Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

announc I watched I had heard yeah she told me at the road event that she was going to be doing it but I don't know official right

okay we're uh about to begin we are welcome to the uh township of get used to talking uh welcome to the township of sparta environmental commission meeting uh Thursday, February 12th, 2026 at 7 p.m. The meeting is called to order. We're live in the council chambers at the municipal building. Uh this is streamed on uh our YouTube channel at www.youtube.compart spartwpstreams. Um, please take notice that the that action will be taken on the following items at the Sparta Environmental Commission meeting on Thursday, February 12th, 2026. The meeting is called to order at 7 p.m. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and to the press on February 6, 2026 by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the notice. We salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Oh, roll call. Chair Neil Sourin

here. Christine Dumbar, Christine Rogers here, Barbara Casulka here, Robert Otto here, Alex Birdie here, and Nicholas Drato here. Thank you. Okay, next we have on the agenda approval of minutes from January 22nd, 2026. Has everyone had a chance to meet read them? Yeah, I was out that meeting, so I'll abstain.

Sorry, I skipped the first item, which is a rewearing in of Christine Rogers. Okay, what do I have to do? So, actually, I spoke with the clerk. So, someone has to be authorized to do it is from what I was told. So, she said you can stop by the clerk's office during regular hours to go in, she can do it for you. Okay. I don't I did ask her for the others that we did last time, but if you want to stop by as well and do it there. I can't hear you. Sorry. Can you hear me? Yeah, it's kind of muffled. Oh,

it's okay. So, I spoke to the clerk. Um, someone needs to be authorized to do it. So, I don't know if you want to stop by mean you can stop by regular hours and do it there if you would like. Um I don't cuz I know we did you guys last meeting so I don't know if you want to go there and do it again with her. Um I did bring them for you to sign. Um but I had to check with that cuz I wasn't too sure and they were asking me. So we don't have to do it here then. No. Okay.

Moving on to the minutes of 2020 January 22nd. So you don't want to do it in public. Was it because we had because Emily was a

she was she was here last time. So she was a public suspenders and just have her do while she's here. Yeah, we could do that. I mean, whatever you want. Yeah, why don't we just do this? So, I know, right? You did it up there. I mean, either or. I guess we might as well do it here. Um, could you read it out? Yeah, I guess we can.

Yeah. Okay. Just going to read it. Um, I I, Christine Rogers, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully, impartially, and lawfully carry out my duties as a member of the Environmental Commission of the Township of Sparta, County of Sussex, State of New Jersey, in accordance with the laws and constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey. So help me God. Welcome back. Thanks. Not like you were away.

Now back to the minutes. Has everybody read them? Uh, yep. Any comments? I sent my comments to to Carton. Yes, I did, too. Yeah.

So, I'm just going to abstain because I wasn't at the um meeting. error. I don't specifically recall that way. I could say, "Oh, this person said it instead of this person."

Courtney, on uh I see one thing I missed on page seven. the uh two three fourth paragraph it's pollinator gardens garden and not pollinated Sorry. No, it's okay. Oh, uh, page seven, Courtney. Um, one, two, three, four, five down. The developing a formal, uh, environmental impact study for the township. Um, I don't think we talked about that as part of the grant proposal. that was just um kind of changing the format where in the past we submit like a one-page

um review of pending applications and so now like with the with the uh application we reviewed last time um that we want to kind of make it a little bit more rigorous. So I would just strike um uh as part of a grant proposal and just say develop a guide us. Yeah, sure. Whatever. Barbara, she guides us. Okay, I will. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Where are you? Yeah. Angel.

On page five, one, two, three, four, fifth paragraph down, uh, Alex Bird stated he can take over Glenn Brook spelled with a E. Just got to take the drop the E there. Okay.

Thank you. No.

Uh, I'll make a motion to accept uh the minutes with the minor corrections that have been stated previously in the record tonight. Thanks, Rob. Can I have a second? I second. All in favor? I I minutes are approved.

First thing on the the next item on the agenda is uh correspondence. We have a NJ application for a statewide utility blanket flood hazard area. That what's down on the table? Courtney, guess we should all go have a look. Seeing it. I don't think so. I think this is justice. I don't think

that's what it looks like. Yeah.

