Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

For a second meeting of the Tree Advisory Board for the City of Joliet. We'll do the roll call. Karen Fonte is absent. Eric Moon? Here. Rita Renwick, I'm here. Betsy Satcher. Here. Mary Schonheider. Here. Jim Testin. Here. And Ron Van Dyke, not here. We also have Peter Zubek, our city arborist. And some of you haven't met him yet, so that's kind of nice that he's here.

The next order of business is approval of minutes from the last meeting. And that was on February 12. And these are always posted on the city's website under Meetings and Agendas. And if you open up the full agenda, it has both the agenda and the minutes, the full package. Are there any corrections or additions?

I just saw one, and I'm going to give that to Ada or Rosie. The JJC port department hadn't sent me a letter recently. But they originally wrote a letter committing to support our inventory grant and then reconnected by email. And they said they continue to be willing to assist with public events. And I'll give that to you, Rosie, so you have that. So with that correction, can we approve the minutes?

I motion to approve the minutes. That's corrected.

Okay. And a second? Second. Second by Betsy. Motion by Eric. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Any citizens to be heard on agenda items? There are none. And so we will I had asked Peter if he would give us an arborist update, kind of a report on what's going on. So he's here if he would like to let us know what's happening.

So, yeah, my name is Pete. Nice to see all of you again. This is my god. Yeah. Yeah. Just

has to be maybe up.

Yeah. Up. Thank you. So very busy. See, you can be busier with leaves coming out. So we're just catching up on everything we kinda stack up over the years. But first thing we're doing is prioritizing removals. So hazardous trees are coming out. Those are your silver maples, traffic repairs, more ways. They're just aging, and we're trying to be proactive with those and take them out before they pose a bigger issue.

So we've been busy with that. In house crews handle a lot of those smaller ones, and then we have Arbor Tech doing some as well as part of their contract. I was hoping Ron was here to kinda give an update on that, where he stands with that. But otherwise, we're going after trees that are already in decline. So no healthy trees are coming out, which is always good.

And then recruiting, we're still kind of on the back end. We're still trying to catch up. Having the Rollers crew is kind of tough working with them because they have other things that come up. So trying to find a balance with that. And then planting seasons here, we're reviewing all the requests that came in.

There was a good amount that were not good, not suitable for a tree. So unfortunately, those people won't get a tree. But there's a lot that can get a tree, and they will get a tree. And we're almost done with checking all the spots. There's maybe, like, 30 sites still to be checked, but we have about 180 spots confirmed, which is which is good. Last time I checked, I think we have over 10,000 potential spots. So the GIS will confirm that once we get that data. But as far as I know, the 180 is what people want. So that's always good. So yeah.

And then I went to a nursery and I checked a couple trees. So we're gonna do about maybe 30 trees out of those 180 this spring just because we were a little late on the spring dig. So that window kinda closed. So we have about 30 trees that we tagged. And then last week, I went to a suburban tree quintoria meeting in Downers Grove.

We're hoping to join STC at some point. That way, as we plant trees in the future, it's a lot easier through that program. And I could share more information on that. And then I recently sent an email out for the tree planners grant that we got awarded through OpenLands. We're gonna try that out in the Woodland School area. I have a flyer printed out that OpenLands gave to me. It has a QR code. The residents scan it, and then they fill out a quick couple questions to request a tree. That goes back to OpenLens, then they send out some money to verify the spot. I believe that planting is the eighteenth.

It's coming up soon. Right now, we have zero locations. Mhmm. So next week, I'll I'll plan going out and trying to get more people aware of it. Passing out flyers. I'll give everybody a copy of it if that's something you wanna do, by all means. I will also send you the link to sign up to volunteer if you are interested in coming out. The more people, the better. And it'll be on the April 18, which is

a

Saturday. And the event starts about 08:30. So there's two types of volunteers. There's a planting leader who's knowledgeable on how to plant a tree. So they show up earlier. They kinda get a rundown through open lands. They get a area assigned. And then the regular volunteers come, and then they get split up with the planting meter, and then they go off and plant. Hopefully, we can get some trees in the ground. I already scattered maybe 10 spots.

