Tree Board - Regular Meeting

Of the Tree Board, our first meeting in 2025. And we have a full count of all our members here. We do have a new member on the board, Heather, who I hope everyone has met. If not, please introduce yourselves after the meeting. Can I just ask one quick question? What area of Wellington are you from?

I live in the Greenview Shores area.

Greenview Shores. Okay, good. We've got people from all over. Good. Okay, if we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right. First item on the agenda is the approval of the December. Did you want to let the Earth Harbor name line up first? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I did notice that Michelle was here and you are also with Michelle? Okay, can I just we have to do a motion then to change the order of our agenda here? The minutes really don't take typically but a few minutes. Do you want to proceed with the minutes or do you want to go ahead?

Let's just finish it. Do

the minutes. Okay, very good. Okay, we won't be long I promise. Okay, so does anyone have any additions, changes or corrections to the minutes from the December 4 meeting? Okay, so hearing no one, may I have a motion to approve the minutes from December 4?

So moved.

Okay, second? Okay. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay. Minutes are approved. All right. So now we will have a motion then to change the order of our agenda. If we could have a motion to proceed to item six, the first one, the Earth Arbor Day event that is under the new business. Proceed to that item prior to the staff updates. Would someone make a motion to that effect?

Hello? We

have to have a motion in order to

I'll move that we

change the

agenda to suit that purpose.

I second. So we will proceed to the Earth Arbor Day event.

I second. I was first.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Then all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All right then. So now if you'll come up and introduce yourself. Thank you.

Alright. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Marcus Lockhart, and I am the community event specialist for the village of Wellington. Thank you for having me here today. I wanted to briefly review the Earth and Arbor Day event with you today. Our event will be held Saturday, April 26 from 11AM to 1PM as you can see on the flyers in front of you. This will be held at the Wellington Amphitheater, and this event will follow the Great American Cleanup throughout Wellington. The volunteers will leave from the amphitheater at 09:30AM and head back to the amphitheater at approximately 10:30AM. The Great American Cleanup is seeking volunteers. So if you're interested, please reach out to us and we will connect you with our volunteer coordinator, Gus Ponce.

For our Earth in Arbor Day, the event will feature earth friendly vendors, activities, and a raffle drawing for a fire bush. We will begin our events with a welcome from council and both the tree board and garden club. The flower awards will be acknowledged and we will end the opening ceremony with another release of butterflies. It was a huge hit for the last couple of years, so we figured we would keep it going. The annual tree planting with council and Smokey the Bear will take place at the amphitheater, and Will, the superintendent of our landscaping division, is looking at planning a Sweet Bay Magnolia.

So if you have any vendors that you would like us to specifically reach out to, we would be more than happy to contact them. Just let us know their contact information. We are always looking to add new and different vendors from years past that can share information with our residents. We would also love the garden and tree board members to host some youth activities as last year, we had seed planting that the kids absolutely loved. Does anyone have any questions for me?

I'm sorry. You said a seed planting?

Yes. So last year, in years past, we've had seed planting where they give them little peat moss pots and they're able to plant their own seeds and they can take it home and take care of it from there.

Oh, okay. What kind of seeds were they?

So last year they were wildflower seeds. Was a combination of wild native flowers here to Florida. I think we had a few sunflowers in there as well. But this year we are actually looking at doing edible seeds. So we have tomatoes, lettuce, basil, anything you could think of that is in seed form, we have for the kids and and for all attendees of the event to plant.

Well, that's a good idea.

Oh, that's nice. I can have it.

Are you looking for us to man that booth? Are you looking for this committee to man that?

If anybody would like to volunteer for it, we'd be than happy to have you volunteer and help with that.

Alright. Well, he's got a booth too.

He does. Yeah.

Have a question. We have staff for that though.

I have a question. Is there is there like an education component as far as giving out residents like approved plant lists and things like that? So when they're doing their?

Yes. So typically, we'll and all of our kid friendly booths, usually, they'll have, brochures or anything of that nature. We also will inform the attendees about anything that's, in in relation to the natural preservation of our area.

Okay. Yeah. We usually have a bunch of information pamphlets in one of those displays. I mean we have all kinds of informational pamphlets and bloater friendly stuff and master gardener stuff. There's a bunch of different IPs that we

That's excellent. I'm sure that you've got a lot of residents asking questions.

Yes. Yes, we do. Yes, ma'am.

You mentioned working with the garden club as well?

Yes, ma'am.

Have you reached out to them and they've responded?

I believe yes, we have. They're actually a big part a big part of this event and they are have been amazing to work with.

Okay. Good. You're having a plant sale. Correct?

Yes. They will be having a plant sale at this event as well.

Yeah. From ten to two, the garden club will.

Oh, the Garden Club's plant sale starts at ten.

I have information for you on that later

Okay.

When you're ready, unless you want it now. I don't think we want it From

ten to one, okay.

Okay. Sorry. Okay.

Marcus, I'm sorry. I didn't get your last name.

Lockhart.

Lockhart. Okay.

L O C K H A R T.

Okay. Yeah. Well, think you can count on some of us there helping out to plant this or give them the seeds Awesome. There for the cubs.

So we look forward

to it.

Maybe you could have your booth close to Will's booth.

Of course.

Yeah. We usually have it if not a tent in between. We're usually right next to each other

Yeah.

At this event every year.

Okay. Alright. Anybody else there? I just have one question really for Will as part of Earth Day. You know we focus a lot on plants and we have the plant sale and the tree planting and everything.

To me water usage is always a big part of Earth Day events or it should be. Is there anyone from or a group of people from Public Works Water Department that could actually come and talk about or have information, you know, about water conserving devices. I know I became aware when we had a problem with our water usage at home we discovered we had a leaking toilet. And I was astonished to find out how much they can leak in the course of a day. And we actually went to the city.

We found out we could do that when I called the water department. And got some little tablets to put in the tanks and make sure that that was indeed where a leak was coming from. And it was. So little things like that are good to know. And sprinklers.

So are you looking for like water usage reports or?

Water saving devices. Some devices. Sprinklers, yeah. You know, things that people can do.

I agree. I think it's important to to remind the residents of their water usage, especially during these, you know, these few months have been like a high drought

Mhmm.