Not New Jersey. New York basically. Wait. problem.

Yeah. Moving on. We have no applications to review tonight. Um, so the next item is public comment. And I see Do we have a member of the public here? No comments. Okay. No.

Thank you. reports. Anyone have reports? Christine, do you have a have something? No. Uh, Earth Day that's later on the list. Um, how about the salt? Oh, from Lake Salt event. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Talk about that.

Um, I worked this past weekend with the Lake Mohawk Preservation Foundation. We hosted an event at u the country club on Saturday morning. So that was a great turnout. We had a lot of students from the high school attend as well as a number of residents from Sparta and some of the towns in the surrounding area. Uh we did a training about road salt, the impact on the streams and then tried to encourage people to sign up for the salt watch. So everyone was encouraged um to sign up. So hopefully we get more people to collect samples for us this winter in town.

Well, thank you Christine. I had a question on that. When it's severe winter like this, how do you collect water samples from lakes and whatnot?

Yeah, that was some of the biggest challenges. Um, wait, I waited until right before the event because that was the the warmest it was, but it was still below freezing. So, some sites we had a scrap altogether because I couldn't break through the ice. But basically, if you can find a spot or a section of the stream that you can access, that would be good spot to sample. But I was telling people that they really should go out in the next couple of weeks as the temperatures start to rise a little bit and we have a lot of melt. um that when we have the snow melt, that's when we're going to see spikes again. So, people should go out next week. I think it's going to be a little bit warmer. So, hopefully we get some good readings and we can add to the uh New Jersey Salt Watch database.

Great. Thanks, Christine. Uh nobody else has anything. I guess um it's up to me. Uh the master plan subcommittee met on Tuesday. Um I wasn't able to attend but um according to the emails sent out the there's a new schedule for presenting um proposals to the uh planning board. Um and the first the first part will be uh the circulation element. For those of you not familiar, the the master plan has is composed of different elements and we're reviewing um or developing uh each element separately and presenting them separately to the planning board. Uh the next one will be on the 18th and that's the circulation element. So the the planning board meeting on the 18th is when we will be there. Uh, the next one is not until May. And that's all I have to say about that. Next thing is unfinished business, which is Earth Day 2026.

Okay. Um, so we now have approval from the Sparta Township Manager to host our Earth event. So, we're going to be doing our event on Saturday, April 25th from 11 to 3:00. We're starting it a little bit later in the morning to give the Lake Mohawk Preservation Foundation an opportunity to host their litter cleanup um that morning. So, we're hoping that people can participate in their cleanup and then come on over right down the street to our event. So, it's going to be hosted right here at the um municipal building and we have permission to do the event outside, but also have access to inside as well. So, we can put we can expand it and have more um presenters than we've had in the past and exhibitors. Um but we also have a spot that if it in the event that it rains, we can move the event inside and still host it rain or shine. So, that's going to be a big um win and we're hoping that it's going to be a great event. So, it's going to be a combination of different environmental organizations exhibiting and then also having a kids corner and different activities for families. So, it's going to be a familyfriendly event that is free to come be a part of. So, we're hoping we have great turnout. Um, so far I started reaching out to different organizations. Um, and we have these following organizations are going to be part of the event. So, we will have our Spartan Environmental Commission table, but we also have the New Jersey Highlands Coalition that's going to be attending uh the Office of Mosquito Control. They're going to be coming uh Walkill River Wershed Management Group as well as the Americanore, New Jersey Watershed Ambassador Program. Uh the Sussex County Municipal Utilities

Authority is going to set up a table. The Sparta Food Pantry will be there and will be collecting non-p perishable food items for um those in need. Lake Mohawk Preservation Foundation wants to be a part of it. They're going to come on over after their cleanup. And then we have so far the Sparta High School Ecology Club is going to be running some of the crafts and kids corners. So, it's coming together. So, it should be a great event. Wonderful. Uh, where will the if there's a rain? Um,

yep. So, we have it's going to be moved inside here. We have access to this room and some of the hallway and then um another room on the side. I'm not sure exactly where it is in this building, but we'll uh confirm that. But we it can be it'll be outside mostly. We'll probably have some vendors inside, but if we need to move everyone inside, we're gonna make sure we have enough room for that. Great. Thanks, Christine. Thanks for all the work you've done on this. And do we want to start like talking about setting up the table for us and how we going to organize it so we don't wait till last minute?