Spots. So if anything, a minimum of 10 trees would go in. Hopefully more. But this will be the first planting of hopefully many plantings. So that kind of segues into the tree keeper program I'm trying to start here.

So the goal is to have a Joliet tree keeper program. So like if any of you become a tree keeper, you can then submit your own tree planners grant and set the whole planting up yourselves. And then I can help with that as well to verify spots if they're in the parkway. There's a potential to plant these open lands trees on private property too as long as the front yard is not fence or anything. So if it's accessible in the front yard, there's a potential for it to be planted there, but it is up to Oakland Lands to approve that.

Because I know some of the parkways are pretty small, so having a a tree on private property that has more room would be more beneficial. And that's that. And then Arbor Day, twenty fourth at 10AM. I have Spring Grove nursery supplying the tree, which is a small white oak. And then iTrees will come out and plant the tree free of charge. So that's gonna be pretty exciting. That's it for me. Hopefully, that made sense.

Thanks a lot. Yeah.

Of course.

It's exciting. All kinds of new things. And yeah, I think it would be beneficial if we all were able to get the word out, too, to people who might want a tree in their front yard. I was looking in that area. I mean, I don't know too many people in that area. It's like Chicago Street on the West. And it's a few blocks past Hobbs. I don't know what the well, past Woodland. 4th Avenue is the southern boundary, and Washington is the north boundary. So in that area is where they're looking.

And it probably helps to have it in a narrow area because otherwise you're spreading people out kind of far.

Yeah. There's about maybe 10 trees within walking distance from the school that are specifically chosen. And the flyers are also in English and Spanish. So can Are those flyers? Are they at school? I have a copy of them right here. I'll check this out. Cool. But I'll lead you straight to it. And this portion is only to request a treat. So there's a separate lease to actually sign up to volunteer. So but I think OpenLines will communicate that with whoever requests to urge them to sign up so we have an idea coming or coming.

Mhmm.

As far as I know, I think there's two planting leaders that signed up. I'm not sure who they are. I don't have the access to see who signed up, but I could follow-up next week and see.

That's great. And then these are you said they're 15 gallons. So how big is that tree?

About six feet tall. They're pretty small.

They're forty,

fifty pounds. So they're pretty small trees. I believe they're from Possibility Place, Hankookie Nursery, or Wooden Warehouse. So they're pretty small, and they're all all gonna be confirmed by Oaklands. So they'll match the tree to the site.

That way, we get a good match and they actually survive. And another big thing, if you do scan this code, it actually walks them through the whole thing. So by requesting a tree, you're agreeing to mulch it and water it for at least three years. So that will kind of help it survive those three years, which is why I like the tree planting grant because it kind of educates the resident right away before the planting so they know what they are signing up for. But it's also nice to get an opportunity to plant a tree in your backyard so you have a connection to it so you care a little bit more as opposed to just randomly appearing one day.

Yeah, it's a good idea for people to express that they want a tree, I think they'd be more likely to take care of it. It sounds good. And then you said they'd be diverse according to the site?

Yes. So very heavy on the oaks. There's some sites that are just too shady. So most likely be an ironwood or a musselwood, something shade tolerant, maybe even a buckeye. But for the most part, it's very urban tolerant species that they have.

That sounds great. Thanks a lot. Anybody else have questions?

You. Thank you.

Thanks a lot. All right. So we'll go down the line here. As Peter talked about, he's talking about this tree keeper chapter. And I don't know if people are familiar with it, but it's been mainly based in the Chicago area.

And they have, to be a tree keeper, that original program is like maybe six weekends, something like that. A few of them are online. But he's proposing we can do it in three half day sessions. It would be during the day, though, like from nine till maybe noon, 12:30, whatever. And you also use I think I sent you the information.

