Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency (cosca) - Regular Meeting

Thank you. you you you

Thank you.

Bye.

Good evening. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Gneo Open Space Conservation Agency for September 16, 2026. We begin with a flag salute. And I'll ask Director Nichols, please, to lead us in that. a nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Director Angler?

Here.

Director Huffer? Yes. Director Nichols?

Yes.

Vice Chair Sullivan?

Here.

Chair Newman?

Here. Do we have any public comments this evening?

Yes, we have one card. Elaine Hagen.

Good evening, Elaine.

uh yes i'm elaine hagan i represent the kanejo open space foundation and i'm here to talk briefly about native plant palooza and ecofest you all have cards that i delivered and we hope to see you all there uh this is the fifth year that we've had this event it's coming on october 10th but and it'll run for from 10 o'clock till one o'clock at kanejo creek north and we this year it's going to be bigger and better than ever we have at least 35 exhibitors including the ohio raptor center and lots of native plant vendors and exhibitors something for everyone lots of events for kids lots of things for adults to learn about So please come and tell all your friends. And for details, you can look at Conejo Open Space Foundation website, which is cosf.org. So I hope everybody tells everybody they know and that we see hundreds and hundreds of people that day. Thank you very much.

Thank you. It's a wonderful event. Thank you for making the board and, more importantly, the public aware of it. Appreciate it. We move to our consent calendar. Just one item, the minutes from the May 20th meeting. Is there a motion?

I'll move to accept the minutes from the May 20th meeting.

Second. I'll second that. Moved by Director Sullivan, seconded by Director Nichols. Madam Clerk?

Director Angler? Yes. Director Huffer? Yes. Director Nichols?

Yes.

Director Sullivan?

Aye. Chair Newman? Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

and we have one action item on our agenda this evening item 6a approval of a prescribed grazing contract at the rancho portero open space mr stark yes our first item of the day um the first item today is approval of a grant um

