Sustainability and Resiliency Committee Minutes - April 13, 2021
The Sustainability and Resiliency Committee meeting was held in the City Commission Chambers at Fargo City Hall at 3:00 o'clock p.m., Tuesday, April 13, 2021.
Present:
John Strand (chair), Fargo City Commissioner
Tim Mahoney, Fargo Mayor
Bruce Grubb, Fargo City Administrator
Nicole Crutchfield, Fargo Director of Planning and Development
Brenda Derrig, Fargo City Engineer
Ben Dow, City of Fargo Director of Public Works
Brock Morrison, City of Fargo Director of Facilities Management
Jennifer Sweatman (At-Large)
Casey Steele (At-Large) (virtual)
Greta Gramig (At-Large)
Paul Matthys, Cass County Electric Cooperative Representative (Ex-officio)
Blake Mikesell, Fargo School District Representative (Ex-officio)
Dave Leker, Fargo Park District Representative (Ex-officio)
Absent:
Bruce Taralson, City of Fargo Inspections Director
Shawn Paschke, Xcel Energy Representative (Ex-officio)
Chair John Strand called the meeting to order. He reviewed the current agenda and the minutes from the March 9, 2021 meeting. Both were approved unanimously.
Public Transportation System Presentation:
Fargo Transit Director Julie Bommelman said there are many green features at the Metro Transit Garage, including rainwater collection basins, auxiliary power supply units, air quality sensors and a roof structure designed to support future solar photovoltaic collection systems. She said all lighting will be replaced with LED, which will reduce energy costs about 25 percent annually, and the energy savings will repay the required local match in two years. Fargo has also invested in eight diesel-electric hybrid buses, she said. The use of public transportation reduces fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, she said, and annually in Fargo, 44 buses per day travel over almost 1.2 million miles, which accounts for many single-occupancy vehicles removed from the roadways. She said every $1.00 invested in public transportation projects generate $4.00 to $9.00 in local economic activity, reduces the need for parking, increases the life of a roadway due to less volume of automobiles and reduces air pollution. She said technology efforts such as electronic fare boxes, automatic vehicle locators, automated paratransit and fixed route scheduling and automated voice announcement systems increases efficiencies. The City of Fargo U-Pass system at North Dakota State University has vastly reduced the use of personal vehicles, she said, and now other colleges and universities in the metro area have joined the U-Pass program. The TapRide on demand service is used in the Industrial Park and NDSU areas, she said, and has been very popular.
In response to a question from Ms. Gramig asking how Transit has been affected by the pandemic, Ms. Bommelman said the last year hit the Transit system very hard with schools and businesses closed and more people working from home and ridership was down 31 percent; however, those numbers are starting to get better.
In response to a question from Ms. Gramig asking how Transit is funded, Ms. Bommelman said 50 percent local and 50 percent Federal.
In response to a question from Mr. Grubb asking what is the future of Transit, Ms. Bommelman said the move is toward hybrid buses and more on demand services.
In response to a question from Mayor Mahoney asking about the use of smaller or electric buses, Jordan Smith, Transit Fleet and Facilities Manager, said smaller electric buses is the direction the industry is heading; however, it would be a struggle for MATBUS due to the area’s climate and subzero temperatures, which is hard on batteries. He said smaller buses, which hold 10 to 12 passengers, is something that may be looked at in the future due to the fact that smaller buses means less maintenance. He said TapRide utilizes smaller vehicles and if that continues to be popular, he could see a fleet of smaller 10 to 12 passenger vehicles versus the larger 35-40 passenger buses currently used on the fixed route system.
In response to a question from Mr. Strand asking is there a way Transit could integrate with schools, Ms. Bommelman said the Federal funding received stipulates no school services, which would compete with the private sector.
In response to a question from Mr. Leker asking about biodiesel, Mr. Smith said Transit is no longer using biodiesel due to the fact that it was causing issues with the fuel systems in the buses.
In response to a question from Ms. Gramig asking what is the cost per passenger mile, Ms. Bommelman she said she did not know off the top of her head; however, that information is included in Transit’s annual report, which also includes per mile and per revenue hour by route.
In response to a question from Mr. Strand asking what would be some “wish” items for Transit, Ms. Bommelman said she would like to see free fares become standard and she would like to see some form of the Link FM come back for events such as the Street Fair. She said Link FM was not utilized the way it was intended and she thinks it was ahead of its time.
Sustainable Vegetation Presentation:
City Administrator Bruce Grubb said the City is involved with property acquisitions, flood buyouts, street reconstruction and other projects and he thought it would be interesting to hear from Jennifer Sweatman, Assistant Professor of Biology at Concordia College, and perhaps rethink how the City re-establishes vegetation on City-owned property.
