Conservation Commission Headquarters, Auditorium

Executive Council Meeting

Conservation Commission Headquarters, Auditorium

April 14, 2016

10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Minutes

Welcome & Introductions – Casey Jo Kellner welcomed everyone to the meeting, and the following were in attendance: Sarah Crocker, Jon Skinner, Gene Brunk, Sarah Crowder, Jim Mitchell, Nancy Underhill, Chuck Conner, Cindy Garner, Jacob McMains, Brett O’Brien, Dean Alberty, Holly Dentner, Kyle Monroe, Tom Ebeling, Jennifer Behnken, Mike Hurst, Danny Moncheski, Ron Lumb, Martha Clark, Gayle Fry and Russell Hinnah.

Minutes Read and Approved – Casey asked if anyone had changes to the minutes from the October 8, 2015 meeting minutes. Gene Brunk made a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Jim Mitchell seconded the motion. The minutes were approved.

Treasurer Report – Brett O’Brien submitted the following Treasurer Report:

· Regular share (savings)-$10,248.05

· 02 Northwest-$0.01

· 03 Northeast -$0.01

· 04 Central-$2,029.97

· 05 St. Louis Christmas club $1,517.92

· 07 Southwest- $376.33

· 77 East Central $ 2,582.12

· 76 Square CC- $2,454.04

· 75 Regular checking-$36,475.51

· Total of all accounts - $42,225.44

- Brett reported that this year’s conference cleared $17,000.00

- He also mentioned that he still needs to determine where the t-shirt, polo, and sweatshirt money paid from and were to deposit the money made on shirts.

Old Business

Update: MCFC Calendar of Arbor Day Posters – Item was tabled but noted that MCFC needs to send invoice for posters.

Items of Statewide Interest – Group

· Tree topping has become popular again in the Southwest region especially around the Springfield area.

· Kyle Monroe mentioned that in the Northeast region he has noticed that volcano mulching is happening.

· There is a company buying vacant lots in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas and planting trees. MCFC is curious to learn more about the benefits and risks of the process. MDC is not up on the topic to be able to make a position statement. Russell will look into more for the next meeting.

· Casey passed out a publication from Iowa Department of Natural Resources called “Rethinking Maple Selecting Trees for Your Yeard.”

Recap: 2016 Conference – St. Joseph, March 8-10, 2016 – Martha Clark gave the following report.

· Evaluations have all been turned in. Responses on conference are very hopeful.

o Dr. Wolf sessions received highest ratings.

o Martha mentioned that they forgot to include the 5K by accident on the evaluations. Ann did mention that she was surprised by the turnout and it turned out successful.

· The only item that hasn’t been paid is the bus service. Martha reported they have not received the invoice yet but will follow up with the company.

· Museums tour for social went really well.

· The committee received excellent comments from the hotel as well.

· Over all it was a great conference and the MCFC group thanked Martha for her time and planning.

Update: Plant More Trees Initiative – Tom Ebeling

Tom, Donna and Ian Hanou presented at last month’s MCFC Conference regarding the new Plant MOre Trees tree plotting app and MCFC’s goal to plant 1 million trees by the end of 2020. In the coming months, Tom will reach out to organizations that could use the app for inventory and marketing purposes. He will also market the app and Vision 20/20 at community outreach events such as Forest Park’s Earth Day celebration, TreeKeepers classes and more. Tom will also market the app to private landscaping companies, in the hopes that they will use the FREE tool for marketing and tracking purposes in exchange for under-righting. Furthermore, the Forest ReLeaf team along with Plan-it GEO will be continuously working out technical bugs and preparing the app for public use in spring of 2017.

Update: Champion Tree Fund – Tom Ebeling

· May 14th workday has been set for the State Champion Green Ash to be treated by BioForest at St. Louis County Parks.

New Business

Coordination of Legislation Day in April of 2016

· Leave on agenda for 2017

2016 – 2017 Strategic Plan Development & Implementation

· The plan will be updated and presented at the next meeting.

· Sarah will email out new proposed plan for everyone to look at and be ready to discuss in June.

· Vice President will talk about implementation of plan.

2017 State Conference Springfield

· The theme will be “Living on the Edge of Community Forestry”

· The planning committee has met regarding educational sessions and the theme so far. The tracts will be split between leadership sessions and science sessions.

· The committee is looking into being the first week in March, Tuesday through Thursday. They will select the hotel in the upcoming weeks hopefully. The Springfield Greene County Park Board is looking at allowing alcohol in facilities for socials.

· Casey mentioned if you have any ideas or comments to please address the planning committee.

· The committee is looking into leadership presenters being those who contract out of the Springfield area. MCFC would have to pay time but not travel expenses. They are working on selling the agenda to get their interest.

· Want conference to be for everyone.

Review At Large Member List (Appendix B) for voting in June at Annual Meeting

· Casey asked everyone to review the list of organizations. Vote on in June meeting on adding and deleting list of representative for organizations.

Officer Nominations

· President – Scott Skopec

· Vice President – Austin Lampe was nominated

· Treasurer – Brett O’Brien nominated himself again.

Spring CityScape – Brett O’Brien

· The deadline will be April 30th. Some of the topics that will be included will be: Plant MOre Trees, award photos and names from conference, Mike Walsh will write up an article on the Green Ash in St. Louis.

· Danny will write up a half page article on the sweatshirts. June 30th will be the summer deadline.