And we're also seeking a finding that the- the finding that the project activities conform to those activities described in the Costco invasive plant management plan and the associated programmatic mitigated negative declaration and that the mitigation actions within the mitigated negative declaration reduced potential environmental impacts to a level of less than significant the contract value we're recommending today is eleven thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars I have a slideshow here to preview the project. So the prescribed grazing project is part of a larger project called the Rancho Potrero Grassland Restoration Project. It's also an oak savanna. There's an oak planting component of it. The Rancho Potrero open space consists of 303 acres southwest of the city of Thousand Oaks. And includes areas characterized as rocky outcrops, coastal sage scrub, and grasslands. A 50 acre portion of the grassland is dominated by invasive non-native annual grasses that have out-competed native bunch grasses. The expansion of non-native invasive grasses has degraded habitat conditions, particularly for raptor species such as hawks and whitetail kites, by forming a solid thatch cover that's poorly suited for rodent habitat and through which birds cannot see prey. COSCO staff have developed the Rancho Potrero Grassland and Oak Restoration Project to expand native grasses, reduce fire fuels, and support an oak savanna habitat. The project objectives are to improve wildlife and bird habitats through native grass expansion, to reduce fire threats associated with the fuel load, and expand habitat types to include oaks. the issue with our native grasses out here and well the reason why bringing native grasses back is important is because as a bunch grass there's spaces left in between them and that makes optimal hunting habitat for raptors because they can see the rodents when we get a thick bed of thatch from the invasive grasses the seeds from our native grasses never touch the soil and the non-native grasses also secrete allelopathogens which are chemical compounds that enter the soil that suppress the seeding and root development of native species so the step of this project that involves removing that thatch removes the source of those allelochemicals and will support the growth of native grasses eventually The project will begin with the removal of the grass thatch and it will be followed up with treatments to reduce invasive grass seed production and exhaustion of the non-native grass seed bank while protecting existing native bunch grasses to encourage their spread. the initial project phases will be undertaken using grazing animals because mowing alone did not solve the thatch removal problem since it just chops it up and leaves it there and raking it is a little problematic with our the topography of our site we thought animals were best suited in this situation to remove the thatch and then recycling the nutrients back into the soil So Costco released an RFP for prescribed grazing services on July 24th and received three qualified bids prior to the submittal deadline. Costs ranged from $11,815 up to $90,000. Costco staff interviewed all bidders and found them all to be well qualified ultimately. Following proposal interviews and reviews of the proposal, staff recommend awarding the contract to RA Atmore and Sons, a Ventura County based company managing conservation grazing projects throughout Southern California utilizing cattle, including work on the Peterson Ranch, the state's largest wetland mitigation bank site. At this site they have documented increases in native bunch grass extent and declining invasive grass coverage that mirror Costco's project goals. Atmore's proposal is to deploy approximately 90 cattle that will be contained and moved via satellite controlled GIS monitoring collars that enable precision grazing management utilizing virtual paddocks that are with satellites. pretty new technology here the low bid price is a function of the animals already being located on property adjacent to the project site so there were no transportation costs involved it also the absence of physical fencing it saves a lot of labor and materials and because on-site predator protection for cattle is not necessary as they would have been for sheep or goats utilizing animals already in the immediate area reduces also reduces the the potential of new invasive species introduction by bringing animals in from other parts of the state it's anticipated that the project will take four to five weeks to complete The Costco staff and the Atmore team understand that bringing animals into open space that is utilized by hikers, bikers, and equestrians may generate questions and some concerns. A strategy has been developed to reduce the potential for conflicts between visitors, both animal and people visitors, and the grazing cattle. It's important to note that while there will not be physical fencing, there will be virtual fencing to keep cattle in prescribed grazing zones. and that during the the project we'll have we'll also make use of strategic trail closures so we can move animals into an area close that trail and provide alternate trail routes during the grazing process because horses boarded the equestrian center are not likely familiar with cattle the grazing pattern will begin far from the equestrian area so no horses can acclimate to so the horses can acclimate to the smell and distant viewing of cattle um and then though to provide and as the cattle move closer it just provides more time for horses to acclimate to the smell and the sound of a cow just something that's kind of new for them these generally are not cattle herding horses We have out there Are great the grazing animals will be brought in during non peak time so we don't have any conflicts during that process Research indicates that horses acclimate to the arrival of cattle within a few days So we hope that that will reduce incidents combined with our strategic trail closures what we want to do is make sure most of the open space area is still available and so there will always be trail access routes to get to most parks just will be sequestering our cattle away during the process abundant site signage will explain the project and direct users when trailed detours are established the virtual paddock will also notify the grazing contractor of any breach of the barrier automatically and that will help facilitate a response to bring her back in Costco will be is working on preparing a flyer with the project information to share with with borders and others at the Equestrian Center in advance of the project and if they have any questions are welcome to to follow up and we'll we'll work with banded on-site managers at the Equestrian Center to make sure everybody feels comfortable with the project and that we have a mechanism for addressing any issues that might come up during that process So our recommendation, back to the beginning, is to find that the project activities conform to those activities in the invasive plant management plan and the associated programmatic mitigated negative declaration. that mitigation actions within that document reduce the potential impacts to a level of less than significant and to approve a contract with our app Warren sons for an amount not to exceed eleven thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars and to authorize a fifteen percent contingency of one thousand seven hundred and seventy two dollars and twenty five cents just to handle this is a new project for us so having a little leeway will help us as we kind of do one of our challenges out here is figure out moving water around so we think we have some good strategies we just have a few things to tie up on that one and with that i'm happy to take any questions and if you have specific questions about cattle we do have our contractor george appmore on on zoom if

Very good, thank you for the presentation. Directors, are there questions of staff? Director Huffer?

A couple of comments and then a couple of questions. First of all, typically when I see such a wide range of bids, I have to question it, but I guess I was rather amazed to find out that grazing animals can be managed high-tech as well. I can certainly understand why the cost would be so much lower if they're able to actually do that. So with the... The grant of $100,000 is certainly going to more than cover this. I was wondering, with the details on the grant from MRCA, are we able to continue those funds either for future years or if this project works out, to use those funds for additional projects?

i think that remains to be seen i you know we this is a new type of project for costco so we want to kind of keep our options open and move forward um it would ideally be you know our grant contract period is longer than than the year that we've already contract with that we're contracting for this work this work will will fund a grazing this fall to remove the thatch then a spring grazing to suppress the seeding of the invasives out there. Whenever we're managing weeds and non-native plants, it's never a one year. project it's not a one and done type of a thing so extending you know beyond these two events is certainly a possibility and something that we would take up with uh you know the grant our grant tours at that time i think we're we also want to make sure we get through our our the first two tries monitor the results and make sure that we're happy with it how everything turned out whether we would want to retool and do something different that might have a different cost structure. So I think right now we'll move forward with this. With the existing grant contract, I think we have, well I don't have it in front of me, but it might be a three or four year contract. So there's a possibility that we might be able to continue this activity.