Kind of thing, and a lot of people are over watering, you know, because they want their yards to be green. And you know, I think I think education as far as water usage is very important.

Yeah. We usually hand out some informational pamphlets on water usage and and stuff like that. I can see if someone from the water department has anything like that.

Okay.

The theme for this year's birthday is our power, our planet. Is there gonna be any vendors there talking about renewable energy or anything related to that kind of thing?

So at the moment, we are looking into having a renewable vehicle parked there and inform the attendees. We are also in the process of having as many vendors that we as we can possibly fit on the boardwalk or excuse me. On the at the amphitheater. So we're looking at all sorts of different vendors that can offer informational tools and guidelines to ensure that we're just giving out renewable energy and renewable natural resources.

Okay. Good.

Have you considered contacting FPL NextEra Energy? Yes.

So I actually recently was in contact. One of our one of my coworkers who works at the community center, he his wife his girlfriend works for FP and L and I actually reached out to him about that.

Okay. I can send you an external affairs director's name.

No problem. That would be great.

They're the largest solar

and

wind generator in the, actually in the world.

Get somebody from NextEra Energy Partners.

And what are we? Or NextEra Energy, period.

Well, the partners are the that's the group that does all the renewable stuff, right? For FP and L, the partners?

No. NextEra Energy Resources, I think is it. Partners is it's they got the thing all taken apart so they can legally handle what they want to handle, how they want to handle it. And I believe it's NextEra Energy Resources, the primary solar and wind person. But Pam Rausch is their external affairs. And I'll get through Will, I'll get you his her name, and she would probably would be able to get you someone over to at least talk about it. Yeah. Would be

great. Yeah.

So looking at this flyer, I think it would be a good time actually to incorporate it into what you're talking about. This is a flyer that the village actually created with the Wellington Garden Club. I don't know if you saw this. Okay, you may have had something to do with it. It's Earth Day plant sale. It's our plant sale that we're doing in coordination with the village. And it indicates on here children's craft table. I assume that's the craft table you're talking about?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. So that will be in a different area, special. Do you know where that area will be?

What for

At the amphitheater, where is this plant sale actually going to be?

So it'll be there. It'll be in conjunction with the event.

But where at the amphitheater?

It'll probably it'll probably be in line with with the other tens of vendors. So it'll be in the same exact area. The plants that will just be going on in the same area as the as the vendors for our Earth and Arbor Day.

Okay. Okay.

So in other words, are the tents going to be lined up along that exterior perimeter?

Yes, yes ma'am.

Okay. So that will be both public works, you all, FP and L or whoever, and the plant people who are selling, everything's gonna be like be there in a Okay.

A couple of years ago, or maybe it was even last year actually, do remember if the plant sale was actually in a special area

Mhmm.

On the lawn.

Yeah. Next to the site vendors were on the the boardwalk. Correct?

Mhmm.

Yes. Yeah. Is that where it's going to be again?

No. So this year it's going to be at the amphitheater. So it's going to be a little bit harder

to Oh, yeah.

Separate. I mean, if if it would be in your favor, we can look into doing that and changing up the site map.

I'm not the chairman of that.

So Okay. That would be the president. Okay. But as of as of this moment, we plan on Incorporating incorporated into the event. Okay.

That's fine.

I would suggest you keep it as tight as you can so that you get more traffic in front of Exactly. As opposed to someone having to cross across the property.

Good.

Thank you.

Of course.

Okay. Anybody else have any comments or suggestions?

Just just what are you giving away? What's the village giving away this

year? Okay. So we have seedlings that we're giving away will be pine. We got some denser pine this year. Pawn cypress and little red maple. Oh, okay. And then we have some smaller dune sunflower and some tickseed.

And some Oh, tickseed.

Oh, good. Good.

Those are flowers. People like the They liked all the flowers stuff last year. So we couldn't get any orchids this year. They're not ready.

Yeah. I know.

So we'd like to give away some native orchids, but they're just not it's not gonna work this year.

That's a little pricey too, isn't it? I mean native orchids.

We have them grown in the lab. 3 or $4 a piece sometimes.

I think 's gone up to $5 now.

Yes. The prices are going up, so we just can't give away quite as many.

Oh, well the dune sunflower and the tixie, those are perfect.

Yeah, those are nice.

They're not are they in flower right now or are they just a little seed?

They were very small when we looked about a month and a half ago. So maybe Maybe.

The dune sunflower goes crazy, as you know.

The tick seed, possibly.

Yeah. Good. They had good choices.

They were very small when we looked.

And then the the the seedlings are just like little

Miners. Yeah. Miners. They'll be six to eight inches maybe by the time the event comes. Mhmm. I mean, they were barely out. They barely just had the seed leaves on them.

Is that baits or

Baits again. Yeah. Mhmm.

Sounds good. I do wanna point out you did a great job at it. I don't know who designed this.

It was our communications department.

Yeah. Yes. David's group. The adding the flower ward, I guess you all noticed that. That's good because we were trying to find a way to get that out there more. So that was good to add that like that and a little bit more with a little more information. That's great.

Thank you. Okay. Anyone else for Marcus? Okay. All right. Well, thank you both for you coming.

For

having me.

Marcus? Thank you, Marcus. Okay.

We'll see you in April. Okay. All right. So back then to the regular ordering of the agenda. Next will be the recent plantings and status updates from Will.

Okay. So recent plantings, we're just getting started. I like to do most of my planting when the rain starts. A little slow to get going this year, but we've done a couple memorial trees. We did two live oaks, one at the open space reserve in front of Little Ranches and the other one over in Village Park. And I'm probably I'm doing one next week, red maple tiger shark, it's not on the ground yet. We're just getting ready to start on all our plantings. So we don't have a whole lot. They've started the Moncada property planting. I have to go out there and see how far along they are. But there's some trees going in out there.

I think they had put in some pine trees.

Yeah, the list was I think 50 pines, 100 cypress, there's some red bays, there's some live oaks. I'll get a full count when the planting is done. But it's pretty sparse. So we started to speak about before the meeting. The grant that we had for planting, the funding has been pulled.

So the original amount was $747,000 some of which was to be spent on invasive removal, cleaning up the property, and the remainder was to be spent on planting canopy trees. So the funding has been pulled. That grant funding was to be used in conjunction with the project. So they kind of scaled back the amount of planting they were going to do with the project. And the grant was to fill in the gaps.