But learn all about trees, and then take a test to become a tree keeper. And I imagine it's not too demanding of a test. It's probably all the basics, right? And I mean, it would be a great opportunity. I've been hoping we could do this for years.

But for people to go, sometimes it's like at the Garfield Park Observatory or somewhere kind of farther away that I didn't think people would do it. And then you really can't miss you can make up some of the sessions from what I've seen. But I think this would be more forgiving for people. So I'm hoping, because we have all these Arbor Day things coming up, maybe we can promote it while we're doing don't you think, if we have the proclamation, and we have the kids here for the poster contest, we could also mention this? And we should have the city, don't you think, put it on their site?

Or how far do you think you want go with getting the public involved?

We're just kind of seeing who's interested in the meantime. So seeing how big we can get it in the beginning. OpenLines has expressed interest that they do want to host a

A chapter?

Like an exam here if there's enough interest. That will kind of Start. Take a lead on that.

Okay.

We just kind of have to see roughly how many people are I think there's a minimum. I don't know the number. But it's got to be, I think, 20 people maybe.

Okay. Sure. So if you know anybody, because I've already started to talk to people, and we need their name, their phone number, and email address so that we can accumulate that information, so we see how many people we get that are interested in doing that. But we can get information out there. It would be great to do that. And from what Peter said, it would be maybe by summer of this year that we would try to hold the classes.

Yeah, like the condensed course. Otherwise, you would just have to wait for them to announce a spring or a fall course.

Right. They usually do it in the fall or spring. But if we can get enough people, we could do this abbreviated course. Okay. And then we'd be able to apply for these tree planting grants from open lands and do more community planting, which really would be a great thing to do. Anybody have questions about that? So you're going to give us each a flyer?

Yeah, I have an idea.

Okay. The next item, Arbor Day is coming up. And it's always the busiest time of year for us. So hopefully, when we're finished with our meeting, can finish tallying votes on and choose some poster contest winners. And those people will then be invited to city council on April 21 to we'll have the Arbor Day proclamation, and we'll have the kids here.

But then on the twenty second, there's a Earth Day tabling event at Trinity Services on Glenwood. I don't know if you know where that is. It's a big white building. I think before you get to Haines, whatever. I never know how to say that. From four to 7PM. So I'm going to have a table there for our tree board. And we are getting 300 trees, saplings, that we will give away to school kids. And then we won't give them all away. We'll have enough.

We have two fifty serviceberry. And last year, we did flowering crabs. And I think there are something like, I don't know, 59 or 60 some first graders at FIGPEN. And there are like ninety seven second graders. If we gave now, the principal there is very she said, well, we can have a drawing for trees.

We don't have to give every child a tree. Well, fact of the matter is some of the kids can't have a tree. I mean, they live in an apartment or don't have a place to put one. So we have to decide how many trees we're going to give to the school. Then we would have some service berries left.

We could distribute some of those at this Earth Day event, Chicago Region Trees Initiative, and that Ryan Sweeney that came to a past meeting, he's going to be there giving trees away. And they're going have a table. And you know, I'm just not quite sure. And then we have 50 oak trees. Now, I was hoping that we were going to be having a public, you know, one of these outreach meetings, and we could do that.

But that's not happening yet. And so I've been talking to people. We could do Forest Park Community Center has a food pantry giveaway on April 30. And the thing is, somebody I would welcome help. I think Karen Fonte will help and her husband to wrap 300 trees.

Now, the junior college has been interested in working with us. But I don't know if it's a bit much to ask their students to help us wrap trees. I can talk to Erin McMahon. She's a pork professor out there to try to get them involved. But I'm confident we can do it. Sometimes those oak saplings are one time we did them, and the trees were a couple of feet tall. And they had roots that were like two feet long. They were pretty big, but we managed. And I may need to get some more supplies. And I'll contact Peter to get the Menards bags that we put them in.