Okay. And then you mentioned communicating with the equestrian community at Renegade Portrero. Have they already been made aware of this, or is that going to be part of the project that you will make them aware of that?

They're already aware of the project, and we've offered to send information, and we've offered if the boarders were interested that we, you know, Costco staff and our contractor would come and meet with boarders to answer questions about the project and provide information.

Okay. Have you gotten any feedback from any of them yet? Because experience has showed us at the Park District that equestrians tend to be a little protective of their equestrian areas. Yes.

It's likely that we will have some concerns. I think that we can manage them with the information that we have. We haven't received any pushback, but I think it's just because not everybody knows about it. the managers of the Equestrian Center are aware we anticipate some concerns and we've developed some plans to address those concerns in advance so if Brian gets to handle those yeah I mean we we have knowledgeable managers of the Equestrian Center and so they've already given us some feedback of what some of those concerns are for so we're already making plans to address them and some of those are in our you know the strategy and some of the things I outlined today but we're We're a flexible group, and we want to make sure this works for everyone. So there's enough wiggle room. I mean, we've got 50 acres out there. We are confident that we can find a way to make this all work.

Okay. Thank you.

Director Engler. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Love the idea of the project. I think this is something that is going to be seen by the public as something that is very ecologically compatible with our use in the open space. Is there any speaking of notifications? I think being sensitive to the People boarding their horses out there and the horse community is there has there been any thought of letting the Neighbors out there in the dos vientos area and that neighborhood near That that stretch of portrayal Any thought of letting them know what's going on or any thought of trying to, I don't know if bragging about it is the right word, but putting up perhaps a billboard, animals, controlling invasives or some type of way to let people know what's going on out there.

yeah i think there's there's an opportunity for that i don't know about like direct mail or anything but we we do have our social media uh channels and you know there may be interest from local press you know i will have abundant signage out on the site too so for the neighbors that are regular visitors they'll you know they'll be assigned the signage on site explaining what we're doing that you know we're not we're not in the animal husbandry business that this is a well what we would call a conservation grazing project that you know it's a short-term high-intensity project it they come in achieve our goal and then they move back so um we're preparing educational information and project information in in anticipation of sharing that

Yeah that signage like I say I think I think the neighbors and people general public will appreciate knowing what's going on but I think they'll also give some kudos to Costco for the actions were taken there so I think we have an opportunity to kind of grow a little bit about it so the other how close is the treatment area getting to down down to the corrals.

So they'll still be, you know, what do you think, 100 yards or something?

The conservation easement is between.

Yeah, so there's between the grazing area. I can go back to my map. so here you can kind of see where the equestrian center is at the top in between the grazing area and the equestrian center is a wide area that was restored as a mitigation project for the development out in dos vientos so it's all planted so there's tall trees there there won't be a direct sight line from there just to see to see a cow they may smell and hear a cow from there but that's why we intend to start kind of on the far left of the of the grating area we may actually modify the shape just a little bit too just because once we've been on the site to kind of look at the topography and how it works out but we'll be starting to you know as far away from the equestrian center we're upwind of them so we'll send our cow odors down in advance and they can hear some moving from a distance to acclimate because Horses don't like surprises, so we're trying to do this in a measured way where we approach slowly to be as sensitive as we can to that receptor.

Are there any drainages in that area we need to be sensitive to or alert to any fish and game people?

So we're outside of any principal drainage. Now we do have drainage coming down the hillsides within the project site. Right now everything's dry down from last week's rain, but generally dry. So we do intend to graze that drainage area too because it's full of invasive species also. When the spring grazing comes by, it's likely we'll avoid that area because it's probably going to be too wet to put animals in. It would just cause more harm than good at that point. We can do some hand work to fix that little area. So it kind of depends on the soil conditions. we won't be running afoul of any jurisdictional water bodies.

