those levers we are talking about…Does everybody say we support the spirit of this for all the reasons we communicated through other interactions with Council and hope they can find a way to work in the protections or other tools? Something they can push to be real. − Barry – Comment – There might be an interesting analogy. If you look at the endangered species act and its history of how it evolved, it evolved in something equally aspirational and that is that species had the rights to NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 9 persist and be viable. The trip I just came back from was working on two endangered species on the Missouri River with the Fish and Wildlife Service and Reclamation Army Core. One fish and one bird. The bird and fish are simply indicators of what is happening to that broader ecological system. That began with this aspirational assertion that species had the rights to persist. I don’t know. I mean it is a difficult thing about supporting this because it is likely to have no teeth at all. Nevertheless, I think about some significant changes in environment laws that I am aware of and I have worked a huge part of my career on the endangered species act and it began in a very similar fashion. − Dawson – Comment – Personally, along those lines of Barry and Kevin and thinking this is almost the foundation; foundation for this to allow for tools, policy, advocacy or whatever that might look like in the end, for that to be formed. This is the foundation piece to allow for that. − Danielle – Comment – I also think one of the policy minded concerns from the get-go is our Board more traditionally, our work comes from at the behest and pleasure of City Council. This is a unique situation. If we saw this was something that City Council was really interested in, they had staff assigned to investigating it in a more proactive way, then I would feel this has more teeth than legs. We can really appreciably do something, but I think the chance of it moving forwarded in a reasonable way is lower given some of the other sweeping ends progressive and in my opinion wonderful things the City has done that are getting some public pushback for. I don’t see there being as much appetite for this type of issue when there isn’t a clear outcome and local impact from it immediately. − Matt – Q – Danielle you raise a great point. You make me recall the meeting the folks from that group came and gave their presentation. Eric Potyondy from the City Attorney’s office was there. I thought I heard they were going to meet offline and talk a little more about some of these issues that have legal flavor to it. Did that happen? Do we know what the outcome was? To your point about has this group sort of worked with staff or would we direct Council to work with staff to work with this group to get a little more. Does anyone have any insight if those conversations took place? Honore – A – I am aware of them having taken place. Obviously because he is an attorney and he advises Council, he probably wouldn’t be able to come in and give a full breakdown, but I think at the heart of it, as you all have been discussing, is whether or not this is something with real legal consequences or something symbolic. The sense he got, and I think is coming through various comments as well, is doing something feels better than nothing. That maybe something even if it is symbolic would help signal desire or help satisfy some of the NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 10 energy for it. Not saying he was advocating for it but those are some things that came up for him. − Kevin – Comment – By sending a memo, this isn’t going into City code, so clearly, we would be just making a statement to bring it to attention. We know that from that presentation individual City Council Members have been exposed to this. That doesn’t mean it will be taken up anyway. I don’t know if we necessarily need to be worried about the legality of these particular statements and go that far. That is not our job per say. Again, this being a nontraditional in the flow of where it came from, so I guess more of a lighthearted is the wrong word, but we don’t need to get tripped up on that. If we truly believe in this in just terms of what it tees up. Any of this is it practical, is it legal, would be handled at a later stage anyway. It’s not a huge risk to say we support this. Just putting that angle in for a second. It doesn’t matter because we don’t have the power. Danielle – Comment – but if there was that key person or champion at the City or Council level, that is when it could potentially matter. Kevin – Comment – Even if you have that person or people, it would still have to go through several layers of processes including validating and legality of various things. It tees out in something that meets or checks all the boxes and could be used to move forward into the City code. − Dawson – Comment – The only thing I would add to the rest of the Boar is Kevin, Barry, and myself were sent this original email from those community members that joined us. In the email and granted this is from one of the community members, indicated they did meet with City staff, elected officials, and that in the most recent discussions with Council Members, some of the Council Members expressed