So we were going to plant a couple 100 trees with that funding. But now that's not going to happen so the planting is fairly sparse. So plenty of opportunities for us to go out there and plant. Our September planting with the garden club. So lots of opportunity for planting. It's pretty wide open. They're the middle of it now so it's not quite finished, but I'll have to see exactly what the numbers are and what they've got and I'll update the sheet for our next meeting.

So this was just clarifying, this was the grant through the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act. And did you spend any of it?

So $250,000 for invasive removal was spent.

And you don't have to re

I don't know if that's reimbursable or not. I don't know where we are with that. Since they pulled the funding and we had already been awarded signed paperwork, everything was in motion, they may be able to seek reimbursement for that portion of it. I don't know. But the remainder of the funding, they told us stop where we're at, don't plant anything, that the funds are no longer available. So that has been pulled.

And that was a matching, if I'm not mistaken, that was a matching grant.

Originally, it was a match. We have some disadvantages disadvantaged sections of the community, so they waived the match. So we did not have to match. It was originally 1.1 or 1.5. 750 and 7 and 50 would have been the 1,500,000.0. So they waived the match.

Who waived the match?

Government. So the federal government waived the match. So we weren't required to match. So that brought the number down to 7 and thousand dollars about 2 and $50,000 of which we use for invasive removal leaving the remainder for planting. And that's not going to happen now.

What about reapplication?

We can apply for other grants. Hopefully there's some more funding that becomes available. Of course, we're gonna we're gonna choose to do that. We've been applying for all kinds of grants for tree plantings, storm related stuff. We did receive a couple of small grants from the Arbor Day Foundation. We have a $37,000 grant to replace some of the landscape on Flying Cow Road that was lost in the tornado.

Mhmm.

And hopefully, get the grant. It hasn't been officially awarded yet. $50,000 to replant some stuff on Binks Forest and along the berm on that canal along Southern. But we haven't received any signed paperwork. So we do have $37,500 coming for planting on Flying Cow. And we have the $20,000 coming for the canopy study. I'm just waiting for the signed paperwork before we move forward on getting that set up.

That's too bad. Are There no lawsuits related to this withdrawal of funding?

I don't know probably, but I cannot answer that question right now. There's probably a few lawsuits regarding that. I I think I saw something about that but I I can't be sure of the numbers. But yeah, believe there is. But I don't know what we can do at this point. It was

a law. I mean,

so Yeah.

So We'll have to wait and see.

What was What was the reason for the withdrawal?

They're just tightening up on all the spending and

Oh, yeah.

Pretty much. Reevaluating. So hopefully some more funding becomes available and of course we'll apply for any grant that comes up regarding that.

Okay. The money for Banks Forest, where is that going? You're talking about the roadway?

Yes. So there was a small section of the landscape on the roadway. We lost a lot of trees in the median and then both rights away. And then when you go down Bank Creek, the village owns a section of land there where everything was pretty much flattened. So some of the stuff will be planted there, some on banks. Just trying to fill back in with some native canopy where we lost it. Okay.

Well, was out at the park not too long ago, and the boardwalks, I don't know if you all have been over there recently, but the new boardwalks that have been put in there look really good.

Yeah, those were refurbished with, that was a grant for that too. Yeah. And they look nice, they're very nice.

Yeah, they do, they look really good. But it is sparse, can you tell that something that they've lost trees.

Yeah. Was a section of that that was

Really bad.

Pretty much leveled. Right. So But

we'll just have

to get back on it.

We'll just have to plant more trees. That's it.

Just get back on it.

As far as recent plantings and updates, I think the only other thing we have a couple projects ongoing, the new aquatic center. They're still working on that. No landscape or anything has been installed yet. The South Shore Park, they're putting grass on the fields. There'll be some opportunities to plant some trees there too. But that all those projects are still underway. I think they finished the retention ponds under the power lines on the C 9. I think that project is almost finished. So as far as plantings, I think that pretty much covers it.

Where is that?

The they did a bunch of retention ponds underneath the power lines over here in Lake Paddock Park and

By Biggs?

The ones that are here in that road?

Yeah.

Biggs Forest?

The C9 Canal runs east and west. It goes all the way over to Acme Road. So they've made water retention in there.

All the ponds all along that C9 Canal from Acme all the way west

are done. There's a little bit of grass to be installed, but there's really no landscape going in because it's under the power lines.

You can't plant any trees in there.

No. So maybe we could spread some wildflower seeds in those little bottoms.

Let's do

it. See, this might be a time for me to bring up this request and the mayor of Wellington had got in touch with the president of the garden club asking for suggestions on where they could plant wildflowers. So I don't know if you've heard anything about that, or if that's anything that they're discussing seriously, but I was thinking as a tree board, we may have a few recommendations that we could pass on to the council and the mayor on places where we think would be a good idea to do those seeds, sprinkle those seeds, or Yeah. You

No, I'm on board with that idea. If we could find a seed mix with more Right, native our indigenous Some of them are a mix of

I'd have to go to the University of Florida for that. I think the wildflower cooperative is Texas seeds, right? Yeah. Well,

you have to understand that in the bottom of the retention pond, whatever you plant is highly likely to die.

Well that's kind of a negative way to look at things.

I'm trying to be realistic. I mean if we have a five inch rain, those fill up. They'll sit there for a week as they percolate down. And that'll be long enough to kill usually the grass in the bottom.

Think they're

fairly deep.

The elevation on those is about a foot above our normal control elevation. So they shouldn't hold water for very long.

Okay. Well, hold water long enough, whatever you put in there as a wildflower needs to be able to stand water Tixie

would work.

A few days.

Black eyed Susan too. They're good for rain gardens. So there's like a whole bunch of different plants that recommended for what they call rain gardens, which are areas that get wet and stay wet for a portion of the time, and then dry out.

Somewhere along the line somebody's gonna have to start mowing the banks

and

the These are series of ponds is what it is.

They've started they've started the mowing.

But you know someone's gonna be mowing a lot of it and if you're gonna plant wildflowers in it, you're gonna have to go out and put out no mowing like DOT does. No mowing signs. Right. Mark it out very carefully so they don't you don't plant them and then turn around and mow them down.