Very good, thank you. And then in terms of encouraging natives to come back, will we have to be doing any plantings or seeding with natives?

It's our intent to begin the project hoping that the existing native grasses that we, we do have these clumps of needle grass growing out there. And so we'll be avoiding those in the grazing to leave them so they'll still be able to throw seed so those grasses can move spread quickly we also we do not yet know if there's a native seed bank already in the soil so it's going to be a kind of a wait and see thing once they come out in the spring what do we get because there may be native plants in there already i think planting is kind of like down the road like we'd want to have the the invasive species under some good control before we would introduce but planting live live plugs is a pretty successful strategy or seed the issue with seeding is finding enough local seeds so we don't have enough so we would actually have to collect seed so someone can grow out the grasses to make more seed so it's not that simple if we wanted to use our local genetics which ideally we would like to do but we can have plugs contract grown with seed collected on site and so we've talked to some regional partners that might be able to help us with that project

Very good. And if we need to go to seeding or plugging our native grasses or any other types of vegetation, is that included in this bid we have now or would that be something to come to us later?

that would be something we'd come back later I think we still you know phase one is to get our invasives under control see what see what comes up see where we're at it's an adaptive management project so it's we make our next decisions based on what we see after our first decisions more exciting project director Sullivan

Yes, again, I concur that this is an amazing project and I'm excited to see us trying this for our open space and the attention to detail with the weed biosecurity and keeping us as pure as possible. With those bunch grasses that are there that we want to keep, the natives, Will there be actual fencing around that or are we 100% relying on the technology and the geofencing on those?

So the geofencing works at boundary levels so the way we'll draw the paddocks in the software will be to avoid those areas so we do intend to use the the geofencing to work if cattle do browse the native grasses they're very resilient so we don't think that in a single pass it won't damage those grasses and once they get wet um the native bunch grasses can throw seed multiple times a season as long as they get water so that's the the trick is will be more in the second grazing episode that where we'll want to be protective of that seed source there but i think for the The way the boundary works is, you know, as the cow starts getting closer, it, you know, gets a little sound, you know. Discouragement. And then it gets a vibration and then a mild shock. So it's not unlike what people do with their dog, really. So these are just, you know, thousand-pound dogs. But... So there is like, it's not like a hard line. We're being fair to the couch. But we can back our boundary off far enough to create enough buffer for that. And we're not concerned if there's a little bit of browse on those.

How often is the monitoring? Is it just after the first session of four to five weeks and then you check? Or will you be checking a little bit more frequently, at least in the beginning period?

So I think we'll be out on site throughout the first site just kind of watching because we're still learning, you know, how fast it works you know and you know the decision of when to move the cattle that's you know it's kind of an iterative process so and because this is kind of new we'll still be involved i mean anna and i do have experience in doing monitoring and have a good sense of what we want to see on the ground and of course our contractor is experienced in this area too so i think we have enough talent on the job to figure that out um But then, yeah, it'll be a continuously monitored project. And then the spring is going to be a little bit closer because timing is really important when we get animals on and off.

Just two more quick points. You mentioned response to if there's a breach, if one of the cows is wayward. Is it Arturo that's going to be responding or what is the response time in that?

I might defer to George if he's online here.

He is.

Okay, we bring George in for that question. George available.

Hello, can you guys hear me?

Yeah, you're live.

All right. Yeah. So in response to that, I'm just down the hill. I'm over in Ventura. So response time can be rather fast. I have here on our home ranch, I've got five cowboys that work here full time. And so, you know, whether that response is just sending a guy out there in a pickup truck, you know, to just see why the collar's going off or something like that, that would be really quick. And if there's some sort of larger breach, we'd be able to take horses and trailers out there and really corral the situation, if you will. So far, we have not had breaches in containment with our system, at the exception of during the training process. But since the cows have been trained on the collars, we have not had any breaches in the system. The only thing is, you know, being out in a new area, you know, with people and horses and stuff around there, you never know what could happen. But I'm very certain that there likely won't be any issues.

Excellent. Thank you. That does bring up another question. Will there be cameras or is everything just being viewed digitally?

It is all just viewed digitally from a smartphone or a computer.

Wow, that's amazing. So then my last, thank you very much. So my last question is, you mentioned you'll be on site. Initially, is there any thought of potentially having cost stack volunteers or a ranger, someone physically at the trailheads to do outreach and answer those questions so it isn't just like signage?