Ms. Sweatman said the native prairie ecosystem is the main ecosystem type in North Dakota and the levees and embankments created in association with the Diversion Project could be potential areas that would support native vegetation. She said native plantings can be helpful in these types of habitats due to the complex above ground biomass structure with stems and leaves for taking in more carbon dioxide and a complex network of roots that play an important role in water purification and soil stabilization. In contrast, she said, Kentucky bluegrass, which is what is in most lawns, has short above and below ground structures and does not give much in return in terms of ecosystem services. Grasslands contain all kinds of different species, she said, including grasses, shrubs and flowering species and play an important role in capturing carbon and burying it deep into the ecosystem. She explained the native grass ecosystem is more resilient to changes in the climate and to droughts and tallgrass prairies support biodiversity. The foundation created by these plant species support wildlife such as deer, fox, snakes and other burrowing species, she said, which help aerate the soil. She said 330 of the 435 birds that breed in North America do so in grasslands and some birds require this habitat in order to survive. She said without grasslands, there would be a stark decline in birds and insects, including pollinators such as butterflies and bees. She said only about 4 percent of the total North American tallgrass remains, with the most in Canada and Minnesota while North Dakota has a small sliver of tallgrass prairie and further west into North Dakota, there are mixed grass prairies. She said the impacts of lost tallgrass include losses of grassland bird species, including the loss of 75 percent of meadowlarks since the 1970s. In 1997, she said, there was a study published where ecosystem services such as raw materials and recreation were converted to a cost. The economic value to tallgrass prairie and grasslands in general came to an estimate of about $232.00 per hectare, she said, and the major things that contributed to the cost was food production, fishing and other game species. Grasslands contain grasses, shrubs and forbs and trees are typically sparse, she said; however, grasses play an important role in capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While grassland ecosystems are not top ranking ecosystems in terms of carbon sequestration, she said, they are more resilient to drought and fire than forest ecosystems. Forests store most of their carbon in above ground tissues making those carbon stores particularly susceptible to wildfires, she said, and as the climate continues to warm and droughts and wildfires become more frequent and severe, above ground stores of carbon will be at risk. From a 2016 U.S. Fish and Wildlife report, she said, 86 million Americans identified as wildlife watchers and of that group, 45 million were bird watchers. With the connection of so many bird species to grasslands, she said, that number supports the cause for increasing the amount of grasslands. The report also showed the total amount of money spent on wildlife watching in 2016 was $75.9 billion, she said, and in 2020 with more people wanting to get outdoors, she expects numbers to increase in the next report. She said a project such as prairie reconstruction on the Diversion levees is going to require a lot of management practices. Native seed mixtures composed of multiple prairie species can be planted in an area where land has been significantly disturbed, she said. Someone could also reconstruct a prairie on private property, she said, or have a pocket prairie on personal land. She said the Urban Woods and Prairies Initiative, which is a collaboration between the City, Park District and Audubon Dakota, reconstructs prairies in urban sites where flooded homes were removed. She said after the structures were removed, the prairie was reconstructed on those areas and some of the sites include Oak Port Prairie, Forest River, Orchard Glen, Iwen Park, River Oakes and North River Drive, each having some type of prairie or wetland ecosystem that supports bird life and are popular areas in the Fargo-Moorhead area for birding. She said she really enjoys seeing the level of organisms being supported in these reconstructed areas that just a few years ago were residences. On a smaller scale, she said, Cass County Soil Conservation District has been working with some local residents to plant pocket prairies on private property, which is another way native prairie plantings can be taken into the City to increase wildlife watching. There are some local guidebooks on how to implement these management programs, she said, and how to plant a prairie and would be helpful for the reconstruction of the prairies around the Diversion Project. She said the six-step process includes setting goals, site selection, preparation of the site for seed, seeding management and then management actions and evaluation. She said that does not mean that there are not going to be challenges with managing these sites, which would be great sites for outreach and education. Another idea, she said, would be to have the City and County have school groups plant seeds and collect and harvest seeds to keep the cycle going. She said there are students volunteering now with Audubon Dakota to collect seeds used in maintaining some of these urban woods and prairies. Forest River also allows for bow hunting of turkeys, she said, and there are experimental conservation management programs in these areas with bow hunting of white-tailed deer. She said some of the challenges with reconstructing prairies are the prevalence of invasive species and promoting the growth and establishment of native grasses will require a multi-step approach. Smaller scale native plants are also an important way to bring the natural ecosystem into someone’s private front or backyard, while increasing habitat for pollinators and native plants require less water and maintenance. Another role that native landscaping can play comes from a Minnesota Department of Transportation report about native prairie ditches, which have been found to be good at holding more snow, absorbing more water as snow melts and help minimize the amount of maintenance needed. Another recent study concluded that including green spaces in urban planning improves the overall health and well-being of the population, she said, thus reducing the rising global burden of psychiatric disorders.