Yeah. So, we just got approval today on the exhibitor agreement. So, that's going to start going out. Um, so I'll get that to you, Neil, and you could sign as the chair and then, yeah, we can decide what we want to do and if we wanna We've borrowed um some of the the games from Anjack before in the past, so we could see if we want to do that or if we're going to have a craft or what we want to do. Okay. Yeah. And we will need to staff our table also. So we can we can work that out as it moves closer to Earth. I guess unless anybody wants to volunteer now.

I hope you all are going to be here. So I hope so too.

Should be. Okay. Anything else under unfinished business? Okay, let's go to new business. Um, I found this uh uh model data center ordinance that has I think this came from it was from Clinton or Philipsburg. I'm not sure where, but um this is something I've presented to our planning board secretary and also to the mayor. Um I don't know, it's something to think about because we know the impacts of data centers uh what they do to uh how much energy and and water resources they consume generally. So, I think it's a it's a good idea to uh probably stay ahead of the game and try to try to make sure that we manage these correctly, try to exclude them hopefully. Have you heard about um I think it's data one, this French closed loop data center that they're proposing um somewhere in New Jersey. I was just reading about it. I'll I'll send you the details, but I think this is good. Um I don't think a closed loop the closed loop just addresses I think they recycle their water, but it doesn't address the power needs. So, um I would just say while I know that we have our preservation area, um I still think that it would be useful if we consider

reaching out to Ben Spaneli Spanelli and the New Jersey Highlands Council and see for the uh regional master plan even if we don't uh I'd love for the master plan to and planning board to consider looking at that again. I know we opted out. Um but uh I believe that they had amendments affordable housing, warehouse sighting, development. Um but the I just read future um amendment amendments planned were climate change and pvious cover and data centers. So, if we could at least get like draft guidance from them incorporated into this,

that was part of the Highlands Council master plan, regional master plan. Yeah, I just read something from January 2026 that Ben Spanelity Spanelli said that um that was kind of a a planned updated amendment was going to be data center specific. Okay. So, I just want to incorporate that if we could. Oh yeah, that's good to know. Thanks. Y thanks.

Anyone else have uh comments on this? Thanks for doing this. that we should we should look at this some more, come up with any comments, email them to you, and then we'll keep discussing this as it's looked at by the mayor, planning secretary, etc. Okay, sounds sounds good. Okay. All right, moving on to nomination of vice chair. We need a vice chair. I nominate Christine Rogers.

I second I saw no one wanted to do it. Um, Christine, I'm happy to do it. Thank you so much. We appreciate that. Do we have to like do an actual vote? Vote. All in favor? I I Thank you. Thanks, Christie.

Yep. Uh the next uh item that came to my attention last week was um that the Sparta Mountain Forest Management Activities uh in stand 9 uh has an open comment period for their their uh forest management plan which is due March 31st. So I've included information and maps here. Um and if you go to the websites linked in this page, you can learn more about where where the activities are and uh where to submit your comments. We had uh a presentation back in the second half of It was the second half of uh 2025. Unfortunately, it wasn't recorded. Something went wrong.

Yeah, something went wrong. I'm pretty sure. Unless somebody can find it. I I think we we Something went wrong with with the recording. So, I'm going to try to get the the the presentation another presentation, maybe a shorter one that we can we can have that's that the public can see again because um they have a a lot of uh activity going on there that doesn't seem to be in the um you know in line with current thinking of forest management. So who did the presentation before?

It was um well people from Save Sparta Mountain um independent ecologists, right? That Julius Summers New Jersey Highlands coalition, right? Did they have some kind of like PowerPoint to it? Because maybe we can ask for that and like put this on the websites like our website significant. Yeah, they might they probably had some, right? I I'll reach out to them and try to track this down and and and get it up there. Was that was that the presentation with Emil Devito? Yes, exactly. Yeah, that I mean I watched on YouTube so I know.

