I just wanted to give the list an update on three great developments in our city relative to re-greening.
First, yesterday, as Scott and Annie mentioned, there was an event across the street just north of Peavey Park at the corner of 19th and Franklin to highlight a renewed city-wide effort to plant more public trees. In all, about double the number of trees will be planted by the Park Board and Public Works this year (5,000 new trees)! This effort started after discussions the Mayor had with me on how the city could work together with the Park Board to get more tree planting done. As a result, RT proposed an additional $200,000 in his budget for trees. The Park Board will do the vast bulk of this new planting without additional resources, in fact - reduced staff. The Fire Department will help the Park Board to make sure the trees get watered along with an appeal to the public to water any new tree. When we first spoke, RT and I talked about how there are parts of the city that have a 'tree deficit' for a variety of reasons. Those areas were in south Minneapolis (Central, Powderhorn and Phillips Neighborhoods) and in North Minneapolis (Park Board President Jon Olson did a great job of getting a real tree counts on the north side). We decided to target those neighborhoods most with the new tree dollars. Every neighborhood in the city will see new trees planted, however, those neighborhoods with the greatest need will see more than others. For instance, the Central Neighborhood will see 515 new trees planted, my own neighborhood which has many trees in place will see about 50 new trees! Southwest Minneapolis will have many trees destroyed by recent storms replaced. City Council and all the members of the Park Board supported this effort. Hats off to all these folks! Second, along with this effort (in fact prior to it), Council President Ostrow and Councilmember Dean Zimmerman started an effort to review the city's urban forest. Council Member Goodman has independently been trying to green downtown and has made some huge strides in this effort! The result of all this effort was a new urban forestry policy from City Council. This is a much needed effort. Third, subsequent to all this, I noted that there needed to be a group to help coordinate and develop a citywide effort across jurisdictions. To that end, I put forward a plan to start a Tree Commission at last month's Park Board meeting. The Commission contains a Park Board Rep, the Assistant Superintendent of Operations, the MPRB Forester, a Mayoral Rep, a City Council Rep, a U of M Rep, a Minnesota Shade Tree Council Rep. and 4 citizen Reps (4 corners of the city). The initial charge of the Commission is to 1) Review all city planting efforts and policies to make sure the best possible plants are being planted where they need to be planted and are cared for, 2) look for non-traditional ways to fund plantings - i.e. grants, public/private efforts etc., and 3) provide the City Council, Mayor and Park Board with an annual report on the state of the Urban Forest. To the Park Board's credit - it was unanimously supported. In all, there is clearly a concerted effort across all city jurisdictions to work together to green the city from north to south and east to west. Sincerely, John Erwin Citywide Park Board Commissioner REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