And then we have a blue shop I don't know what they call them. But at Menards, they have a heavy duty paper towel type thing that you can use in a shop, more absorbent. And we dip that in water, wrap it around the roots, stick it in the Menards bag, tie it, or use a twister or something. And that's how we keep them. But it would be good to distribute them quickly, fairly quickly.

So I think that food pantry giveaway, we could do maybe 25 there. And then keep trying to think about doing some, like in your neighborhood with the east side council. Now last time there was a cleanup at a park district, and we brought stuff to give away. But really, there weren't that many people who wanted to take them. So I don't know whether to last year, I gave some away at the Spanish Center.

They said, can we have them the week of Cinco de Mayo? Because they would have people in an event there. But then I thought, in a church in your community? I mean, I'll be talking to you, Dessie, trying to figure it out. Or talk to Susanna Ibarra to see if there's anything going on at that time.

Or I talked to Boise Walker also about that. I'm trying to figure out maybe 25 trees, people who want them. And we can promote them, planting them in their yards. And I think that Ada and Rosie would maybe run off a flyer that shows how to plant and take care of the trees. Mean, we want them to be taken care of and planted. We'll try that.

What about the baseball team?

Like a table with the slammers?

Oh, Well, that used to happen. We had

You haven't let us in?

No. It's a matter of how many trees we're going to give away. Mean, in the past, a lot of trees were given away. And I don't know if any of that's happening, because Jim used to do that. And he would order the trees and get it donated. The purchase was donated. And then he would take care of it with Little League kids. And we did it one year, but then we didn't do it. One year, we had seven fifty trees to give away. That was when we were doing the Bluestem Earth Festival out by Shorewood.

And we were giving away hundreds of trees there. And then we were handing some out down at Bicentennial Park at the pavilion. We had a lot of people there. Karen and I were there. It's a matter of trying to get them to the right people.

So we didn't really order huge numbers. So I'll be working with a few of you trying to figure out how we're going to do this the best way. And then going forward, how we plan for next year, what we're going to do. Because you don't want them just handed out and then just sitting somewhere and people aren't planting them or whatever. The morning of the twenty fourth is the event at Lynn Thigpen School.

They're all very enthusiastic. They said, oh, we will get somebody to wear the twig costume. I'm going to bring that at the beginning of the week, like the twentieth. And then, of course, Peter's going to there with he's going to have the whole dug and all of that. And probably mulch, right? And I used to bring some shovels. I don't know if you have it's always a question of who's bringing shovels. I have a few shorter handled and some longer handled. If we have about four shovels, that would do it. They said, how many kids in them?

I was like, maybe two. Maybe not more than two at a time, because you don't want them hitting each other. And then you have to have kids who can have their pictures taken and have the permission slip from the parents to do that. So that will all happen. And Willie's going to former member's going to make the bow. What grade students will be willing to Well, I think she said kindergarten, first, second out there. So that's a couple of 100 kids. And they have lunch at eleven. So starting at ten, it's okay. I mean, we just go half an hour the most usually.

And they have somebody who's going to play the ukulele, a teacher that's going to play the ukulele. So it should be fun. We'll hope for good weather. Yes. And so that's kind of all set up. So I think, I don't know what more we need to think about there. It's always a lot of fun. Swamp White Oak is really nice. And those are the 50 oaks that we have. And I think I will make some copies of a photo of swamp white oaks that I planted years ago.

And they have beautiful, beautiful fall color. They do well in a lot of situations. It doesn't have to be real wet, wet area for them to grow in. So they're a pretty nice tree. So I think that covers most of the Arbor Day. The proclamation is being prepared. Anybody have questions about the Arbor Day thing? Once that's done, then I feel like, oh, we sort of all just kind of go to sleep. It's like a big event, everybody's busy. So I'm determined, well, we'll have the open lands thing, which would be great, to keep us kind of going in the summer.