Oh, you did? Okay. So, I cuz I I looked I can't find everything on the uh the channel for some of Yeah, it's difficult. You have to know the date and then go back and look. It's It's not Yeah, it's not intuitive really. So, I think some of the audience comments weren't captured, but that was probably the best. Yeah. I don't know if if you uh come across that before I do, could you let us know, Alex? Yeah. Was that that was around like July, right? I think I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I'll I'll try to dig that out. All right. Thanks. I'll look for it, too. I might try to try to get a couple of those people back here to just speak about it a little bit, too. That was that was an excellent presentation.

It was I mean it was really I mean that guy Emil DeVito he was he was unbelievable. Right. So, I mean, yeah,

and uh there's there's also a video um it's either on the Save Sparta Mountain uh website. Um showing what has actually, you know, taking a tour through there and showing what what regrowth has actually happened there. Invasives. Uh it's not working out the way it's expected to. Okay. So that is that the next thing under new business which is actually pertains to old business is a sustainable Jersey grant. Now, um the 2026 cycle closes tomorrow, so we would have to get an application in tomorrow, but we haven't closed out. We haven't been able to get the final report done on the existing grant from uh from last year, which was actually from 2024. It was just extended to last year for um the trail signage that the trails committee got. Um, and we had some personnel changes. Our grant writer left and I Courtney, do you know if we have a new grant writer person? I think

that I'm not too sure. I think we do. I've been talking to Michelle about it um about, you know, working this out. Um, I can ask her tomorrow if you want or because I'm not I'm not too entirely sure. Yes. I um I I was working with Michelle. That's how I found out what what happened. And and Michelle is now the our our grant the owner of our our grant account on sustainable Jersey.

So, um uh over the during the week, uh Chris Dunar sent her information to create the final report. I don't know how far along she's gotten because this was last minute. It's it's been hard to try to track all this down because of people leaving and um just the way it worked out. So, unfortunately, we're going to miss this this grant, but um we had mentioned last week, last meeting, uh trying to develop maybe using a grant to develop a natural resources inventory for for Sparta. And since we won't be able to get this grant, um we you had mentioned you and Barbara talked about the Highlands Coalition Highlands Council grant and I um I I checked on that and uh I think we we had there's a possibility that we had have an existing grant for the um master plan re-examination. Whether that's the case or not, I'm still trying to find out. Um, uh, the our planning board chair referred me to Corey Stoner who was handling that. So, I'm waiting to hear back from him whether we have that uh that grant open or whether we went ahead. I I think we might not have used it because there were some conditions that the township wasn't comfortable with. But um in either in either case, we'll try to to get that resolved and hopefully um try to uh create a plan for a u you know to uh write up a a grant proposal for a natural resources inventory which would be pretty helpful. And it's also a 20

point priority action uh for sustainable Jersey. So,

you have anything to add to that, Christine or Barbara? No, I mean, I think that's that's a good backup option. I think we're missing tomorrow. So, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay. All right. But if we have the grant open uh for the master plan, we can't apply for the next for the like second grant with them. That would be the case with sustainable Jersey. Now, I'm not sure how the Highlands Council works. Okay. But I I would imagine that's the case, but I don't know. And it seems like it was a rolling deadline, right? Like it's non-competitive. We can apply. So it seems like Which one? For the Highlands Council. Well, I don't Yeah, I didn't look into that.

Yeah, I didn't either. Yeah. Yeah. So, it said it called out environmental resource inventory as one of the options for the planning grants. It said they're non-competitive and you just need to apply. So, that would be the only stipulation if we have an active grant and that prevents us from applying now. But I think otherwise, okay, we should reach out and find out if we can apply. It might be easier to just go to Highlands Council and ask directly rather than trying to track it down. That's true. Do you have a contact on the I don't no I'll find one.

But also if we want to if we were talking about having that as the part of the master plan possibly, can we roll that into the master plan grant or or that's already designated for something else? That's a good question. I'll uh let me let me bring that up. Just see if I can find that out.