Right. There's a whole system involved in doing those, the DOT has a whole plan. Don't do it too much down here, but up in the northern part, you know, where they plant along the roadsides. And then it is a, you know, you do have to mow, but not as often, maybe only twice a year. But that will give the plants a chance to reseed and then come back the next year. But I just thought, you know, he's asking us, let's give him some let's give him some suggestions because I think down here a good time to plant would be November, December, January if we're doing seeds, right, Depending

on the variety.

You know, that 's what the Wildflower Foundation kind of recommended for South Florida. So anyway, think about that. I thought, you know, trailheads and under the power lines and the canal banks are all good places. You know, we just have to get the areas prepped. Right. It would

give us a

lot of time though, if we're not going to plant until next November.

I know I can speak a little bit to that. I know that in the previous city where I lived, they had they had designated areas of wild flowers in their local parks

Mhmm.

That they had. So they were promoting, you know, like some of the parks had butterfly gardens or butterfly areas, you know, Florida friendly plantings, and they had sections where actually, I think the city, it was hard for them to grow certain things in those areas. So what they decided to do was put the wildflowers there Because it was easy to grow.

Low maintenance.

Yeah. And they and they basically fenced in some of those area. They had a little, you know, to To allow them grow. Yeah. To grow without being mowed over. But it was a good suggestion and it was, you know, filled in areas.

So it was a successful endeavor?

It was in some of the areas. Some of the areas it wasn't. But, you know, I think it was nice to have them in local parks.

Mhmm.

But that would probably be a collaboration with the parks department, I would think. Right?

Parks and public works, maybe parks to get the actual land.

Public works.

You know, to get that, you know, little bit of piece of land in the parks. Where are you from, Heather?

Well, I live in Wellington now. Originally, I was Before Wellington, used to live in Pembroke Pines. Oh, is that where

they did the project, in Pembroke They

did. I was on their landscape advisory board for many years.

Oh, very good. Okay. I'm originally from Hollywood. Oh. So we're neighbors down there. That was not original original, but yeah. Okay. Well, good. That's you're a good source then. Maybe we can like work on this a little bit as a tree board. What do you think everybody?

I don't know this.

Okay. Okay,

good. Good,

okay. Put it on the worksheet. Okay.

So maybe that's something that could become part of the annual work plan which is an item on the agenda So, okay.

I had a question also, I'm sorry. I had a question about the was the tree canopy study initiated?

I'm just waiting on the signed paperwork for that. So we were awarded $20,000 I think I got an estimate of 30. We requested $30,000 in funding. We were awarded 20. So once I have ex executed documents, we will start the process of the canopy study. I've been in contact with a couple of groups. I got a couple of quotes. So once once we have documents in hand, we'll start the process of doing a a canopy study. I think the last one was in 2,007.

So Oh, okay.

That's

good. Updated numbers to help us pick some direction. I think we're going to see some lower numbers than 2007. So it may help us with our plan.

Absolutely, that's great.

And so hopefully that would, the documents and everything would be signed by maybe June. So we can start during the summertime. Hopefully. When things are

So I think we'll have one year from the time of that, the signing of the documents to complete the study.

And unfortunately

we can't afford one of the expensive LiDAR studies so we should be able to make it happen in that timeframe.

Okay. All right. So we'll hear more about that in June.

Hopefully yes.

All right. All right. So let's see. We talked about tree seedlings. Was that we covered that pretty extensively. Flower award nominations. And there were two nominees, one on Sage Avenue and the other on Raintree Lane. There. And these were done anonymously. So everyone has a copy of the submissions.

Has everyone been out to view the properties in person? Yes. Okay. Lisa has, I know I have. You have. Kathy? No, have I not yet. You have not personally.

I haven't seen it in person.

Okay, because you just got yours very recently. Okay, all right. Where, let's see, if we start with the Raintree Lane 1. We just have the one picture there. It is the of course the front of the house which the requirements are that the land that we are looking at has to face a roadway.

So technically that could be a back of a house or the side of a house. In this case it is the front of the house. And I think it looks like according to the nominee's submission the feature is the bromeliads on the cypress trees. And I thought it looked very nice. I would have I would be very supportive of giving this property a flower award.

I like the bougainvillea there on the side of the house as well. I thought the bromeliads added a lot of color. It really draws your attention there to them. Does anyone else have any

Ms. Well, think that they qualify also by having the native bromeliads in the trees and also the cypress trees are native. So in that component of the award I think is covered too. So I would support that. I would support this also.

Okay. I went out and got the sheet and ranked it ranked them both. Curb repeal I gave it a full 10 points. Incorporating minimum 50% landscaping is native landscaping I gave it the full 25 points. Florida Friendly Landscaping probably fill a fair amount of water usage there.

So I I only gave it 25 of the 35. And then I gave it ten ten and ten for the remaining. The bromeliads were a very nice feature to the palms or to the to the cypress. In addition to the ones you see down on the bottom, they're full of native bromeliads above.

Mhmm.

The photos I gave it ten and ten visible from the street. So I gave it a full ranking of 80. So I would support it too also. All

right. Are there any other further comments? Okay. May we have a motion then to accept this as a winner for the Flower Award?

So moved.

Okay. Jim, a second? Not me. Thoma? Okay. All right. Then all in favor say aye. Aye. All right. So you all will contact the owners of the property and very good. All right. So that's one. And then the second one is, it says Natural Landscape. This was on Sage Avenue. And we have the pictures here.

I noticed when I was there it looked oh, I guess there are some that are more recent. Okay, I see it now. Yeah, I was noticing the curve. I don't know if it was something for an irrigation system or what there. But I have to say it impressed me as how should I, an edible garden landscape, really. There were several papayas, banana trees, and I think there was also a guava tree, small over there on the side.

What is the I couldn't figure out what the large tree is. Is that what kind is that a it's not an oak?

In the center? Live oak. It's a live oak.

Is it a live oak? Okay.

I didn't rank that one too favorably.

Well I didn't, I couldn't, I couldn't determine what the plants were, you know. So I don't know if they had, if they met the 50% unless the oak tree would be considered the 50%.

The only thing I really saw as native there was the oak tree.

Mhmm. Yeah. Okay.