I think it's something that we can plan for if we need it. I know that some other agencies that do some of this, they have volunteer these are working with sheep but they have like volunteer docents that can be on site so we we do have a core of people that we could probably draw on to do that so once we develop our our flyers if we feel like maybe on the weekend or something we have the higher higher visitorship it's certainly something to consider awesome well thank you i'm looking forward to see the result of this and i do hope it's successful

Director Nichols.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is a great project. Hoping we can, this will be the first of many times we have a report like this of things that are going to be moving. I don't know if I could call this progressive in that we're using a system for managing the land that's been done for hundreds of years in our valley. But it's unique to us in this time. And I think having to have an orientation program for the horses and what cows are just... It just kind of shows me how far we've gone in just a very few decades from what was very typical in this valley not too long ago, including cattle roaming the hillsides.

Yeah, we joked about bringing a cow over to the equestrian center for a meet and greet, but decided we'd take the slower approach.

Just start with the smells first. But I think it's great to see how we kind of learn from the past. And although I don't know that I've ever heard of cowboys herding with smartphones.

It's a brave new world.

It is. It is just mind blowing what could be done. Of course, that's required. That is absolutely required. That is fantastic. The one question I did have was, Do the cows, cattle, have a selective palate where they would prefer one grass over the other? Or is it just, hey, what's in front of them there? If it looks like grass and tastes like grass and chews like grass, it's grass, and they just mow their way right through it. So I didn't know. I know you talked about trying to avoid the bunch grass, but I didn't know if there was a preferred palate on behalf of the cows where they might like to venture one direction or the other for that.

Well, I think since George has the closest relationship with his cattle, he might be best available to answer that one.

I hope so.

Yeah, so we have found across a lot of our project sites that cattle prefer the annual non-native grasses. cattle, cattle evolves, you know, from across Europe. And a lot of these, a lot of these annual grasses are European grasses. And so they really aren't as much of a fan of like the grasses, the bunch grass, the needle grass. It's a little bit woodier and doesn't have as large of a leaf on it. And so the cattle seem to leave that for last. Not that they will not eat it. You know, if you graze to a point, they will eat, you know, everything they can. They're still an herbivore, but The fact that cattle is our grazers means that they prefer the softer, leafier grasses, the lighter stuff first. And so we, in a lot of our pastures, we have very heavy native cover bunch grasses, and we can graze right over top of them. You know, they might bite on one here and there, but it's actually not a bad thing for bunch grasses to get grazed. They have a response to that, which is growing a new head on it every spring. You know, they have deep roots, and so they bounce right back from being grazed. They evolved with being grazed. So we found no issue there.

Thanks, George. Yeah, thanks, George. I appreciate that. I mean, because I wouldn't be surprised if there are other critters out there that would graze on the bunch grass, because that's the native vegetation out there. So I'm sure it's adapted to grazing by the native wildlife. But yeah, I'm not surprised that the cattle would go for what they're used to, which is that annual grass, which has been, like I said, from your home turf in the European area. So, yeah, that's very helpful to know. I kind of suspect it as much as I know that bunch grass can be a little tough, but resilient. And I'm looking forward to seeing what the results are. Maybe have some before and after pictures. And I don't know if we can maybe have a...

before cattle and after cattle picture from 100 years ago but it'd be nice to see yeah sorry we can't do that but we get we'll we'll set up some monitoring stations where we'll take because we we do plan that even when you get your native grassland you you still can't just let it go because the non-native still keep trying to come in so right We're looking at strategies that will get us to a place where there will be kind of a long-term plan every other year or in some interval we'll come back onto the site to maintain it.

That's kind of what I was hinting towards. This is like the first of many that cattle or if it's always cattle, that'd be great. But to make this an ongoing management scheme to maintain not only kind of reduce the fuel load from a wildfire perspective, but also to encourage the growth of the native vegetation. And we're accomplishing that and doing it in a very affordable and natural way, which I think is like the best of all options.

another kind of exciting part of the project is our next door neighbors over at the national park service property are doing pretty large scale habitat work over there now too they're using a mowing strategy over there so it'll be interesting to compare the absolutely the two um but We get together and share info too, but it's nice that restoration's happening over a larger area and that this time it's not just killing weeds, it's going out with a plan to try and make sure we actually get like an actual restoration site not not just treading water right like get real improvements um we do intend at some point to plant Oaks um Anna and I did go out last November before the first big rainstorm and put a whole bunch of acorns out there so we did get some decent germination on some of those so We actually have some oaks in those bunch grass sections right now, although a lot of them got roasted last week when it got really hot. But just getting the germination even within those areas was a really good sign that we have good site capacity for oaks.