Public Works Director Ben Dow said his department is working on many planting sites, especially with flood buyouts, which allows the City to restore the land to natural habitat. He said Public Works will soon start the spring tree planting, with crews planting about 1,400 trees and his department is also involved with Reforest the Red. Some of the things that Public Works needs to do better, he said, is some of the planting or restoration to prairie grasslands. He said there are some nice canvases developing across the City along the river corridor; however, the City has to work harder to pick the right species to go in the right place due to noxious weeds. He said it is important the City does not invest dollars into places that are going to be overtaken by weeds.
In response to a question from Ms. Gramig asking if she could turn her yard into a prairie, Mr. Dow said there is a permit process for that through the Forestry Division; however, for the plan to be successful, communication is key.
Ms. Crutchfield said the Cass Clay Food Initiative is working on new concepts such as beekeeping, native prairies and boulevard gardens and is working on a user guide so residents understand the regulations. She said the Fargo Public Library and Park District do a lot of community outreach,
In response to a question from Ms. Gramig asking if there are any examples of native prairie in Fargo, Mr. Dow said one of the best examples is in front of Microsoft, which is the largest permit holder in Fargo for a prairie restoration project.
Ms. Crutchfield said Cass County Soil Conservation District has initiatives along with River Keepers, the Fargo Project and the Park District and there have been discussions about getting into vegetation management. She said between Forest River, Unicorn Park, the Fargo Project and Rabanus, are all of those are different types of projects and the City has been in discussions on how to get experts on staff. She said the City depends on Prairie Restoration; however, there really needs to be more contractors that know how to do this type of work.
Mr. Dow said the Audubon Society has agreed to assist the City with the old snow dump area along the river corridor. He said snow had been hauled to that area for more than 70 years and the Audubon Society has accepted the challenge, done some test plotting and will try to restore that site.
Ms. Steele said the City did a pilot program for boulevard gardens last summer, which she took part in and she now has a couple of small boulevard gardens, mostly focused on pollinators. She said she thinks that program was renewed and residents are able to apply for those permits, which is exciting.
Dave Leker said the Park District works with Woods to Prairie Initiative, Audubon Dakota and Prairie Restoration. He said there have been many demonstration sites started over the past 10 years and as it takes three to five years to establish the sites. He said native prairie has been growing at the old borrow pit near Briarwood for several years. He said there are also sites near Scheels Arena and Urban Plains and as the City gets more of these sites, the Park District has been talking with Audubon Dakota about sharing a full-time employee in order to have those experts on staff and be able to handle many of these prairies. He said the Park District is also incorporating pollinator gardens into neighborhood parks and Audubon Dakota has done a great job of increasing awareness.
In response to a question from Mr. Strand asking if she had recommendations for the City, Ms. Sweatman said starting with corridors around highways would be helpful and then building education and pollinator gardens within parks, which are massive green spaces that are largely unnatural. She said bringing in some small areas that are natural and installing signs that teach people about the system and how it works and what it does and why it is important could get people more interested.
Ms. Crutchfield said there are very smart people in the City and at the universities who have a lot of interest and knowledge and the goal would be to connect those interest groups with the City’s day-to-day operations.
Ms. Gramig asked how the City could create incentives for people to do something different due to the fact that there is a lot of pushback. She said there should be a tax break if someone decided to convert a yard to a prairie. Those sorts of things make it more valuable to people, she said, and it would incorporate the value of an ecosystem service into the City’s financial model.
Mr. Dow said there is a credit that to stormwater fees if a resident or business decides to create a prairie yard. He said many people think prairie restoration projects do not conform; therefore, if it does not conform and it looks different, then it is weeds and that is something his staff struggles with. He said an example are the three roundabouts on Veterans Boulevard that are prairie restoration projects. Signs are up at these sites in order to educate people as to what is going on.
Mr. Leker said the Park District has started to think about how it is going to redesign Yunker Farm. He said there is a children’s museum there now and the Park District is looking at possibly transitioning that 58 acres into a conservation learning site. He said several groups are going to be involved including River Keepers, Audubon Dakota, Northern Plains Botanical Society, North Dakota Game and Fish and NDSU, and try to put together an indoor-outdoor learning site. He said the grand plan is to build a facility that has an educational piece, an indoor amphitheater, offices, equipment storage, trail systems and native prairies and it would be a destination site for North Fargo.
Mayor Mahoney said there will be about 8,000 acres to restore with the Diversion Project and having it become an educational site is a great idea.
Ms. Sweatman said the Diversion Project would be a way the region could lead by example and it would be a great area for a tallgrass prairie ecosystem, especially for soil stabilization. She said the Diversion Project is surrounded by some controversy; therefore, any opportunity to promote a native and dying ecosystem and bringing in positive aspects such as promoting pollinators and birds, which are hot topics.
Next Meeting:
May 11, 2021 at 3:00 p.m.
The time at adjournment was 5:01 o’clock p.m.