Most there there may be some butterfly plants in there that are native, but I'm not that good on butterfly plants. Mhmm. And it it could be seen as a feature as a as a butterfly. I mean, my wife was with me and she's, oh, it's a butterfly garden.

Mhmm.

And my problem was is that granted they had some stuff in the swale, you know, that just hasn't been picked up, so I would ignore that. But the the rest of it is simply not maintained. The ladder that you saw, it I don't think you see it here.

It's in the the

second. Pit.

Yeah. The ladder you see in the picture is still on the tree. They've got all sorts of ropes and stuff like that hanging around. It's not been it's not being well maintained. It's just a hodgepodge and I don't see it as, certainly don't see it as an award winner. I can give you, my total ranking on this one was 55 out of 100. That's been generous.

In agreement with you when I saw it. I think we It's should have probably

a good eclectic kind of landscape, but I don't know if that's the kind of landscape that we really want to award the give the award to. It's, you it just doesn't seem like it fits the criteria, some of the tidiness and all that kind of thing that we expect, so, yeah.

Yeah, I would think like, you know, we're look we we need to look at landscapes that are examples of, you know, what what what we want people's landscapes to look like that reflect the, you know, the know, the image of of Wellington, you know. And yeah, I think it the maintenance is an issue here.

Well, the the they maintain the cypress, which is a big thing to me. A lot of places have simply cut the cypress down. And they've done a good job of maintaining them and making them part of the landscape, which is probably the one thing I like about it most other than that it being very clean. It's very typical of our Wellington house.

I do like the fruit plants. I yeah.

Well, mean on the rain tree one that's been well maintained. The one on rain tree is not.

The one on Sage.

Sage is not. Yeah,

it seems like that is more like something that you'd want to have in your backyard rather than in your front yard. But that's just my opinion, you know. But I don't I agree, I don't think it really meets the criteria for our award.

We Okay. Need a motion to reject it.

No. Go ahead. A comment before you do that, please. So I'm just wondering, it sounds like we probably are not going to award this one. It's sounding like

There's a consensus here to not award.

Right, before we vote that. I just had a thought. I don't know if we've ever actually turned anyone down in the history of

Yes, we have.

We have. Okay. So when we do that, do you actually notify the owner that they've been turned down?

Do they know that they've been

I mean, do they know? I mean, this is anonymous, so I have no idea

who I

think they even know they were Nominated.

Well we don't know because it's anonymous, so But what my point was is perhaps we could give them, if they knew and wanted the information, could explain to them perhaps what they could do to help improve it and then reapply it another time.

I think that'd be a mistake, especially

That in

be a mistake?

In this case, I think it'd be a big Okay.

All right. I have

a suggestion.

I'd like I would like to see more submissions. I was a little I mean, I'm new, but I was surprised to only see two submissions.

Well, have an idea to maybe increase the number of submissions. I was thinking that as a tree board, we could all be responsible for nominating one property. Okay. You know, I mean, I don't think it would be that difficult for us to drive around our neighborhood or some neighborhood and pick out a property and nominate it. So that would give us one, two, three, four, five, six, seven awards to look at. I would make a motion that we do that for next year.

Well, I made two presentations to the garden club and this may be the result of that, I don't know.

Mhmm. I know previously in where where I came from before, one of the things that we did to expand, we it was called a different name. It was the great yards Mhmm. But very similar.

Right.

Mhmm. You know, so what we did is we expanded it to include the school gardens as well Mhmm. Which was really nice because it gets the kids excited in the schools, you know, and they would have pictures of their school gardens, and some of them with butterfly components, some native plants in their schools, and they would be, you know, and it was exciting for them, you know. So, we would give an award to the to the school, you know, but it was a different category. So, the schools wouldn't compete against, you know, residential properties.

So, they would have the residential property, they had the schools involved, so that was one division. And then we had we had like a senior a big senior community where we were there, so they had they had a community garden that was submitted, you know, as well. So, I maybe what we should do to get also more submissions not only have us, but also maybe incorporate school gardens that are in Wellington for this award as well. Because a lot of the gardens, a lot of the schools are doing native plantings and butterfly friendly plantings.

That's a good idea. The only thing is that we might have to change our, the criteria on our award, because it's supposed to be something that you can see from

the street. A lot of

the school gardens, have to be, you know, be allowed in to look at it. So it's not something that the public really has access to, and I think that's one of the criteria on our award. They would have So to think about doing Kathy, she's with the garden club, and she works with the youth garden, so maybe at some point we could, you know, maybe work with the garden club and see if there's some way that we could recognize those school gardens also. I don't know if it could be as part of this award, but it's up to the board if they want to change the criteria.

Can we get back to Raintree?

This is a suggestion, maybe let's make a I

thought we've already approved We

voted to give an award to the property on Raintree.

No, Raintree's done.

I, as I said, I think we just have a consensus to not give an award to the Sage Avenue property.

No, to the Sage. No,

do not give an award to the Sage property.

Yes, Okay.

Sage doesn't have much native plant either.

The Sage property is the one that looks junky.

This will have some.

It's the rain tree property that we voted on already. That

we're to give an award to.

Yes.

So what we do need to do is to have a motion to, let's see, I guess not give an award to the SAGE property at this time. And if we can have a motion to that effect.

So moved.

With a second? Jim? Okay, second?

Second.

Kathy? Okay. Heather. Heather.

I'm sorry.

It's okay.

Sorry. I'm

not strong. I'm Kathy.

Yes, sorry. Okay. Okay. All right. So if we can have a vote to that effect, all in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. And all opposed say no. All right. So it's unanimous there. So we have the rain tree property to which we can give a flower award on Earth Day. All right. And then next on the agenda is the Tree Board Annual Work Plan. This is something that we go through every year at this time. And let's see, if you look at somehow I don't have one.

I thought I did. Thought I printed

Let it

me see. I did print it out. Here it is. Okay. So has everybody had a chance to read this? This is basically what was this is basically the 2024 work plan that we voted on in March 2024. But it would be updated to reflect the current year. And if we have any changes to the annual work plan, this is the time to make them. And I think I heard some suggestions here today.

Do you want to talk about your wildflowers now?

Oh, yeah. I just let's add it to the work plan.

Mhmm.