2016 – 2017 Missouri Arbor Day Poster Contest for 5th Grade: Jacob McMains

· Holly Dentner, Sarah Crocker, Casey Jo Kellner, and Jacob met on the poster contest during the conference. They discussed the recent participation and the amount of decline over the past few years.

· They came up with some ideas to help boost participation.

o Advertising in MSTA and MNEA newsletters. Holly reported we missed the deadline for the MNEA summer issues and the fall issue doesn’t make it to the readers until after October 7th. However we could do four banner ads for the MSTA for $900.00.

o The committee also discussed sending out post cards the week after Labor Day to inform the teachers of the upcoming poster contest.

o Jim Mitchell made the motion to allow the poster contest committee not to exceed the remaining balance of promotional items for advertising. Martha seconded the motion; motion carried.

· The committee also decided to pick a top 12 instead of a top 10 to benefit the poster calendars printed every year. They are looking into larger prizes given to the winner and the teacher as well as inviting the teacher of the winning student to the conference award banquet as well.

· The theme this year will be “Trees Work for Your Family.” The curriculum will be simplified into three key points.

· Casey challenged each region to get 10 new schools to commit to participate in this year’s poster contest. Sarah will email past 5 years lists out to the group. The Community Foresters can talk with their Tree City Communities and promote the Tree City Growth Award. The Tree City Communities can present the poster contest to the schools and earn half their points to qualify for the Growth Award.

· The committee thought of looking into idea besides jus the posters. Possibility of doing a High School poetry council.

Program Reports

Communications Committee

· Some members brought up the fact that they have not been receiving the emails sent out by Constant Contact. Casey will have the committee look into this issue.

Education/Outreach Committee – No Report

Membership Committee – No Report

Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws Review

· Casey gave update on changes. The biggest change of interest is the quorum. There will be 2 from each region. Not less than 16 and no more than 35.

· Sarah will send out in an email for everyone to review before June meeting. The group will vote in June.

Strategic Plan Review

· Casey read all the goals laid out in the current plan.

Areas of Need Task Force

· Increase participation by Non-Agency members.

· Organizational needs to work on.

· Initiate supports specific projects.

Missouri Arbor Award of Excellence Committee

· Now that Russell Hinnah is on board with MDC, the committee will reconvene.

Liaison Reports

Utility Arborist Association – No Report

Missouri Department of Conservation – Justine Gartner

· Russell Hinnah started April 1st.

· The month of April is full of Arbor Day events and TRIM Grant workshops have started.

· FY16 completed TRIM Grants are due May 1st to be reimbursed.

· FY17 TRIM Grant applications are due June 3rd.

· This year’s Arbor Day Programs ended with 85 Tree City USA, 11 Tree Line, and 9 Tree Campus recertifications.

· Mark Grueber volunteered to review all the Tree City USA applications for Justine. Appreciate the time he dedicated to that process.

· There will be no formatting changes to the FY17 TRIM Grant online applications. Sarah mentioned that if they applicant submits online they do not need to send in a paper copy. Any paper copies she receives she enters online.

Forest ReLeaf – Tom Ebeling submitted the following report:

Project CommuniTree:

Our spring season is well underway and we are in the process of allocating trees to more than 50 projects. We still have more than 1,000 trees left and will continue to process applications this week. We have containerized more than 19,000 seedlings with around 3,000 to go.

Priority ReLeaf

We are providing more than 100 larger container trees to 8 projects throughout the St. Louis area and Joplin this spring.

ReLeaf Tree Sales

To date this spring we have had more than $20,000 in tree sales. There are still many trees available for sale including around 15 recently made available 15-gallon redbud trees for $60 each.

Plant MOre Trees

On June 4, 2016 we are hosting a fundraising event, CommuniTree Jubilee, at Faust Park in St. Louis County. Invitations will go out early next week. We have set a goal to raise $30,000 that will be used to support operating costs.

Donna is working with Lisa Allen and the Missouri Botanical Garden to develop plans for hosting an event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Tree City USA this fall. Details will be shared asap.

Mo. Dept. of Transportation – No Report

Mo. Forest Products Association- No Report

University/Extension – No Report

Missouri Parks & Recreation Association – Jan Neitzert/Gary Gates – No Report

Federated Garden Clubs – No Report.

NRCS State Forester – Nate Goodrich – No Report

SMA – No Report

MWISA

· TRAK trainings coming up. St. Louis training is still open. It will be held the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after Memorial Day.

MOFRAC – Gene Brunk

· The group met early March. The biggest topic was the School of Forestry at MU is up for SAF re-accreditation. They are on a bubble for losing accreditation with SAF mainly due to staffing issues. MoFRAC decided to try and help. The president visited the school office and the Dean to try to explain why the forestry program needs to be obtained. It has been fairly effective. The new Dean is under pressure to reduce cost. Several ideas were expressed and will continue with effort.

Region Reports & Volunteer Hours

· Kansas City – Chuck Conner reported that the Heartland Forestry Council meeting will be in May. He handed the floor over to Sarah Crowder with Heartland Tree Alliance. Sarah mentioned the Tree Keeper volunteers. There are 25 registered for the Tree Keeper sessions during the day. She also mentioned that tree pruning for the Kansas City Zoo will be next week. No volunteer hours to report.

· Northwest – Martha Clark reported their region conference is over! Their region is discussing placing the tree value signs back out for Arbor Day. City of St. Joseph’s Arbor Day event will be held April 30, 2016. Kansas City Power & Light donated the tree. The region had a total of 80 volunteer hours.