And we really need to get maybe more stuff in on the city's website. That should be kind of a goal. And they do now have a new media person again. So we should be working with that person. So on to the next item, which is new or old business, not for final action.

We've sort of been working on that, Joliet Arboretum, which is the Route 66 Park, which is along Broadway. Route 53. And I did take part in a Zoom meeting about how to celebrate Arbor Day, things you can do, which was different people spoke, including Mike. I don't know if it's Bronk or Bronkie, the state forester. And there were all kinds of ideas.

But sometimes I feel like we need to expand. And maybe if we get this open lands treekeepers thing going, we'll have more people that we can draw on to do some of the work. But they told me, because I said we were trying to find a way to label trees. And they said ArdNet is something that the Morton Arboretum they have a toolkit which just has information in it. And we could work to have level one Arboretum accreditation.

It gives all of us what you'd have to do to do that. You'd have to label your trees and do a tree walk and that kind of thing. So I guess we're looking into that more.

We are. And just to give everybody an idea, too, Rita forwarded me the information so I got a chance to look through it all. So there's four different levels. So we're looking at a level one because, again, I think that's something we can achieve. There's some work that needs to be done. We need to have a plan in place, goals, mission. I am hoping I've had certain discussions with them that we can act as the board as well for the Arboretum, because that is one of those things that's required. But as a level one, twenty five species, they do have to be either labeled or mapped. So this goes back to some of the original discussions about making sure we can do that, get that taken care of again. So that's one of the criteria in through there.

But I would like to start working on getting an application together for a level one. It lasts for five years as

well.

So I think it's something that just lends itself, that relationship with the Arboretum, their resources. But also, it's nice to say it's an accredited arboretum that we've got in the city. So I think there's real value there to doing this. Some of the things we already do, as Ria mentioned, is one event out there. And we have had an event, I think, the past couple of years out there.

We've had a few.

So I think we can fall into some of those, as well as the labeling that we're taking a look at.

Right. They had all kinds of ideas where and different cities that so you could even look up our net through the Morton Arboretum and see some of the information they have. But we do have signs out there that talk about being an arboretum. There's kind of small signs, but they are out there. And then to not have anything, it doesn't look good. And then we can work on maybe increasing species and that kind of thing over time. So we should plan a tree walk. Maybe I don't know. Last year, we waited kind of late. And it was cold.

And it was kind of getting dark. It was not great. So we should work on that to do it a little bit earlier in the season. Maybe and then so maybe do one event, June or whatever. And then do an October event. And hopefully, that inventory grant public meeting will be set to go. Because I wasn't sure if they were going to inventory the parts of the city that had been done several years ago, because quite a few were done from the Cathedral area all the way to Larkin. My neighborhood was done. But my neighbor, when I talked to him a few days ago, said he saw somebody out there looking at trees with a vest on. And he asked him about it.

And he was assessing the health of the trees. And so they must be doing the inventory everywhere fresh. So it's being done, and we should have all of that information. And I think from that, then there'll be better pruning schedules and all of that, correct, in planting? Yeah.

So maybe that won't be done until October. And it seems like the city wants to wait until it's all done. I I don't hesitate to maybe tell people currently about the East Side survey that had like 10,000 trees surveyed, 5,000 planting spaces, that kind of thing. Because that was the result that Phil Graff with Great Lakes Urban Forestry emailed somebody. And so that number is out there.

Anyway, any questions about any of that? Okay.

Just to highlight a couple other things, because again, having reached out to Morton Arboretum, we get brought in on several different things. So we did have a meeting with CRTI in actually February as well. One of the key things from there was they do a survey every year. It's probably been going on for about eleven years. But they compare the most recent survey for the past five years.

So it was 2025 and see how it's changed from 2020 here as well. Ordinances, manpower, they reach out to municipalities. So we had been part of that survey as well, as well as park districts. But I did bring some of the survey information. If anybody really wants to take a look at it, I always find it just kind of intriguing to see as a region how we're doing and how groups are moving forward.