Yeah, and just one final comment about that is you have this map up here. That 50 acres is great, and if you can accomplish it, that's great. But as soon as you leave, then you're going to have intrusion from the sides, and it's going to start the process all over again. So we have to continue to move that. So that's why I'm hoping this will be a good experiment and give us direction on where to go from here.

Yeah, I think in right now we're starting on the flattest areas just because those are the grassland sections. You know, we don't we want to keep the animals in a habitat type that's adapted specifically for the grazing and that's that's our grasslands. So we hope what we learned here will be applicable on some of our other grassland areas throughout our open space system.

Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the directors who answered almost all my questions. The only one I have left, and this may be purely hypothetical, but I don't know if cattle rustling is still a thing. And if it is, are the same virtual measures that we use for strays, would that be adequate to contain it?

um i guess i leave that one to george um we we don't have local gallows though so i'm not sure what we do with cattle rustlers when we find them but um maybe george kind of entertain that one um you know uh cattle rustling is very much still a thing

I have not heard of it locally ever, you know, at least not in the last 70 years. You know, if you were to go somewhere heavily populated with cattle, you know, like Arizona, New Mexico, deserty areas that are expansive, there sure are cattle thieves still out there. But in our neck of the woods, it is very few and far between. There's some large measures to prevent that. California State Brand Inspection, you have to have that done for any private sale of cattle. or slaughter or sale or anything like that. And so it's just so tough to do anything if you stole a cow. So we've never had an issue with that or never heard of any of our neighbors or anybody within our area having issues.

Very glad to hear that. Thank you. Are there any other questions of staff? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Director Hoffer.

And I'd like to move approval of staff recommendations one and two.

I'm sorry, I'm being- If there's a, we can- Are there public comment on this item? No, there are no speakers. Okay, sorry, I missed that. This is a public hearing.

Now?

Now.

Now I'd like to move approval of staff recommendations one and two.

Do I need to close the public hearing before, or are we? Okay, thank you. Is there a second of Director Huffer's motion? Moved by Director Huffer, seconded by Director Engler. Madam Clerk, please.

Director Engler?

Yes.

Director Huffer?

Yes.

Director Nichols? Yes. Director Sullivan?

Aye.

Chair Newman?

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you very much. we move now to reports and updates there's been some reorganization of this section and i'll turn it back over to mr stark to i guess lead us off with the costco volunteer corps activity report our volunteer core activities are written reports so you receive that in your board package and so the next item would be ranger operations and maintenance activities and that one will have

Patrick, narrate, and I will do my best to keep up with slide changes if you give me the high sign.

Go for it, Patrick.

All right. Well, welcome back, everybody. It's been a pretty long, hot summer. The Rangers have been working pretty hard out there with all the brush clearance, trail work. So just to start, a reminder of some cool things in open space. This is a coastal horned lizard, but the cool thing is it has the Costco logo colors. It's always... Yeah.

Okay.

Right, okay, so the rangers are working hard to make the 150 plus miles of trails, signage and amenities recognizable again. Here we have Ranger Joe reopening the little cave area in Wildwood. Here we have some vegetation management that most people probably don't see, but this is some management at Banning Dam. And then we're doing some fire hazard reduction near some homes in the open space. So besides open space management, rangers are and assist first responders with rescues, fires, and enforcement. And then currently the unit is training our next wave of rangers and preparing for our very possible wet winter. This is Ranger Brittany and Ranger Gabby who are excelling, doing really well as the new rangers we have. And then some fun stuff, we got Ranger Tim leading a Junior Rangers talk. We got a volunteer group for Joy's Property Management. And then right below them is a baby duck being a little camera shy and running from the pictures being taken. And then like you guys used to have when Cuba was here, and thanks to Anna's correction, we have a nice sunset with coastal sage scrub, not chaparral, to end the field update.