an interest in NRAB’s thoughts on the resolution. So just to give a little bit of context there, that those conversations seemed to have continued. Again, this is from the community member, and I have not followed up with any official or anything like that. − Honore – Comment – Yeah, that is interesting that it didn’t come from Julie Pignataro, your Council liaison, but take that how you will. I just found the notes from Eric, and he wouldn’t want me to share everything, but this is his summary, and I am sure he would go into much great depth with Council, were this to get more legs and be more of a discussion. As a revolution it raises numerous and significant policy issues. He thinks for it to actually do what they are wanting it to do, it would need to be an ordinance and not a resolution and it would lead to a wide-ranging discussion of what it means and its impacts. Matt – Comment – Not an unexpected response from an attorney, even though I have a great deal of respect for Eric. I mean so you have swayed me a little bit. To think about Eric’s comment is where my mind goes most of the time in terms of pragmatic and practical application, but NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 11 Barry’s and other’s comments about maybe this just needs to remain aspirational. Now I find myself riding the fence even harder here, but I wonder if there is a response from this Board with a memo to state just that. That aspirationally this sets a great precedent and visions. We would turn to Council, staff, and others to sort out those policy type issues. I don’t know if that even means anything, but I appreciate the discussion. Barry – Comment – I like what you said Matt. I think that moves it in a nice direction. Just as a follow up antidote to my last three days, the fish I have been working on is the pallet sturgeon. Its evolutionary history goes back well over 100,000 years. It’s sort of a place to seem relic that’s hanging on. So, what are people trying to do to this unbelievably altered rivering system from lower Yellowstone, all of Missouri, and Upper Mississippi which has been so dammed and the channels so modified. They are building these million-dollar structures to try to simulate habitat conditions that would exist on a normal river. To recover the species means you need to recover the system and the system is the river with its natural flow regium and its ability to have overbank flows into flood plains and all of that. So, in a sense the target for recovery is the system, is the river, and its natural flow regium. Giving rights to the river, in a way, is the umbrella that is required to sustain all the species and the ecological processes that occur within that ecological system. Danielle – Comment – It is a fundamental shift from preserving the process that supports all these species from the traditional single species approach with frankly, is always too late, too incremental, and too expensive to be successful. − Kelly – Q – Are there any examples we can point to. I believe in their presentation their document, provided this seems like this is still a relatively new concept so it might be too early to tell but there were some examples they pointed to worldwide where this started to happen. I am just wondering what impact has been since that adoption. If we could look to see how those outcomes are trending, would be interesting. I was trying to find that back in my emails but can’t just yet. Barry – A – There is an example and that is the protection of a mature forest in the Pacific Northwest which was driven by owls, murrelets, and salmon but that was an ecosystem, a forest ecosystem approach. It was a top-down way to protect a huge amount of threatened biological diversity from plats all the way up to vertebrae animals. It is the largest conservation decision that has ever been made in the US and maybe globally with 24 million acres involved in the preserve system in the Pacific Northwest for that forest. Now it’s featured predominantly in Biden’s Climate Smart initiative for carbon sequestration as contributing to reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. I think there are some examples out there. We are taking an ecosystems approach; makes a lot of sense. Dawson – Comment – NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 12 Any others that want to dig deeper into some of the examples they were point to, its on the second page and it’s the three paragraphs on the 2nd page that allude to a variety of examples. Feel free to do that and then they did show a map and I am not super familiar with it that had a handful of municipalities that had or were going through the process of rights of nature regarding natural issues. Not sure if they were all regarding rivers but I do remember a map being shown in their presentation. − Danielle – Comment – I think we shouldn’t be afraid of being ahead of the curve and sticking our neck out there. Along those same lines, I think there is a lot of interesting movement and potential particularly with some of Biden’s Climate Smart initiatives as well as the Health, Equity and Environmental Justice 40 initiatives. That I could see a right to nature being another mechanism and having this type of designation in place, that essentially designates the Poudre River as