Throwing it there. Yeah. Hi. I had something I thought of after the uh or during the last town council. I think um manager Zep had mentioned that they're replacing or getting two new lights. And of course that piqued my interest because I was curious uh the color temperature on those. I thought we'd have more time because I looked at the the last the last time the lighting was updated. Uh, and I thought we were still in kind of it was going to be a couple years before that cycle. So, I guess I would just ask, you know, playing around with different verbiage where it's kind of that um artificial lighting is known to disrupt um you know, human and wildlife and that we ask typically 3,000 Kelvin warmer light lighting versus 5,000. Um, comments for applications have been made. You know, uh, if it's an established development, when you put in 30,000, it it does look awkward when you have existing 5,000 daylight balance lighting. So, my suspicion is that um, whatever lights are going in here are going to be 5,000 Kelvin. A question was asked, but I think it was um, misunderstood. I think it had to do with oh yeah they'll match the existing as in design but um maybe we could just have further discussion on

you know should the municipality adopt something where it says that when when new lighting is put in could it seek to be dark sky compliant 3000 Kelvin If you look in the back when I when I pulled it in here, the back right corner, um, it's the it's the Mercury vapor. There's a street lamp. So, that that is kind of more what you want for for nature and for people. It's like a warmer I think it's mercury vapor. It's sodium, but um, it's just like a a warmer, more pleasant tone than the bright. So, the cost is that it's not as effective in lighting. But if it's effective enough with our lighting uh the whole foot candles and everything then my suggestion is that environmental commission create some guidance on that if that's possible.

U and and so street lamp so so the as we're planning we're talking about master plan long-term planning. So my suggestion is that the municipality is going to do things like presumably climate change. We're we're going to be the standard bearer bear uh bearer for things like this EV. We're going to be the standard bearer and we have some grants that will help support this. We should probably also be forward thinking with our lighting. Um, and so that's that's just a suggestion. There was something else, but

Oh, so I I see what you're saying. Yes, I I totally agree. But in regards to developing the master plan, is that what you mean? Yeah. And because apparently two new lights are going to be gracing the front of town uh hall or or on this campus and hey, could we take a look at um would it be possible to see if those could be 3,000 Kelvin? If they're if they're by that pre-existing one, then it wouldn't look hokey. The other thing is when they make these lights nowadays, oftentimes it's just open it up and switch it from 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000 Kelvin. So, it's not even a it's just making a decision.

Oh, it's not new equipment. Hopefully not. Sometimes it's on the purchase, but sometimes it's just when you go to mount it and connect it all, it's just a dip switch that cycles between warm, medium, and cold. And we want to be more warm because it's less blue, which interrupts circadian rhythm, um, and throws off wildlife natural processes. Okay. So, do you want to make this as a comment or suggestion to the uh to the council.

Um I just want to bring it up since seems like otherwise I'd be just saying, "Hey, let's make a motion."

So, uh that that we could we could all maybe think about is that something that people think would be a good thing. Um, the other thing that occurs to me as we're starting off fresh is this question. We we kind of dealt with it a little bit last year and unfortunately decisions were made, but I think this environmental commission should come up with guidance um for artificial turf fields. So, we made a decision to replace a natural turf field with artificial. I think if I'm not mistaken the uh guidance there is it's like a six, sevenyear replacement cycle on that at which point the plastic turf is deemed a biohazard and so we're going to have to spend money to remediate it. So

one disposal

do we even have we don't we didn't have a plan before to do that. Uh, I think in the past our open space fund was used to buy plastic grass. Uh, I think that's probably not the best thing to be doing with our open space monies, especially, you know, lessons learned from AO polymers and, you know, groundwater. So we could wait on it or you know in six or seven years when it's got to get ripped up and we have to pay whatever it is to remediate it and you know and maybe we don't because maybe it'll get replaced by more artificial turf. But I think we should at least think about the question. Do we think this is a good idea? the the short term is and I think the decision was made on short term. I think it's a complex decision that's based on probably parents looking out for their kids and um in the short term kind of hey if they're exposed to turf this gives them a competitive advantage for sports placement but long term the abrasion of that plastic turf inhalation especially by smaller kids that are closer to that uh substrate. They're going to be inhaling it. We don't know what PAS and all the associated byproducts as that is worn down um what's that going to do to people. So,

it's precisely uh thanks Rob. We've uh we've uh talked about this before and uh I I know it's it's it's it it's a big issue. Um, and just this week I saw a a petition online. I think it might have been the Sierra Club uh something about opposing the use of open space funds statewide maybe for uh for you know using open space funds for plastic grass artificial turf. Great. Yeah. So we I think we should just have an opinion as all please. Yeah, I think we've always expressed that in any uh maybe formal written. Okay.