We can designate an area. Maybe we'll just go with one area to start with, and see if we can work with the village to put in wildflowers, maybe take a patch of you know, if we could take a patch of land that's of there doing nothing, and add wildflowers to it, I think it really enhances the community. It's and I'm sure there's like lots of places, And it doesn't have to

be a large

spot either, right?

So will we add that to section A, education and public relations on the plan, and also to the goals for 2024.

The goals maybe for

I think you'd need it in both places.

Okay, for '25.

You okay with that?

Yeah. Could you?

What about wording that says select a location for demonstration of wildflower planting?

Okay. Perfect.

If we can add that to section a and then as an item five, select the location for wildlife planning for wildflower planning.

Okay. So goals for 2024 would become goals for 2025. Select at least one location. Mhmm. And of course we're talking about a highly visible location.

Well, I don't think we should choose like major thoroughfares or anything like that because the wildflower a wildflower planting can get messy looking, and I don't think that on the major thoroughfares that's going to fly with the with the city council. So that's why I was thinking, you know, some of those areas that are like the the trail heads for the for where the horses go, or the trail heads for the for where the bike paths are to places like that. They're visible, but they're not like, you know, on the major thoroughfares. I don't think that they like to keep those kinda neat and tidy, and that's fine. There's other places where we can do stuff.

I agree with that.

I agree also.

I mean, like, I is it Horseshoe Trace that crosses the power line that has no landscaping on it?

Mhmm. Mhmm. Alright.

That'd a bad place. Yes.

That'd be a good spot to do.

It crosses into in two places.

Yeah. Well, there's Those are good spots.

That might be a good spot.

That's what comes to mind when you Yeah. When you say trailheads.

So horseshoe at the power lines. Yeah. Yeah.

So we'll put that specific location into the work plan?

I would not. Let's see if we can find something else.

That's a suggestion, but yeah, there's, you know, we've got some time. By June maybe we could, if we all look around, we can come up with some other ideas and maybe just hone it down to one section, and then we can start working on that. Because I think it's doable to plant. We could just, you could just cover the area with whatever, or spray it, whatever you want to do to kill the grass or the weeds or whatever is there right now to prep it for planting in November or December, for the idea that those plants will come up in the springtime.

So who's going to do the planting and buy the seeds?

That would be the village of Wellington.

So we're adding plant more planting to their the mayor asked already busy.

The mayor of Wellington asked for this suggestion. Uh-huh. So I'm sure he's got the money to fund it.

Yeah. I've been looking for seed Do you know

about that? Were you working with the mayor on that or?

I kind of was kind of coming up with some of that on my own. I was looking for seed sources and I've already thought of a few places we can do it so I have some ideas.

Okay.

So what were some of your ideas to where to do it now since we've got

horseshoes trays?

The same?

Areas where under power lines or kind of out of the way areas.

Off the beaten path, sort of.

Areas that

already Bahia where there's not a lot of irrigation or maintenance going on. Right. Lower mowing frequencies, less chance of them mowing it.

Right. And putting up a sign is not, I mean we could do that. No mow, this is a no mow area, but in Spanish and English.

Yeah. I've been looking at all those the bottoms of those retention ponds and some of those areas where they're not going be mowing very frequently anyway.

Mhmm. Yeah. Getting the seed source is probably going to be the the big thing that we're

going to have

to do.

That's my only problem. I would have probably done some of that already. Know, of our natural areas like out at the the majority Stoneman Douglas Preserve, areas like that I was looking for something but I couldn't find anything that was a 100% native.

Right. Right. I'm finding the same problem, you know, when I'm looking for big gobs of seeds, it's basically We that

need it by the pound, not little packets.

Right. Right. Exactly. Well, there has to be, I mean, has to, it has to be out there someplace, because, you know, they, the University of Florida gives away those little

The small ones.

Those little small packets and it's all it's all native seeds. So if they can do it in little packs, then they can do it in big

I'm thinking University of Florida IFAS Yeah. Can probably give donation of seeds.

Maybe donate the seeds. Yeah. Oh, okay. That'd be even better.

There may be a grant there, but the odds of them just pulling out of there by just giving a more of a seed is pretty low unless there's a grant.

For your wildflower project for one area, right? It would be only? Is that what you're talking about for the wildflower project? Right.

Yeah. Right. Exactly.

One or two small areas.

Yeah. We could yeah. Maybe do a couple of them.

I wouldn't do acreage, but a few thousand square feet.

Yeah. Right. I

don't think that'll be a problem at all.

Yeah, I mean we can

Well, let's get back to the plan. We've amended the plan, think. Have we amended the plan? Do we need a motion to that effect?

Yes, please

for that. Okay, but are there any other areas where you want to do some amendments? And now I have a question here with one item. Right, okay. That's what we did last year.

The question that I had was looking at Section A distribute tree pruning brochure with utility bills annually. And I know we've been doing that for some time.

Yeah, we've actually that's budgeted every other year.

Every other year, I that's thought you had said there would be a change, okay. So that would be with utility bills. See it wouldn't be biannually, would be biennially, two years. If it's biannual that means

twice

a year. So we want biennial. Okay. And

are these these are distributed probably also during or over day I would think, right?

The tree Usually April, March or April in that time, like with those monthly utility bills. A lot of people are going paperless.

Like for this event that's being done. Yes. Brochures here,

right? Junction with soap. I think they were doing it in March, an April event is what we have. So a lot of people are going paperless. We do have the option on the bottom of the electronic bill that goes out. There's a small section, limited text, but we can absolutely add something in there too. I know we discussed that about the flower award putting a small blip on on the bottom of those bills.

Was that done this year? I don't get a I get a paper bill.

No, no, it not done.

It was not.

We have to, I guess, vote on what we want to put in there and then we can have it added. Okay. I think the Board has to agree on

What to say. What we want. Okay. Okay. So with we have those two changes then.

And

then I Are wanted to there other ask things that you'd like to change or add or

Well, wanted to ask a question. What was done in Part BIC partnerships to help organize planting and awareness projects with local schools? I wanted to ask you what kind of awareness projects have been done in the past with the local schools here in Wellington for to encourage plan awareness.

I think my impression has been that actually a lot of that has come from the Wellington Garden Club. They have been doing work with well, let's see, it says local schools. Here I'm thinking Cub Scout because they're always so involved. Sorry.