I think they were impressed seeing a lot of communities, the ordinances in a number of communities starting to take more aggressive role in that. So there's real value surveys in if anybody wants to see that. Then in additional discussions, they've drafted me somewhat to also do a review of a framework that's being put in place. I think it's kind of something interesting for the group here as well. So what was passed last year is there's an Illinois Legacy Treat program that was put in place.

And now they actually have a task force that's been identified through a state statute. And what they're doing right now is working on a framework. And part of the course, some of the discussions I've had with them, there's no money at the state level. There's really going to be no manpower. They're going to rely on the municipalities to really move this forward.

And having been involved in other types of either legacy or heritage type of programs, it really is kind of a nice educational because there's history tied to these trees as well, whether it's the timing of when the city became a city or whether there was some event that happened or a person, a tree in the yard of somebody who's famous. There's a lot of history that I think younger people can relate to as well. So I think you'll be hearing more about this or just putting together the framework, a lot of questions on insurance and private property and among those that you would expect. But I think it is something that, as community here, we should expect to probably see more of. And it probably is something that I think that has real value that we might get tied into here as well.

Yeah, I think that was I think our management plan that we had done several years ago had something about heritage trees. We could call them legacy trees, but we wanted to do that. And I've taken pictures of a few trees that were not too far from your neighborhood. And they were massive oaks. Because one of them was scheduled to be cut down because of the sidewalk replacement program or whatever. And so that kind of got stopped because and last year, they had it was such a mass year. There were so many acorns. And I had visions of handing acorns out at a tree walk, we had a lake. Nobody came. Not too many people came.

And I also know that the junior college said they were going to start maybe starting trees from seed, a program like that. And so there's a lot of opportunity to do all of this work. It's a matter of how many people we can get, I think, involved. And we don't want to personally, I don't

want to

take it all on myself. That's good, Jim. I'm glad you're was a in your previous life, you were

The urban doing forestry coordinator for Florida. He was

the urban forestry coordinator for Florida.

The lucky one who got the review of the city USA's and the champion trees and working with communities on grants.

So we're happy so happy to have you on here. And he got connected to CRTI, so he's got more work. And I'm trying to think what else I was going to bring up. Yeah, I'm glad that you're on there, on that committee.

I could have seen the statement taking. And again, it was a very interesting discussion because the state forestry is more rural type. It's more production aspects than it is the urban. So it's good to see these types of programs coming through IDNR. Mhmm. The way they can see the value continue moving Right. Forward.

Okay. Any other our next meeting is June 4. And of course, everybody, you're welcome to come to the Arbor Day planting. And the mayor and city council will be invited. And if you can make it, that would be great. If anybody wants to be at a table on that March 22 from four till seven or any time. I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna have there yet, but maybe we'll be printing something up or I can get something from the arboretum. And then Ryan's gonna be there. Maybe I can connect with him and get some things. Yes, Mary.

2. Is it March 22? No. Oh, did I say March? Yeah. It's April 22. It's birthday. Yeah, so that's a busy week. The twenty first is City Council, twenty second. And I'll be doing those award certificates. I've got to print those up. And we're going to decide that very quickly. So the twenty second is the event at Trinity Services. Wednesday, the twenty second. So Tuesday night is the city council meeting.

Wednesday is the birthday event at Trinity Services from four to 07:10AM on Friday, the twenty fourth, is the Arbor Day tree planting at the school. And I'm going to give instructions on how to drive in there because you can drive in one area and you can't really go that way to get to Lynn Fig Pen. You have to go to the next drive, which says, of like, do not enter buses only. But I was told that's how you get in. And it's a little confusing. So Okay, any public comment? We have no one present for public comment. And so I would accept a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Eric. And second, Mary. All in favor, aye.

Aye. Okay.

Thank you.