Yeah, that's maybe we can come up with something like that. That's good. All right. Can we go back to um the forest management activities on Sparta Mountain? Yes. Please do.

I just I'm just looking at the the print out here and I noticed that that this plan is from 2017, which is basically the beginning of Governor Murphy's term, 8-year term in office. We now have a new governor, a new administration. Is it worth writing a letter or from from either us or from the town stating how we feel about the activities going on on that mountain? Is that something that that's that's something that I I wholeheartedly believe we should do. Yes. How do we get that going? How does that I don't know how that works. How would we

just write it up and send it? Yeah, we could. We um maybe reach out to Emil and pick his brain and get the conversation going. Okay. Okay. So, do you want to Yes. Yeah. I've uh I've already reached out to him. I've had some other questions. So, I I have his contact information. So, I will reach out to him, see if he has any suggestions. Good. Good. Yes. Because if we can do that as a body, uh, you know, as an as an environmental commission, uh, that would be great. Okay. Um, get the the council involved, too. Yeah.

The town council. I mean, they Yeah. If they vote, if they're all opposed to it as well, I mean, then I think a letter coming from them would have more sway than coming from us, right? Yes. Well, come from us and we'll make advisory to them. Yeah. Okay.

And if if we're doing something like that, I would just then I'll throw throw another one. Um wellhead protection zones. I'd like to look at um our redevelopment plan. So, we've picked out data centers and I think that's good. Uh there are other things that I won't even use those big words. Um but but uh I think we're all getting more aware of where our water comes from and then hyperlocally um our natural resources specific to Germany flats. So I think in concert with or in advance of the master plan, uh it would be beneficial if the environmental commission were to kind of look at the the past material that was written up um regarding just overall water resources in Sussex County and then specifically the wellhead protection um areas. And presumably we have a lot more data. So we should I don't know that I don't know there's a component in the master plan that that seeks to reanalyze all of that but we should be able to. So I think that I just mentioned that because I think if we're talking about Sparta Mountain biodiversity uh we should be taking we should make these big sweeping assessments and uh suggestions to both the planning master plan and governing body and uh state and the governor.

I I agree. Um but they we do have pretty stringent um storm water regulations now and they that were just updated in December. Yes. And there was um a presentation last night. Uh it was either uh it was ANJ or sustainable Jersey. I I missed it because I had something else. But uh I'll get the recording and send it out and we'll post it if we could do that. But Rob would you mention that's kind of like the intention of the natural resource inventory. Yeah. Not making it because I've seen different reports for that. Some of them are like very basic. Did you want to do the grant for tomorrow for that?

My right but yeah the other one open as well. No, the intention is like to actually call out all of the resources that we have in detail and not making the reports just the simple cookie cutter report like other you know if you go to different towns they're not necessarily as they they don't necessarily have as much as resources as we do in Sparta. So that's that's the intention. So, we actually call it out and we have it written and we, you know, everyone can refer to that. And you sent an example, didn't you? Uh, or a link to another town's Yeah, the other one was from Summit, I believe. So,

yeah, I didn't get a chance to look at No, that wasn't me actually. I I think someone else sent it. Oh, okay. Might have been Christine Dunbar. She sent one from Summit. I sent another one. That's correct. There was different different town right okay I'll go back and look at those but there are different different firms doing doing the reports doing the environmental resource inventory so right we can you know if we decide to do it if we have the grants we can sit with the consultant and we can say exactly what we want to achieve and what we want to include in it right I think the the the barber Davis from the land conservancy who did our uh

open space plan. Uh I think um Chris Dunar has been in touch with her. Whether it's on this specifically or not, I'm not sure. But she had mentioned somewhere in her email that that we could use them uh

for the NRI. So yeah, that's a good good idea. Well, and and you you're mentioning that, you know, other towns, you know, we have different natural resources, but and I kind of was joking that I mean, the boundaries we've created, we humans created that, but regionally, we should be looking regionally. So, if if we create this um we should be kind of talking to Andover,

you know, and surrounding communities. Um, and what was the other thing that I still kind of feel like I'd love to hear from the Highlands Council, um, regional master plan. Uh, I think they have resources with, you know, that might help us accomplish