That's a great way to end. Thank you.

and we move to costco staff reports costco staff i'd like just to take our little staff moment here to recognize our esteemed colleague lori gore who is documenting her last board meeting for costco tonight as our recording secretary lori will join the ranks of the retired in october after serving as costco's recording secretary since 2019. i think her second meeting was my first meeting In government agencies like Costco, the recording secretary plays a vital role in ensuring that all discussions and board actions are properly documented for posterity. That work is an important part of agency transparency and the maintenance of public trust in our institutions. Lori's been a valued member of our admin team and has always kept a great record with a sunny disposition. So please join me in appreciating Lori and wishing her best in her retirement.

Thank you, Mr. Stark. I'd like to ask directors if they have any well wishes. Director Nichols.

Yeah, just congratulations. I just was questioning. I don't remember the board giving permission for this to occur, though.

So we need to have a report.

We haven't voted on this. I was going to say, I don't think so. But congratulations, Laurie. Well deserved. I know we will miss you. You've always been a great part of this entire organization, certainly here with Costco. We appreciate your support. And I hope you have some great plans and that they will go exactly as planned. So thank you for your time.

Director Sullivan.

Lori, as the newbie on the board, I really appreciated your hand-holding and walking me through that process three years ago, because it was a little unnerving, all new, and you just made it so easy. Every meeting is run so wonderfully, so thank you. Enjoy retirement, and if you're staying local, maybe we'll see you out volunteering on the trails.

Yeah.

Mr. Engler? Mm-hmm.

Welcome to retirement. Those of us who hung up our paying jobs a long time ago welcome you, and as you know, I'm retiring as well, so we'll see you out there in the retirement world. Pickleball. Yeah. There you go. Director Huffer.

Yeah, Laurie, just wanted to add my thanks and congratulations on your retirement, and as Director Engler said, retirement is a wonderful thing, so enjoy.

Director Sullivan mentioned something about being a newbie and a rookie, and it was many, many years ago when I was the rookie and the newbie, and I was making mistakes like skipping public comment, and I want to congratulate you for being very consistent over the years when I... uh but also for making things run as smoothly as they have uh thank you thanks very much we'll miss you uh enjoy your retirement greatly i hope to hope you'll keep in touch and hope to see you out on the trails thank you so much we turn next to crpd comments WE THEN GO TO THE CITY OF THOUSAND OAKS COMMENTS.

We have put you through the ringer in your final year. So including a little project on this very site that you had to endure via planning commission. So just want to thank you for your years of service. And this will be, I think, my only opportunity to say thank you because Lori didn't want a big bash, believe it or not. So we're going to keep it very mellow. So thank you again.

And next is board member comments. Anything from directors? Director Sullivan.

Just wanna point out that National Public Lands Day is September 26th and our rangers have arranged a trail work day at meeting at the Potrero parking lot. We'll do some work there and on the connector trail that's adjacent to National Public Lands, National Park stuff. Anyone interested can volunteer at crpd.org, the online registration. And this is kind of a special trail work that all the participants will actually receive a one-day pass to any National Park property that is valid for an entire year. So hopefully we can get some volunteers out there for that a week from Saturday. Thank you.

All right then, we will move before we adjourn. Tonight we're adjourning in memory of Tom Robbins and Mr. Stark has some words.

yes so tonight we're adjourning in memory of tom robbins a long time costco supporter and big support pillar for i guess miss open space conejo elaine hagen and will be adjourning to our regular meeting on november 18th uh 2026. tom was a dedicated early mountain bike enthusiast and spent many happy hours riding on trails in wildwood and throughout the area he is one of the founders of corba the concerned off-road bicyclist association because he was deeply concerned that riders respect the trails and open space and even today corba are great supporters of our trail work and they send their skilled trail bosses to our trail work days each year and they're highly valuable so there's a long legacy there he also started turbo cat lighting systems in 1989 which was one of the first companies to make high performance bicycle lights and he also volunteered annually with the trail work days and supported Elaine in her additional open space efforts Tom was a very thoughtful kind and generous man and he will be missed by many

very much well said thank you a friend of cosf friend of corba friend of costco friend of us all will listen with that we are adjourned to our next regular meeting on november 18 2026. thank you