Did I turn that off?

Have there been any specific projects?

Well our seedling giveaway is

Oh, at the schools, yes. Every year, I'm sorry.

Yes. Part of

our Earth Day celebration, we do the seedling giveaway to the schools. You know, 03/3500 seedlings. Most of the schools participate. We give them seedlings, literature, water saving pamphlet. All that stuff we distribute to the schools. Some of the younger kids in the elementary schools, it's like a word search or and it's all environmentally focused stuff. So I think that would be one thing that we

Okay. I mean, I would like to see, I mean, it's just a suggestion for the goals. I would like to see, you know, an encouragement of like how you have the flower award to incorporate somehow, you know, gardens and local schools in the in the future, know, in some sort of way. So I I would like to see that maybe under the goal, so that maybe we could look into ways that we can incorporate like as a goal. We would be looking into ways that we can incorporate local school gardens for plant awareness and recognition, you know.

Okay. Kathy?

Yeah. I'd like to address that. As a Wellington Garden Club member, I'm the chairman of the Youth Garden Clubs in the village of Wellington, as well as Pine Jog outside of Wellington. And we support financially and we give advice to several youth gardens. I think that's what you're talking about. We have vegetable gardens, butterfly gardens at several elementary, middle school, high schools, the two high schools. In fact, we were just there today. My husband and I is on my committee, and we were just there with the high schoolers today, I'm supposed to speak in here, and helping them with their vegetable garden. And so I think that's what you might be thinking of.

Oh not just education. Recognition. I'm thinking of recognition, not just plant education. Like I, you know, I have a degree in horticulture science. I'm just, you know. But it's not, it's more than just education. I'm looking for recognition for the schools and the kids and what, you know, the efforts that they're doing that you're helping with. I think that would be a nice way Recognition us to recognize.

Through awards, honors, that kind of also do do that. We have awards that we give out and honors. We have our Stuart awards, we have all kinds of different awards that we can give the kids for butterfly gardens, conservation. There's tons of awards, and we recognize them that way. So that is a function of the Wellington Garden Club. Now how that relates to our mission as a tree board, I'm not quite sure if that's kind of diverging just a bit, getting into gardens and butterfly gardens, I'm not sure that's our mission really. Debbie, you could add to that. So we have to stay, this is the tree board, this is not the tree garden, trees and gardens and etcetera Right.

But I mean we are, we have in part B that we're working with the Wellington Garden Club there.

That's right.

To identify project opportunities. Why, what would be

Okay, well we haven't, I don't think we've gotten to that point yet, Debbie. And when we get to that, I was going to explain a little more to you what that means related to trees specifically. Okay. That might help. I mean,

I'm thinking maybe we can, if we're working with the Wellington Garden Club already, maybe we can work with the Wellington Garden Club with the youth garden, things that they're doing in the recognition.

Do. We are. We have been since 1982.

Right, the Wellington Garden Club. Yes. I don't know that the tree board has been collaborating as a part of those recognitions, have they?

I see what you're saying.

I'm saying that there should be a collaboration so that that recognition is recognized as part of the Tree Board also, not just I the Wallington Garden

think we have a we have our Flower Award, which recognizes landscapes, business, and homes. Then we also have the Tree Award for really good looking trees, old trees, master trees, or whatever you call them, what do you

call them? Specimen trees.

Tremendous trees, okay. The really fine specimens. But we what you're thinking is maybe adding another component to recognize school gardens?

I think that would be great. I mean, realize that the Wellington Garden Club is doing that, so we could partner with them in in that capacity. But I think it would be a nice recognition. And I like the idea of engaging the youth in, you know, with what's going on in the city, and I I really like that. Mhmm. You know.

Yeah. I mean, I don't see I don't see a problem with that. It's just that it it's we're having a hard enough time just getting applications for the for the tree for the flower award, you know. I don't know if it's we'd have to come up with a a way to

Promote it to the school.

Yeah, like promote it and get maybe other people involved in making those kinds of decisions.

Could there be a staff liaison that could, you know Yeah, there could be. Notify the schools, we have this award in our city, and, you know, if your school guardian wants to send some photos, they could do it, you know. I don't think it would be that you know, think it would be I think it would be manageable.

Difficult. Cathy would Cathy's our pretty much our liaison with the school.

Yes, she's already in school.

The one that's working with the

The hardest part is getting the buy in from the schools.

Yeah, right, exactly. So, but you know what, say if you want, you know, we can give it a shot or at least put it on our goals, something that we want to work toward.

Let me ask you one thing, because getting back to the focus of the tree board, our primary responsibility is really education and growth of our tree canopy here in the community. That's the way I've always looked at it as I have read the our landscape code and the codes that set up the tree board. It just everything just refers to the trees themselves. I know that some schools have planted trees on Earth Day on their own. We're giving away little seedlings to all the kids.

Has there ever been any donation of trees to any of these schools? And might they not be receptive to that?

Not to the, like say the county, the school board. I think that's who you're dealing with when you're wanting to plant on school property.

When I was working with the Palm Beach Central Palm Beach Central Group, we put in quite a few mahogany trees back behind the school. Now whether they're still there or not, I don't know, because I'm not really working with the schools anymore, but you can sneak them in, that's for sure, if you, you know, if you want to. Because we, you know, some of those retention ponds, and I think the one right in front of Palm Beach Central, we put in some pond apple and some cypress and stuff like that when I was working with the kids, the science group, you know, the so that's possible. But again, like Will said, you got to get that contact at the school who wants to do it.

So could I offer an amendment to section A to the flower ward to incorporate school gardens?

Who?

I would put it the flower

award.

Does anybody want to second that?

Or even if it's not in the flower award, we can add it as a separate bullet bullet in section a under education and public relations.

How about we word that? Say examine the feasibility of recognizing school gardens within Wellington.

Adding it as an item under

Section A.

Okay. I would be amenable to that. I mean there are

Get that, Michelle? Yes. Okay.

Examine the feasibility of recognizing Okay.

Yes, could you repeat that again for me? Examine the feasibility of incorporating school gardens as recipients of a flower award?

Of an award.

Of an award? Of an award, yes. Of an award. Okay. Okay. And that was to go under Section A. Okay. So that would be a fourth bullet. Okay. All right.