nature as a resource worth protecting that could interplay with some of these other health related, community resilience related, and adaptation related issues. − Barry – Comment – I think the combination of what Danielle just said and what Matt said earlier about being upfront about the aspirational nature but perhaps arguing that change begins with aspirations that are grounded in evidence and data, may be a way we could agree on writing a memo to City Council. Dawson – Q – Barry was that a motion? Barry – A – Lets make that a motion, yes. Danielle seconds. Motion unanimously passes 7-0. Dawson volunteers to start the memo and share it out for everyone to review and edit. b. December NRAB Meeting Holiday Conflict – Currently Scheduled for 12/21 − The Boards next meeting was scheduled for December 21st, 2022. Due to the holidays, the Board agreed to move the meeting to Thursday December 15th at 6pm. c. Board Member Reports − Kevin – Comment – I attended the Council Futures Committee with Council Member Canonico and Gutowsky. Kelly was on there as well. It was primarily transportation focused and Council Member Canonico had gone to surrounding countries to experience cycling infrastructure, culture, and support over there recently. They walked everyone through some photos, experiences, and references she got in having conversations with folks that took them around and the others they interacted with on that trip. That was neat. The Futures Committee is looking out on the longer-term horizon thinking about things we can stride for and adopt to go in a particular NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 13 direction. I don’t think there was anything in that meeting that was tangible, just social experiences and then referencing back to more tangible plans at least in the near term with moving the Active Modes Plan forward. Personally, I will go into the process with the Hughes property. I don’t know if that is something we hope to bring staff into the Board on. Today I attended one of the focus groups. They are bringing in different main streams and mid recreation groups into focus groups to understand at the beginning of this process, what the needs are. I run a kids mountain biking group right now, so I was attending in that role. Interesting thing to start to process. Interesting total process because all the passion around that space in the community. More to come on that. d. Six Month Calendar Review − Some of the topics the Board discussed for December during the calendar review included the Hughes land that the City Managers Office is leading on, 1041 review memo finalizing, rights of nature memo, and Xeriscaping regulations. The Board discussed pushing xeriscaping regulations to a later date as they have a lot already in December. Honore mentioned that it was a Council Priority so he is not sure how much feedback they will be seeking. Dawson mentioned there has been more interest in the future of Hughes. − The Board also looked at the Council 6 Month calendar and mentioned the active modes plan 1st reading, mulberry annexation, sustainable funding update, xeriscaping regulations, residential waste contracting, forestry, 1041, and downtown parking system update. Matt also mentioned a river water quality update. Honore mentioned he has that down for January. e. Introductions – New Board Members Joining in January − The Board went around and introduced themselves to the members starting in January, Lisa Andrews, and Bryan David − Lisa Andrews – Introduction – I am honored to be part of this group. The discussion around the rights of nature topic blew my mind the way you came around rather quickly to such a lovely decision and conclusion. I am blown away. I bring to this group a grandmother’s sense of urgency about how serious things are with the regard to the health of our planet. I welcome the opportunity to be of any help with that. I have recently retired. I was an EMT. I worked 15 or so years on an ambulance team and then two years at UCHelath in urgent care. Before moving to Fort Collins two years ago, I lived in Telluride for 42 years and I was always involved in nature stuff either formally or informally. I taught biology for years and I was on the open space committee in Telluride, which has some similarities to this group. I am NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 11/16/2022 – MINUTES Page 14 happy to be here and really impressed by the quality of this group. I hope I can step up to the plate. − Bryan David – Introduction – I am also relatively new to Fort Collins, June 2021. I currently work for a company based here called West Water Research. We do evaluation and economic modeling of water rights and advisory services related to water supply planning and acquisition for municipalities and environmental instream flow evaluation and things like that in the Northern Front Range and across the West. Prior to that I did public policy for a national land conservation organization focusing on natural resources public policy at the federal level and went to grad school to get my master’s in environmental management. I really developed a niche in my career and happy to put it to use working with you and on behalf of the City. I am looking forward to being on more formally in January. 6. ADJOURN - 7:45 pm