um, putting together kind of a mo a more comprehensive uh, list of our natural resources. something. I don't know if you guys have seen this last couple months, there's been a push uh for I I think I might not have it right, but I think it's for communities that that did adopt the regional master plan uh by for the Highlands protections. So meaning that they benefit from enhanced regional highlands um planning which would be less development. Um but it's this group that's tying in the cost of schools. I need to learn more about it. Apparently, as we're talking about, I think the previous governor or maybe going back um to Chris Christie, there was supposed to be for anyone who adopted Highlands uh regional, they were supposed to be able to get funds to offset their reduced developability

and but that funding was never uh funded. So now they're up against an issue where they're like, "Hey, listen. We're preserving land to benefit 70%, you know, of the water supply for the state. Where where is this funding?" So, as we're having these regional talks, I just think I'd love to learn more because if we were to opt in, we would want to know like if we can't develop as much uh We don't want to be subsidizing everyone's water resources with higher taxes that we pay here if there is but that's for longer term discussions.

Good good good uh thoughts. I'd also like to note that the acting EPA commissioner used to be the used to lead the League of Conservation Voters. Yes. So, you might have an ally there as well.

Does anyone read uh uh Wolf notes from Bill Wolf? He was a uh He he's a big critic of of the New Jersey EPA and things that are going on now. He's a good person to a good resource to follow. He was a he's an expert in the field. Was I forget what his position was in the state, but is there like a blog or is it a website? Yeah, he he does a Substack and then email daily. What was his full name? Uh Bill Wolf W. It's called Wolf Notes. Not trying to guess some conspiracy. No. So, so criticism that they don't they're not doing enough. Yes.

Yeah. Yes. And conflicts and things like that. Well, my understanding is they lost a lot of the more senior people and just Yeah.

All right. I have a couple of things. Um, Courtney, do you know if we've uh renewed our ANJ membership that I had to I'm sending out because I was waiting on who our council representative was going to be. So, I don't No, I thought it was going to be Margie. Um, but I haven't sent it out yet. Okay. Um, but I will get that sent out once we figure out who uh who's going to fill that spot. Okay. Okay. Thanks. You're welcome.

One other thing I'd like to mention is um it's ANZAC and Sustainable Jersey. I don't know whether it's a joint um uh training, but uh the 2026 fundamentals for effective environmental commissions are coming up uh Tuesday, March 24th, Wednesday, March 25th, and Thursday, March 26th. Uh, all sessions are 7 pm. Uh, that they they're recorded and you can watch them at your leisure, but it's probably a good idea to register for them. So, it's so you're uh, you know, actively aware of what's going on there and take the training. So,

how do you register for that? I don't think I registered yet, but I'm planning to. How do you How do you do that? Do Do you Do we all register for it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Individually was on and is there a website or Yes, it's on it's either Sustainable Jersey or or Anjack. I can't remember but um I think it's Anjac J. Check your emails. We should be getting something from them, right? Yeah. We got And if you haven't uh I think everybody I think they have to add you to the account, right? They have to add Alex to the account.

Yes, that's what I was going to say. Alex and and Nicholas, you can uh register on the sustainable Jersey and ANJ uh sites. I I'll send a link out to those because it's a good idea to don't But then they would have to wait until Courtney's done, right? Because then it's like members. It's free. Yes, I think I think. Right. Or else there's a fee. She has to register. Oh, yes. For that. So, they I think Courtney has to act first and then once we're all listed as members, then we can register, right? Yes. You have to add them to the sustainable Jersey anyway. Or maybe it's ANJ, too. I forget. I keep getting them confused. I shouldn't. But

I think there was an email that went through that said kind of there's a um renewal of your ANJ. Oh, yeah. That So, so you need to Kim had forwarded that. Yeah. Um, but as far as the Yeah, I think the other email came out today from Anjac. Oh, okay. Yes, it did. Actually, I didn't even read it yet, but

yeah. Okay. Um, all right. That's all I have. Anybody else? Anything for good of the environment? We really need to work at it now. So, I have a make a motion to adjourn. Thank you, Rob. Can I have a second? I'll second. Thanks, Christine. All in favor? Hi. Hi.

Hi. It's longer than I thought it would be.