So do we have any other additions, changes, amendments to the annual work plan? Okay. So are we ready for a motion to amend the annual work plan for 2025 with the proposed amendments being distribute tree pruning brochure with utility bills biannually, meaning every two years. Then a fourth bullet, select at least one location for wildflower planting. And yes, that would be a fifth bullet.

Then examine the feasibility of incorporating school gardens as recipients of an award. And then again under section the section for goals for 2025 adding a fifth item, select at least one location for wildflower planting. Okay. If we can have a motion to cover all of that and amend our plan.

I make a motion that we accept the

Okay. Lisa, a Second. Jim? Okay. All right. We ready to vote? All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. All opposed? No? Okay. Then it's unanimous with those changes that we have a new work plan for 2025. Okay. And I think that is the last item on our agenda except for comments, which is up to each and every one of us as the members of the Tree Board if there's anything in particular that we want to bring to the attention of the Board.

I asked Michelle to give you all a copy of our House Bill five ninety nine.

Oh yeah.

Which was recently, yeah it's right there. First hearing on that was yesterday and it made it into the paper. It made it into the news and I picked it up. And I'm particularly concerned about that. As it stands now, I'm trying to think of the right way.

On common law, English law, it's been accepted in this country for the most part except for a few states that if a tree falls and it lands on your property and it's on another piece of property, that you are the one who's liable because that is an act of God. And so if my neighbor's tree falls over and lands on my house, my insurance company pays for it. Okay? And that is the that is the current status of the law in Florida. Mhmm.

What this bill wants to do is it it basically says anything under five acres, if a tree falls on to my property and the tree is on my neighbor's property, then it is, my responsibility to repair the excuse me, my neighbor's responsibility to repair my house or fence or whatever it damaged. Now the problem I have with that is, first off, this particular bill is just really broad. And the second problem is that from a landscape point, we have spent across the state within many cities. We have spent millions of dollars planting trees on property and getting trees planted and into the system. And it basically says if you have a tree that's more than about 30 feet tall, you have a liability that your insurance company could turn around and say you can't have.

My property, I've got probably 25 pines that are 40 to 60 feet tall

Mhmm.

My insurance company could come and say, we refuse to sue you we refuse to cover you unless you remove those trees. So if anybody has a large tree on their property, it is a liability that is very clear. So it's there's nothing in this thing about the condition of the tree. I realize that if I have a tree and it is failing, it's got branches that are falling out of it, it's got rot in it, it's got all these other things, I should be responsible to remove that. But this bill doesn't say that.

Mhmm.

Alright. This bill also does not say anything about weather. Mhmm. So you hit a cat five storm. In a cat five storm, what you have left of your tree canopy is less than 12 feet tall. Everything else is gone. And it's somewhere else in the neighborhood.

Mhmm.

And so all that damage would then if if if I had a tree from a block down land on my house, which is very easily in a cat five storm, then if I can prove that tree came from his property, then, he pays for fixing my house. Yeah. Absolutely totally ridiculous. Now, whoever wrote this didn't put any of that in there. And I'm not just saying to exclude hurricanes.

When there's a there are two scales for wind in the weather service, at least in this country. One is the Sanford Simpson scale. Well, the Simpson Sanford scale and that is the hurricane scale, the cat five to cats cat one to cat five storm.

Mhmm.

And then there's the Beaufort scale, which starts with calm wind and it goes through whole a whole series of them. And somewhere in, what they call force six to eight, which are below hurricane level winds, trees simply start falling apart. When you hit 47 miles an hour, you're gonna have branches flying. And so if we're the law is just poorly written. And I think that the city needs to understand that.

And you get into all kinds of things. Let's say I have a tree fall into a power line. It takes the feeder out and 15,000 customers in the dark. Does the power company have the right to come to me and say, you owe us for the revenue for all those customers. I've had a loss.

And

I think we and the same thing goes for the city. If the city's got a tree, got a got a raw palm in the center of the road and it comes over and lands in a storm. Let let's say you got some idiot and we have had them ride through cat three storms, blow something down and they run into it. Is the city liable? The answer to this law, they are. So I think we should be aware of it. I think the city should be aware of it. Well, if you could somehow bring this to somebody's attention. This is a bad law and whether the the problem with a bad law like this is they have this sneaky chance to slip through.

Has it been passed? No. It has not passed. So we gotta get to in touch with the legislators and

tell them to get not in touch with the legislator and and say this is poorly written, extraordinarily broad, and it's gonna really create a lot of litigation. A great law for lawyers.

Well, right. Exactly. Not a lot of laws are. But if they if they added acts of acts of God or acts of nature or whatever, exclude exclude that. So like if your neighbor is cutting down a tree with a power saw and it's falling on your house, then they should take some responsibility for that.

It stands now, they would.

Yeah. Okay. Other than that, anything related to nature should

not This is if a branch falls out of your tree and lands on your neighbor's fence and breaks it, you're responsible for

the Through neighbor's no fault of your own. I mean, it's just the wind doing it. Right. No. That's not right. Okay. Well, we gotta get in touch with the legislators and

So, Will, can we get you to pass that along to whoever should hear that? I I know the city has lobbyists, but this is not this is not well written. No. It could be rewritten and written written better, we need to be aware of it. It's already had first reading.

Do you know who sponsored it?

Somebody in Lakeland, I think. I've forgotten who it was. I didn't I could probably look it up.

Yeah. So you can go to, what is it, the legislative website. And this is a house bill. So at some point it's probably going to get a companion in this It has a companion. Does have a companion already. Okay.

Are we done with that? Or

Oh. Were you looking something up, Jim?

I was gonna look up and see if it showed who who who submitted it.

Nobody here local, we hope.

No. I think somewhere around Orlando. Lakeland. Lakeland, Orlando. For some reason the Internet is not responding. Oh, that's because it dropped me off.

Okay. Well, we can look that up on our own just by going to the legislative website. That'll all be there. And it will give you a list of hearings that are coming up and so forth. And it also gives you a list of other representatives and senators who are supporting the measure who, you know, sign on to it as well. So if you know anybody, you know, it's a chance to contact them, by all means. Or even if you don't know them, it's not that you have to know someone personally. But if you do have a personal relationship, boy, can that help.